Three decades

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , ,
30 December 2015
0

1985 – The year I was born. My dad had left China to go to grad school at Penn State. Not much else happened since it was quickly a new year!

1986 – The year my mom left to join my dad at Penn State.

1987 – The year I was raised by my grandparents and extended family. Of course I have little recollection of this, except for a vague memory of my grandma chasing me around the sandbox trying to feed me rice.

1988 – The year my future husband was born! Little did I know that there was this boy on the other side of the world.

1989 – The year I immigrated to reunite with my parents, who were basically strangers to me at that point.

1990 – The year I was studied by education grad students at Penn State as part of my child care. My mom even clipped an article about the research with a picture of me in it. I remember they had really awesome ice cream for a special event each year and I thought the minerals display was magical because the stones all seemed to glow in the dark.

1991 – The year we moved to Kansas and I started kindergarten. I learned that I was really good at memorizing the Peter Rabbit play. I believe this was also the year that my mom made me an awesome lion mane from yarn, so I could be a lion in a play.

1992 – The year we moved from a townhouse to a house house and I changed schools. This was just the beginning of being the new kid at many places!

1993 – The year I made my first best friend, who was a year younger than me. I loved going to her house to do something crafty like those baked art things. I believe this was also the year my dad got in a really bad car accident and I drew him a picture of us and our pet snapping turtle, which he had caught fishing at the lake.

1994 – The year my parents sent me back to China to stay with my other grandma for a year. I went to class with my cousin, who’s a year older than me, and was basically lost in most topics except for English (where I was far too advanced). I ended up never going to third grade in either China or the US. My language skills improved immensely according to my parents, though I feel I’ve always been pretty good! 😛

1995 – The year I returned to Kansas and went on to fourth grade as if I never left the school district. I had a special tutor who taught me cursive because that was really the one thing I missed in third grade. So I’m really good with cursive (if you can tell the difference between the Q and Z then you probably are too), yet who even uses it? I journaled in cursive for awhile just to keep practicing. Speaking of, this is the year I started my daily journal because I reeeeally wanted a diary that was being sold at the Scholastic Book Fair and my dad made me promise to write in it every day. Little did he know I’d keep doing that for 13 years, even when he and my mom would figuratively roll their eyes and question why I spent so much time doing it.

1996 – The year we moved to Missouri because my dad decided to leave his local government job and move to the private sector. I was doing well in school, so I was chosen to be a traffic monitor for the kindergarteners and I got to miss part of class each day to walk the kids to the buses. I think I still have the silver badge and orange belt I wore. I played a Native American in a school play about Lewis & Clark. Around this time I got my first cat Tom/Mimi in Kansas and then Jerriey in Missouri.

1997 – The year I had a pseudo boyfriend over the summer (this guy I had a major crush on who I told on the bus the last day of school – was started calling each other and I walked to his house to take walks with him and his bouncy ball). I started middle school that fall (and maybe this is TMI but I got my period after two years wondering when this whole puberty thing would hit). I think this is when we found a Chinese school for me to start attending on the weekends. Or maybe it was the following year?

1998 – The year I moved during winter break and the only time my education was split in the winter rather than the summer. My first half of seventh grade was in Missouri and my second half was in New York. This led to some incongruency in the classes I was taking and what I learned. At this point, I had chosen French for my foreign language after testing out Japanese, Spanish, and I think German. My school in Missouri had us learn all four language options in 6th grade so we could better choose one to continue with in 7th.

1999 – The year I settled in New York, found friends with a group of girls, and decided to join track & field. This was the stage when I decided that of my three career options, I most liked businesswoman. The other two options were doctor or engineer. I don’t know if my parents said this to me or I inferred that they’d want one of those. Well, this is when my dream to get an MBA was born! We got Jerriey a friend, my third cat Simon.

2000 – The year we all thought Y2K would shut down the world, so my parents and I went to Times Square for NYE to watch what would happen… and of course nothing did. Alas, it was still historic! I started high school and joined the founding swim team as well as NJROTC.

