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This month, I feel like I was taking it just day by day and I can't believe how fast it ended. These days, I feel like I'm swinging through life, especially as we get closer to the end of the year but I can't help but be thankful for everything!
Lifestyle: Back to Back Festivities
Friendships
This month, I got to catch up with a few friends that I haven't spoken to in a hot minute and it's been so much fun! I feel like I have been prioritizing closer friendships, but it was so nice to have time to catch up with people that I haven't caught up with in a long time. I'm grateful for how nice the catch up session went and am quite excited for future hangouts in the future as well. I love hearing everyone's updates in life and it's crazy to think how different or similar our lives are.
Birthdays
I also got to celebrate a few of my friends this month and I'm always grateful for anyone who invites me to their birthday celebrations! I hope that I can always show extra love and support during those times because for some reason I know how vulnerable birthdays can get so I'm happy I was able to show up a few of my friends this month. Both of the birthdays included different activities such as golfing, bowling, and going out. I learned that I truly suck at bowling, but I enjoy doing these different activities with my friends. It's also nice to see all your friends all together because sometimes it's so hard to gather everyone together with all the different schedules nowadays.
Family
With my mom visiting from Korea this month, I got to prioritizing family time over this month. It's been difficult with the lots of back and forth from LA to OC with work, but family time always seem worth it. I'm also happy that we got to go on a short weekend Palm Springs vacation with the family. It truly felt like a nice relaxing getaway that I needed from all the chaos at work! I am usually always a type A planner with everything including vacations with friends, but my family has always been the go with the flow type B planners. However, I've really come to enjoy and appreciate the go with the flow mindset, especially when it came to this trip as I wanted to shut the brain for the weekend and relax. It was nice to have no thoughts and lean on my parents for a little bit this weekend.
Concerts
My concert era did not come to a stop this month as I saw 3 of my fave artists: Lauv, Porter Robinson, and Conan Gray. Each artists had such different vibes and themes for their concerts, yet they were all so much fun! Lauv was an amazing live artist and his vocals were so crazy that we thought it was even better than the recorded studio versions. Porter Robinson was so much fun with reliving all the different eras and bringing Madeon for the climax. Conan Gray was unexpedectly so much fun with the whole crowd knowing the lyrics bar for bar, word for word singing along! All in all, these concerts would not have been as fun without the boyfriend and friend besides me so I am also grateful for my concert buddies.
Love
Favorite Date
This month, my boyfriend and I got to our favorite date that we have probably repeated about 3 times now. It consists of driving to Little Tokyo in LA and eating Pasta e Pasta by Allegro and going to Pinku. The Mentaiko Japanese cream pasta is our favorite pasta by far at the restaraunt and we always love coming back here. We have decorated our phone case and a few different accessories at Pinku and it's so impressive how much faster and better we have gotten since the first time we visited. They installed a new arcade box in the corner for the end of the decorating session and I won a $5 coupon, which only means that I have to back here for our favorite date yet again I suppose.
Knotts Scary Farm
My boyfriend and I bought a last minute ticket to Knotts Scary Farm for Halloween day and it was so much fun! A lot of our Halloween plans had to fall apart last minute with so many things going on in our lives, so I was grateful that we were able to do an activity on the actual day of Halloween. We dressed up as Remy and Linguine from Ratatouille, which was so much fun but so unfortunate when we were told that we had to put away our costumes as they were not allowed into the park. I started to get nervous about getting spooked as we stood in line, but it was not as bad at all and I was glad we were able to go on a few different rides even though we were only there for a. few hours!
Work
Work has been quite the chaos this past month with non stop things going on. However, here a few highlights from this month:
Nobu
My team and I were able to go to Nobu for dinner after work one night and it was so much fun! It was a few of our first time at Nobu and it was truly a night to remember. Not only were all the food so delicious, but also I'm so glad to have co-workers where we can genuinely laugh and enjoy each other's companies.
Photoshoot
This month I had a photoshoot for my brand's campaign at work and it meant working long hours. There were a few ups and downs during the actual day of shoots with intense energy from everyone's hard work. However, I think it was a great learning experience as usual and I learn so much from my manager and director who was on the set. As stressful as it was, it was also so much fun to step outside the everyday tasks and learn more about this aspect of the job.
Volunteer
Our company hosted it's annual volunteer day at food bank and I was so excited to volunteer. I can't believe this is already my 2nd year volunteering and it's so much fun stepping from my laptop at work to do something much more meaningful for the community as well. I also thought about how meaningful food banks were in college where I got to take advantage of free food and how it truly kept me fed and going when I probably needed it the most.
Halloween
Despite the chaos, I was so excited to celebrate Halloween in the office with my co-workers. We usually do a neighborhood decorating contest, but our team was not able to really participate this year with so much on everyone's plates right now. However, I'm so happy that we were able to get together to dress up as Inside out 2 emotions, even though we did not win the costume contest. I'm so grateful to have a team that I genuinely get along with and people who actually make work fun at times even when it's stressful some days!
Lows & Lessons: Burnout
Work
I talked a lot about how busy my life has been this past month and it truly did feel chaotic at times. There was one day where I truly felt this burnout from work physically where I felt like I was at 0%. I'm so lucky to have a manager who cares about my wellbeing because when she asked me how it was going and I said it was quite busy so I was taking it day by day, she let me know that I can always lean on her at hard times. She also read through me because she told me that she felt like I was the type of person who wouldn't necessarily tell her when I'm having it rough (which is true), but that if I ever do feel like it's too much then I can tell her and she truly will not use it against me (i.e. bring it up during an annual review). I think this comment hit harder for me because I actually have a friend who was recently let go from her job and her boss brought up a comment that she told him confidentially about how she felt a little overwhelmed with all her work, but it was used against her. I do appreciate how much effort she puts to create a comfortable environment for me.
Life
The burnout did not stop at work as I truly felt like I had a full life burnout. I had a slight breakdown infront of my boyfriend (without the crying but just word vommit) about how I felt like I was trying to balance it all and simultaneously failing at everything. With trying to make time for everyone, I felt like I was not doing good enough and ultimately being a bad daughter, bad friend, bad sister, bad girlfriend, and a bad worker. Maybe it's that I put too much pressure or standard to be a good person for everyone that I let myself down or that it's partly true that I could've been a better person for all those people in my life. However, I'm learning to not be such a hard judge on myself and learning to do the best that I can with what I have. It also did help that my boyfriend reassured me that I am doing my best and help silence the inner voice that I was not doing enough.
Maybe this is also a sign that I should go back to therapy because I've been pushing it off for so long with my excuse being that I did not have enough time for it. My lesson this month with all this chaos is to not be so harsh and also carve time for myself so that I know I can be 100% for the people around me.
Songs on Repeat:
APT - ROSÉ, Bruno MarsMantra - JENNIEDiet Pepsi - Addison RaeMy Pick of the Month: Palm Spring - FARM
My family and I stumbled upon this brunch place last year and it was so good/ memorable that we had to go again this year! It was fun to be placed at a different spot this year as we were seated indoors last year vs. outdoors this time around. The food was as good as we had remembered and it was so nice to have a quality brunch moment with the whole family. I think as silly as it sounds, I truly have come to appeciate these small moments together and learned to not take it for granted.
I feel like this month was still as chaotic if not chaotic as last month, but I wouldn't have survived it without all the amazing friends and family by my side. I'm still learning to balance everything while taking care of myself. However, I'm excited to go into the holidays season so soon!
Talk to you next month,
-- Jin
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