Journal: Stay High

"I guess the biggest takeaway from 2015 was that I needed to start living more with intentionality and less out of habit. I want to be intentional with my time. Wherever I am, I want to be all there--mind, body, and soul...This year, I am going to do things intentionally with the understanding that the outcome may be different than my intention, and with the faith that everything will happen the way it's intended to." 

--Post from January 18, 2016: Intentionality

Paris is Always a Good Idea

Paris was always one of those places that I dreamed of going to someday. Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of gazing up at the Eiffel Tower and walking along the Seine River. For a long while, I thought that the closest I'd ever get to it was the lamp stand I had in my childhood bedroom. But that someday has finally come and passed.

After dreaming of it for so long, I was nervous that it was the idea of Paris that I loved--that sipping coffee in a cute cafe, walking along cobblestoned streets in a striped top and a beret, looking up to see dreamy monochromatic buildings as I walked with a fresh baguette in hand only existed in my dreams. My nerves were made worse by the fact that we were going in February, and being the California girl that I am, I couldn't fathom winter in another place, let alone in another country. But Willa Cather said it best: "Paris is a hard place to leave, even when it rains incessantly and one coughs continually from the dampness."

Paris, you made it all too easy to fall in love with you. You had me at the first taste of your espresso and the flakiness of your croissants. You were everything I hoped you'd be and more.

When in Silverlake

This is now the third time these hauntingly and beautifully white walls have served as our background for a blog post. Whenever we're in Silverlake, we must stop by on our way to or from Sunset Junction. Its slow decay is how I mark the time since we've last visited. Even in its remains, there is still beauty in its minimalism. I will always be mesmerized by the plants' resiliency and strength to endure time, weather, and vandalism.

Mustard

The perfect mustard yellow sweater was so always elusive until now. My hunt began years ago when Brandon and I were thrifting and I fell in love with a COS sweater that was a bit too small and a bit too out of my budget. I vowed that day to inject a bit of color to my closet with the perfect mustard yellow sweater. After years of disappointed try-ons, I finally found the perfect one and couldn't be happier with it. Now whenever I'm feeling in the mood for some color, I'll always know where to look.

Journal: The Art of Comparison

“Compare yourself to those who are better than you, not to those who are not as good as you.” That’s a mantra that my parents instilled in me and my brother from a young age to motivate us to work harder and to never be completely satisfied with our accomplishments for too long. They would remind us of this every time we would share a triumph with them. This attitude did some damage to my feelings of self-worth because it always felt like I was never good enough. It always seemed like there was always someone else who was prettier, smarter, and more accomplished than I was. However, as detrimental to my feelings of self-worth as this attitude was, it was also pretty effective. This attitude of constantly wanting to move forward and be better has become the backbone of my work ethic. I have since developed a horrible habit of constantly comparing myself to others. Other people and their lifestyles have become my thermometer to gauge my own success in my career, my relationships, and my lifestyle. While this comparison mindset may have made me more ambitious, it was also an easy road in becoming an envious person. More often than not I am discontent with my life and my accomplishments because as my parents would always say: someone is always better than me.