2001 – The year I took 11 classes – one on Monday nights, two alternated days, and the other either were during the remaining 8 class periods in the day. I did not have a lunch period (is that still legal?) so I’d grab something right before ROTC class. Usually a sandwich or Gatorade and Rice Krispies. Yeah, I’ve always had a penchant for junk food. One Tuesday morning, I was in math when the principal came in and said something to our teacher. I remember she was young and a strawberry blonde type. The shock on her face as she told us about the Twin Towers did not help me grasp the situation. I think she cried. We were all so stunned and in the next class, we just huddled and watched the TV looping awful footage. One of my classmates found out his aunt had died and many others weren’t sure of their impact. One of the planes must have flown right over our area just an hour earlier. I was grateful my mom was home and my dad was on business. We waited as the buses came to take us all home and then we sat glued to the TV, watching the same horrific scenes. I later learned that my mom felt she got lucky because she had nearly taken a job in one of the towers. Meanwhile, my dad had heard the plane flying way too low over his hotel on its way to the Pentagon. Closer calls than I ever expected, but thankfully still plenty out of the way for us all.

2002 – The year my parents and I moved from New York to California and I felt miserable. I did not like this new state at all and I was forced to choose between track and swimming. Swimming won out because my dad’s coworker had a daughter on the team. I also had to switch to AFJROTC because there was no Navy unit in the area. Luckily, I got to keep all my ribbons so I ended up having more than anyone else!

2003 – The year I learned that I was deterred by guys who showed interest in me. When my crush asked me to winter formal, I balked and never liked him again. I felt awful, but we reconciled and now he’s married to one of my best friend’s sister. I also had a foray into Christianity, but it turns out my “faith” was a feeling I couldn’t figure out and it was actually my feelings for said crush. Simon got lost while out playing and we never saw him again. 🙁

2004 – The year I graduated high school and started college at UCLA! I had the longest summer since we were the last school to start and I ended up joining Facebook to get a head start on making friends.

2005 – The year I interned on a movie, Wristcutters. I mean, it’s LA. I did enjoy it, but didn’t feel the need to make a career of it.

2006 – The year I pledged AKPsi and then interned at Smith Barney for the summer before moving to the UK to study abroad.

2007 – The year I absolutely loved being abroad, making international friends and living such a different lifestyle. I returned after a year and attended Monster DLP before interning at UCLA Live! and working as a product demonstrator (more about those jobs if you like).

2008 – The year I met Panda, became an Orientation Counselor, and graduated from UCLA. <3 Jerriey had been moved to Beijing with my parents and he died while we were on vacation in Cancun. </3

2009 – The year I moved to Singapore for a stint out there that was my first job out of college. When I returned in the fall, I interned for Opportunity Green and really got into sustainability.

2010 – The year I got my first “real” full-time, salaried job. I stayed with Panda in his apartment by UCLA most of the time and got to stay close to Bruin life.

2011 – The year I moved close to work and began to take yoga. Panda moved out to the greater DC area, though he was able to visit almost once a month. I got Missy and Molly!

2012 – The year I quit my job and decided to strike out on my own. I didn’t have much opportunity for growth at work, so they had kind of seen it coming. I was also struggling with not being able to see Panda as much anymore (he was traveling less) and I had long wanted to be an entrepreneur.

2013 – The year I transitioned from self-employment back to working at a company and officially moved out east. I learned that my entrepreneurial bug is something best satisfied with a co-founder. Solo work is so very lonely and not the type of environment I find invigorating. Panda got his Master’s degree and proposed to me on commencement day! We then found our dream condo and got the keys in December.

2014 – The year Panda and I got married with a simple ceremony at the courthouse with my parents, his parents, and his brother as witnesses. We’re not much for hoo ha. Early in the year, we moved into our first home and got Smokey from the shelter.

2015 – The year Panda and I had our 1-year anniversary “wedding” celebration with some extended family: my aunt and cousins and his uncle, aunt, and cousin. In January, I flew Missy from LA so she could live with us and Smokey would have a fur sister.

And that brings me to my 30th! This is the only time in my life when the dates match my age: on the 29th, I was 29 and on the 30th, I was 30. Fun, huh? Or am I just a numbers nerd? Whatever the case, I hear the 30’s are a time when you get into a rhythm of life and become more in tune with who you are. I certainly hope that I make good progress towards my goals and better understanding myself. I plan on making 2016 the year I went off to start my MBA. And there will be so much awesomeness to follow. 🙂

Language precision

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
29 December 2015
0

If you speak more than one language, how do you feel when you speak the languages that are not your primary one?

