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It's always a fun time when I reunite with Stephanie! Therefore, this month was such a fun month for me because I was able to reunite with Stephanie at none other than at NEW YORK CITY! So many memories were created from this trip and life truly felt like a movie with empire state of mind playing as the sound track for the week we were together.
Lifestyle: Reunited at Last
New York City
This month started with such an exciting trip with Stephanie at New York City. Last year in July, Stephanie and I were able to plan a week long trip to Hawaii. Therefore, we wanted to continue a new tradition of "annual week long vacation" trip. Although there were some many places that came up as ideas, we ultimately agreed on going to NYC.
As always, this trip was so much fun and was filled with so many memories. We laughed at our stupid jokes that no one else probably thinks are funny, we ordered and ate more food than we probably should have, and wandered around the city while getting lost a couple times. Go watch my vlog for an even more inside scoop to this trip!
It was also so exciting to be away in a different place for a whole week! Although I did work for two days that I was there, it really did feel like a good escape. As always, the days went by too fast and the trip was over before I knew it. However, I love that we never leave our trips with regrets because we know we did everything that we wanted to do. Rather, we leave our trips feeling thankful and ready to plan the next one.
Family
I took the rest of the month focusing on spending time with my family. Last month, I wrote about how hard it is to find the balance between spending time with friends and family. I knew that it was something I wanted to work on and I really haven't spend quality time with them. Therefore, I purposefully carved out time to spend quality time with them whether that was going on a walk around the lake, going out to eat a nice dinner, or watching our favorite show together. I'm so glad I was able to have more free time this month to spend quality time with them, especially because quality time is one of my top love languages!
Solo Date
This month I also decided to focus on myself and spend more quality time with myself. I felt like I was giving away all my time to my friends and family, which I loved but I still wanted to do some activities that I enjoyed alone. Therefore, I went to the beach after work a couple times this month and it was so lovely. I was able to enjoy a few chapters of the book I've been meaning to finish as well as take good naps while listening to good music, which is one of my favorite activities.
Friends
Throughout the month I still saw some close friends by either grabbing coffee or dinner. Although I love a grand adventurous trips with friends, I realized that I also love the simple "low effort" meal hangouts as well. It's truly a great way to catch up with someone and their life, especially when we're all so busy. With that being said, I also stayed with my friend, Kelsey, in LA at the last week of the month to end the month on a high note. I was excited to see Kelsey because both of our lives have been crazy the couple weeks. Therefore, I was excited to catch up with her as well as the rest of my friends I was able to see that weekend.
Lows: Burnout
Although the NYC trip was so much fun, I was sooo burnout in life because I've had back to back trips for three weeks in a row. The end of August was crazy and continued over to the NYC trip. Therefore, I was ready to take it easy the rest of the month and that is exactly what I did. I felt like I truly used my social battery to the fullest and I was at 0%. Therefore, I missed out on a couple hangouts this month because I decided to prioritize myself and "charge" my social battery. I also didn't feel like it would be fair to hang out with friends when I couldn't give them my full attention and energy. I'm so glad I took it easy because I feel like I'm ready to be more social again now.
I was also feeling burnout at work this month because it's been slightly chaotic. Although I was hoping that the week away at a new city would help me feel more energized to come back to work, I felt as though it made me dread it a bit more. However, I think once I started getting back to my routine, I luckily clicked out of it fast.
Lessons: Listen to Yourself
As I mentioned before, I realized this month how important it is to listen to myself. When I came back from my back to back trips, I knew that I wanted to take it easy. I've been mentioning how I wanted to spend more time alone and with family but haven't actually listened to myself. However, this month I actively said no to hangouts when I knew I couldn't give my full energy to them and it was great. Through this, I was able to go on a quality solo date that I've been meaning to go on as well as make more memories with my family. I think this was a great start to having the balance that I was looking for. Hopefully I can continue to balance myself, my time, and my relationships for the next months to follow.
Songs on Repeat:
Top Songs -
Empire State of Mind - JAY-Z, Alicia Keysbeside you - keshidlma </3 (feat. LANY) - Bazzi, LANYBonus -
Of course I had to link our Bestie Vibes Playlist, which is a list of songs that Stephanie and I love to listen to and have lots of memories associated with. I love that we have songs we used to listen to since freshman year to new songs we like to listen to together.
My Pick of the Month: Friendship Rings
My pick of the month has to be the matching friendship rings that Stephanie and I got in NYC! The funny thing is that there has been so much struggles since we got this. Stephanie got the wrong size the first time because she's not usually a person that wears rings. Therefore, we had to go to a couple different Pandoras to exchange to the correct size. For me, I ended up losing the ring A WEEK after I came back because I decided to take it off while bowling in case it ended up flying somewhere. Instead, the ring decided to fly out of my purse. I ended up purchasing another one of the exact style because it's meaningful to me but I do hope that one day the other one shows up lol.
All in all, I'm so proud of how far we've come in our friendship and it's still unreal to me that we're going on these week long trips with our big girl money and with our big girl jobs. I don't think Stephanie and Jin back in 2016 when they were 17 years old (and met for the first time) would have pictured this. Therefore, I think this is why it makes it more special. Hopefully this is one of many more meaningful matching friendship items to come!
This month was truly one I will always smile when I look back on it. I can't believe this has already been Stephanie and I's second week long vacation. I can't wait to see where we go next year. However, I also hope we don't have to wait another YEAR to do a trip together. Hopefully a smaller trip to come very soon? All in all, this was also a great month to focus on myself, my family, and ones that are close to me. I can't wait to see what's in store for me next month.
Talk to you next month,
-- Jin
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