I’ve always been a proud Mandarin and English speaker, with native proficiency in both. I started off speaking Chinese as a child, then learned English when I immigrated before I turned 4. Around the age of 5, my grandmother came to visit and taught a Chinese class in our living room. When I was 8, my parents sent me to China for a year, where I attended school and was immersed in the culture and language. That helped my Mandarin a lot! I came back with stronger language skills and would return to China during summer breaks up until middle school. Meanwhile, I had been attending Chinese school since 4th grade or so.

In high school, all that dwindled as I focused on my classes, extracurriculars, and preparing for college. My junior year, I had moved from New York to California and could not find a suitable Chinese school in the area. My education in Mandarin was paused until I took a class in college. Since then, it’s been 10 years! Unbelievable. I only speak Chinese for a few hours a year now and I find myself more and more shy about it.

One of the things I was proudest of as a child was my near flawless accent. I sounded basically like a native Chinese person and did not have the accent that many of my peers had. But after years of dormancy, my language skills have been slipping. I’m perfectly fine to use Chinese when I’m in China, but in the states I often use English when Mandarin would have worked. A few days ago, I suddenly realized that this was totally silly. I’ve been trying to speak to myself in my head to practice. I didn’t want those speaking to me to judge any misuse of phrases or slight pronunciation variations I might have.

But you know what? It doesn’t matter. They don’t care if I’m fresh from China or born here. In fact, I’ve always found that Chinese people get really excited when they see that I can converse with them in the language they are more comfortable with. It doesn’t matter if I stumble over reading Chinese or if I use slang that give away some of my background. I hear plenty of people speaking English with poor grammar and strong accents, but the only way to get better is to keep going. I’m going to take the same eagerness to practice Chinese that I have when speaking to my mom and extend that to any others who understand me. Screw speaking “perfect” Mandarin! Pretty soon, I might speak far too little if I chase too high a standard.

Crunch time

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
28 December 2015
0

Yikes, my first b-school applications are due in one week! I’ve spent a TON of time soul-searching, reflecting, reading, listening, and thinking. I hope I’ve been able to distill my essence into a potent little package that will come across well in my essays. I’m trying to wrap those up soon so I can also do a revamp of my resume before uploading that and completing the other aspects of each app. This is really nerve-wracking!! Luckily, I have a five-day weekend to focus and work through many of the details.

I’ll mostly be offline in the coming days, but I should have time to fit in a post or two. After that, I’m thinking of bringing back more of my journaling days. I miss being able to look back on any day in my life and knowing what happened. Panda and I were trying to rehash what we did over the Christmas weekend and things were already a little fuzzy. I don’t like that feeling, so perhaps I’ll incorporate more daily life stuff into my posts here. We’ll see! Right now I’m reserving most brain power for putting my best foot forward in my applications!!

Petit Vour December 2015 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
26 December 2015
0

I’m loving the glittery and rosy theme of this box. Definitely has a festive holiday feel to it.

Petit Vour is $15 per box (or as much as $30 for international subscribers) and comes with vegan beauty, skincare, and other personal care products. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you points towards free boxes (email contact@petitvour.com to say I referred you if you sign up!).

contents of petit vour december 2015 box with oh what fun theme and info card petit vour december 2015 box info card with item details
Kani Petal Polish – Ok, I was super confused by this one and I couldn’t figure out if it was one of those paper masks or a regular one. It turns out it’s like a super thick scrub paste sort of thing. It smells much like brown sugar and rose mixed together, which is basically what it is. I’m a fan of brown sugar and it’s a lot of fun to rub this on your face. It left my skin very soft and nice.

Mai Couture blush papier & highlighter papier – This reminds me a lot of those oil blotting papers, which it seems to act as in a secondary fashion. Primarily, these are for adding some color to your face! What a highly portable way to go about it. I know it says to tear one sheet in half to use on either cheek, but I found that it wasn’t created with easy tearing. At least perforate or make it easier to tear a somewhat even line if that the recommended use. The grain of the paper made the paper want to tear lengthwise rather than widthwise.

Zaban Essentials Golden Goddess glow stick – Oh my goodness, this smells GOOD. It’s some sort of delicious tropical smell that I attribute to the nectarine extract. It’s so fragrant and wonderful! It glides on easily and gives a nice subtle glow and shimmer that feels very festive. What a great little stick of fun.

blissoma scentless stick natural deodorant – There’s a dryness and graininess to this stick that makes me feel like it will definitely keep me dry and odor-free. I found it needed some extra rubbing in with my fingers for it to absorb and spread. After that, I felt great and instantly the moisture from that area was diminished.

I had fun with these products. The glow stick is perfect for the season and a great way to spruce things up when everything outside gets more dull. Which of these products do you like most?

[This post mentions a referral program. Signing up and emailing contact@petitvour.com to say I referred you helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Escape Monthly December: New England Box review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
23 December 2015
0

It seems to be an ongoing trend that I sit on my boxes for days before I manage to get a review out. Last night I was going to post this, but then I realized I hadn’t taken a picture, so I waited until today to get the photo.

Escape Monthly is just under $40 per box (with code for 20% off your subscription – see end of post) and comes with a variety of food, home, skincare items themed around a city/region. Each box comes with a guide for that area. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral commission program.

escape monthly december new england box products showing(click to enlarge and read full messaging)

escape-monthly-new-england-box-info-card-pdf

(view the file to read in detail)

Whoa, that’s a lot of chocolate! The majority of the brands seemed to come from Vermont, which is totally a place I want to visit because I always heard about the Vermont Teddy Bear Co on the radio when I was living in New York. I imagine it to be like a mini Colorado for whatever reason.

Here’s what came in the box:

Frommer’s EasyGuide to Boston, Cape Cod and the islands – I’ve been to Boston a few times, mostly when I was a teenager, but I haven’t been to Cape Cod or the surrounding area. Panda and I definitely plan on making a trip to those areas at some point, so this will be a handy guide (though I might regret arming him with so much knowledge). I’m not much of a guide kind of person, but Panda loves reading through them to find the gems.

body brush – If you know me by now, you know I love things like this. I read about dry brushing a few years back and it totally intrigued me. Now I have my very own tool to try it out! I’m sure I can find some instructional videos to try out this method. If it can really help with energy as it purports, or even if it clears off dead skin and maybe helps my circulation, this will be well worth it.

Plum Island Soap Co. face moisturizer – Ooo, the lovely lemon scent of this is very nice. The texture has a bit of a bounce to it and I feel like this will be the perfect moisturizer for whenever snow does decide to some this season. Looks like it certainly won’t be this year, but I hear February’s going to be a doozy. And randomly, I noticed the final ingredient is borax – my dad used to work at US Borax!

Nature’s Mysteries lavender roll-on perfume – I’ve never thought of lavender as a perfume, but I do like it. I’m used to it being the scent for products and often combined with other scents. I’ll have to use this on days out and be careful not to use it at home for fun, because I just discovered today that Smokey (one of my cats) doesn’t like lavender at all! We have a pouch by our pillow and when she sniffed it, she was not happy. This seems to be a personal preference thing, because Missy did not react that way at all.

Delights of the Earth Cran-Lavender lip balm – These unique blends are really cool and I’ve never heard of combining cranberry with lavender before. I have way too many lip balms I’m trying to use right now, so I’ll save this but I look forward to using it eventually! Hopefully it won’t be too old by then…

True North Maple-Vanilla granola – This is a most excellent snack pack for a trip or day when I might not be able to grab a meal. Or, I might start buying yogurt again and topping it with some of this. This looks so familiar and I feel like I’ve seen this flavor somewhere before. I just can’t quite place it, but apparently I did get this brand in the Vermont box. Somehow the maple vanilla combo is something I feel like I’ve seen, yet I can’t remember where.

Lake Champlain Chocolates dark chocolate rum caramel – Aw man! I was excited about a large chocolate bar made of dark chocolate with caramel… and then I saw the rum part. I don’t drink alcohol, eat food with their flavors, and I even avoid anything cooked with it. I’m pretty sure I’d taste the rum in this case, so I’ll share this with my coworkers!

dan’s chocolates lot-a-choc, trail hound, white delight, peppy-r-mint, pb ecstasy, and caramel river bars – Now here are chocolates I will eat! I love the variety so I can try out a bunch of different flavors. So far I’ve had the lot-a-choc, which is totally adorable because it is basically a milk chocolate bar fused with a dark chocolate bar. Of course, I bit straight down the middle and indulged in deeeeelicious chocolate goodness. I also had the caramel one, which tastes great, though I wish the caramel was gooier so I could enjoy that texture of it. These little bars are delightful.

Next month is back to India and I am super curious what will come this time. Which products from this New England Escape Monthly box do you like most? If you want to sign up, be sure to sign up for their newsletter to get a code for 20% off the lifetime of your subscription.

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

A preference for not so social media

laelene Posted in general blog，
20 December 2015
0

Whoa, has it really been five days since my last post?! I almost never go this long without something. I guess I was a bit too busy with life, what with a holiday party, white elephant exchange, and potluck happening at work. Without even realizing it, these days have zoomed right past me and I can hardly believe it.

While I haven’t exactly been offline in any sense, I have been a bit of a lone wolf in my activities. Watching educational videos, reading articles, playing games on my tablet… none of these require anyone else to participate with me, and so I’ve lost a bit of touch with the world. When I have Panda and the cats at home, I hardly need much else. In fact, I haven’t even opened my laptop in days! Out of sight, out of mind.

This reminds me of when my journaling dwindled at the end of college. As hectic as college was, it wasn’t until I met Panda and was thoroughly engulfed in spending time with him that I stopped writing in my daily journal. After 13 years, I let my digital “journal” replacement (this blog) take over and I no longer write in a physical notebook. At times I miss those days, but it sure was time-consuming.

Life for me is a fine balance of enjoying the experiences and recording them. I’m far too sentimental to completely give up taking photos and noting what I’ve done or thought, but if I get too obsessed with that I’m not living enough. Are you like me too?

Or are you the type who goes out, does things, and relies on memories? I’ve never been great at remembering everything that happened, probably because so much happened in my life. When you move every 3 years or so, there’s a lot to remember. Just basic info like where I’ve lived, the schools I’ve attended, the people I’ve known – each of these adds up quickly when there are so many. I think it’s easier when you’ve lived the same place and known the same people for most of your life, because all that information overlaps. If I didn’t write these down, I’d likely have forgotten them all by now.

I was very excited when social media first exploded, because it allowed me to reconnect with many of my childhood friends, who I’d long lost touch with. But with hundreds of loose connections, I don’t feel a strong need to engage consistently (or at all) most of the time. In fact, I only check my social media accounts a few times a month. I’ll go through periods where I pick it up again, but then it’s back to old habits, not paying attention.

And so it happened again, with nothing drawing me to my computer, so I got lost in other media online and forgot how long it’d been since I blogged. I try to blog 3-4 times a week, but I’ve lapsed a few times. I can hardly remember the days where I blogged daily! Granted, much of that time was when I was self-employed, so I had more time to focus on writing with greater flexibility in my schedule. I’ll have to decide the frequency that I can sustain and work to keep that going. It’s just so easy to get distracted by consuming content: books, TED Talks, business articles, even TV (which I typically don’t watch). Creation can be a lot of work, but it’s worth it.

Yogi Surprise December 2015 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: , , , , , , , ,
15 December 2015
0

This is always the first box to arrive each month, which is always exciting. I like the mixture of products they sent this month.

Yogi Surprise is just under $36 per box (with code for 20% off your subscription – use my referral links from this post) and comes with yoga gear, skincare, food, and other lifestyle products. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you free boxes.

contents of yogi surprise december 2015 box with info card yogi surprise december 2015 info card with product details

power yoga: The Card Set – I haven’t really tried yoga at home, except for one time I led Panda through a sequence and he got tired only half an hour in! I’m not much into watching videos, so I think these cards would be a great way to go through a session. I haven’t practiced yoga in about a year, yikes!

Aura Cacia Clove Bud comforting essential oil – Now I’m not quite sure what clove buds look like, but the scent is definitely a warm type with a type of spice to it. In reading the instructions, I think I will use this for my freshening up my compost bin and garbage disposal. I never would have thought to use it for that, but that’s really cool! If I dig up some of the other essential oils I received from my Homegrown Collective boxes, I can make a nice body rub with grapeseed oil and a mixture of essential oils. But that will probably not happen soon, since I’m pretty great at procrastinating these kinds of projects.

Real Beauty for a Cause sweet orange & cinnamon scrub – I love the sweet, warm, spicy scent of this scrub! It’s very dry compared to other scrubs I’ve seen so it’ll work best directly in the shower when my skin is already wet. I love the simplicity of it.

Buddha Teas Crown Chakra tea – What perfect timing – this tea is designed for the crown chakra, the chakra of self-knowledge. I’m currently on a journey of deeper self-awareness as part of my MBA applications so hey if this tea can help, I’m all for it! Plus I love purple and amethyst, which this tea has been influenced by. I like that it’s a light blend free of caffeine, so I can drink it right now before bed if I want.

Voke Tab Vitalizes pack – I thought that the packaging had one giant tab inside, but turns out that it’s a tin with seven tabs inside. They smell very much like a berry and I will make use of them soon since I’ve been feeling lethargic at work in the afternoons. I like green tea and guarana, so I’m happy to try these in lieu of things I don’t consume, like energy drinks or coffee.

om lavender sachet – This is totally adorable! What a nice little pouch of lavender, in my favorite color no less. I will keep this by my pillow to help me relax before sleeping. I’ve been having trouble getting to sleep lately, so I’m hoping this will help.

Yogi Surprise Giving & Receiving yoga sequence series card – I haven’t yet used these cards we’ve been accumulating, but it’ll be fun to get a whole set much like the power yoga card set from this box. The poses are all about expansion, opening up the heart and stance. Check out their instruction page to download this sequence while it’s available.

I feel very calmed from these products, which is a great way to round out the year. Which of these items would you like to have?

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Finding myself

laelene Posted in mba，Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
13 December 2015
0

As I apply to MBA programs, I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching. All this introspection makes me take time to really consider what it is that matters to me and what sort of person I want to become. It’s a great exercise that I feel like we should all do more often.

So as Stanford GSB asks, what matters to me and why? So many things come to mind: empowerment, collaboration, change, balance, diversity/uniqueness, fulfillment, compassion. Each of these because of how they enable us to improve our lives, to be better versions of ourselves. Ultimately, I think it boils down to empowerment. When people are empowered through education or resources or connections, they can take themselves to a better place bit by bit. And aren’t we all pursuing incremental improvements that will culminate into a life that we can look back on and be pleased with?

For years, I’ve yearned to find my calling. I’d watch shows, read articles, and hear interviews of successful people following their passion as if answering a calling. Many of them spoke about how they’ve always felt the deep desire to (fill in the blank). Meanwhile, I searched and searched for my calling. Was it animals? Nature? Photography? Travel? Blogging? Entrepreneurism? So many options seemed compelling, but no single one stood out to me above the others. I was trying so hard to get a little bit of everything I wanted.

Recently, in writing my essays for my MBA applications, I’ve finally figured it out. What is it that I can spend hours reading about, thinking about, talking about? Sure I love animals and I volunteer with insects, I take photos all the time and love getting that amazing shot, and I have been blogging for years… but I don’t engross myself in science articles or photo editing or blogging tips the way I do business articles and interviews.

When it comes to business – in particular, management principles, hiring practices, and above all – culture, I am obsessed. For me, culture drives everything. Culture determines the type of people you attract, the way they behave (and therefore the output they’ll create), the effectiveness of your brand, etc. etc. etc. I literally devour everything I find mentioning anything related to company culture, hiring, and training. I could sit (or stand, or walk) and talk about ideas around these concepts for days. I constantly have new thoughts that I add to my every-growing ideas document.

While I often get distracted by the many other things I am passionate for, I don’t spend nearly as much time and energy on any of those topics. This is how I know that the thing I would get up in the morning for above all else is the opportunity to cultivate an amazing and likely unconventional culture. To do that, I want my vehicle of change to be empowerment. By creating mechanisms through which people are empowered with the knowledge or resources or contacts they need, I can help them become better people. Better people thrive and feed into a culture that is supportive, collaborative, and empowering. And thus the cycle goes, building upon itself and sustaining itself even as it grows.

I’m still finding myself, but this time spent being self-reflective has given me a lot of insight into who I am and who I aspire to be. I’m starting to notice the patterns in my life that draw from an underlying current that I hadn’t observed before. All these seemingly disparate choices have come together to paint a clearer picture of what motivates me. I have gained confidence in what I should do with my life because I can now see the forces that have been there all along, creating the themes that define me. Now I just hope I can clearly articulate to the admissions committee!

When I dream, I don’t sleep well

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
10 December 2015
0

Every now and then I’ll remember a dream. It’s a pretty rare occurrence that I do not try to encourage.

Whereas many people seem to enjoy remembering a dream, or at least find my wacky ones interesting, I always hope that I can wake up with no memory of my mind’s nighttime escapades. It’s not that I don’t like remembering the dreams (though sometimes they are a bit nightmarish) – it’s just that it always seems to happen when I’m not sleeping well. So whether I dreamt because I didn’t sleep well or I didn’t feel like I slept well because I dreamt, it’s just not a good combo.

It started in my first year of college, when I decided to start writing down my dreams. I rarely remembered them, so it was pretty cool when I could. Not surprising, the more I wrote about them, the more I remembered them. It went pretty much as I expected. What I did not expect was the sheer exhaustion and lack of energy I felt from those endeavors. I was completely drained when I woke up and it only got worse. I had never noticed it because of the infrequency, but once I started to consistently wake up remembering my dreams, I quickly noticed that it was not good for my sleep.

So I stopped.

Now I’ve gone back to remembering perhaps a dream or two a year, and I like to keep it that way. For all the fantastical things that are happening in my mind at night, none of that is worth waking up unable to stay awake and function throughout the day. I’ll keep my dreams in lala land, thank you very much.

Do you have this problem too? Or do you recall your dreams with no effect of your awake life?

Julep December 2015: All Night Long Collection review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
08 December 2015
1

I’ve been skipping Julep for most of the year, but you know how sometimes you get that itch to buy something? So when I was looking at this collection, I kept wavering because I didn’t really want anything but I kind of wanted to get something. The problem was that I wanted different things from different boxes – being grandmothered in to the old plan meant I could pay by box at the cheaper rate, but I couldn’t customize. So guess what? After a long time holding out, I finally upgraded to My Maven, which allows me to customize my box (but charges me 3 months at a time to retain the same cheaper rate). Alas, they got me.

Julep ranges from just under $25 to $40 per box based on tier (or as discounted as just under $20 to $35 per box when prepaid three at a time) and comes with combinations of nail polish colors, skincare products, and beauty products (depending on your style profile choice). They offer plenty of upgrade and add-on options too. Boxes are sent monthly unless you choose to skip. You also have the option of gifting your box to a friend. They offer a referral program that earns you $15 store credit per referral.

julep maven december 2015 all night long collection box contents

December’s All Night Long Collection box with add-on

your cuticles look thirsty Fast-Absorbing Cuticle Creme
I’ve wanted this for a long time. I’m not sure exactly why it appeals to me so much and I do have cuticle oils that I haven’t used up, but perhaps the combination of the name and the cream made this totally intriguing. I absolutely love it! Just a small bit is enough for all my cuticles and it absorbs so nicely to really soften the area.

it’s whipped Matte Lip Mousse in smooch
At first I thought, “Oh, another lip product,” but then I read the description and was completely caught off-guard by the mousse part of it. Lip mousse? What?! And I do like the matte look, so I really had to try this one out. I’m glad I did because it’s awesome! Great pigmentation that feels delightful and applies so well. My lips may get flaky with lipstick, but not with this.

Polish colors in Beatrice, Elsa, and Judy. I couldn’t pick between the metallic shades of Beatrice and Judy, so I got both. I knew I wanted Elsa for the fun snow-like look! It’ll be great on top of other polishes.

julep all night long collection card and discount offer card

The All Night Long Collection cards.

julep it's whipped matte lip mousse information card

The info card with details on the matte lip mousse collection.

I’m really happy I ended up getting this box and custom choosing what came in it. I might have to get another one of those lip mousse things! They’re so fun to use. See what happens when customers get to help develop product?

Join as a Julep Maven to get polishes and/or beauty products sent to you monthly! Use code FREEBOX or FREEMAVEN to get the first box free (you pay shipping).

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

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