My 24th Birthday Celebration!
A part of me cringes at the thought that I am 24. 24 is by no means old, but when I was a mere teen I thought getting to my mid-twenties would be a long time away. Yet, today I am only one year away from turning 25!
John and I decided to celebrate it at home this year. I know I sound kind of conceited, but I think my cooking has probably surpassed many of the restaurants in Davis (to be fair, Davis isn't really known for good food), so there isn't any particular place in Davis or Sacramento I consider a treat. There *are* still some places that are amazing, but the tradeoff in cost for a steak dinner at one of those fancy places to what John can make (which is pretty amazing), it's just not worth the splurge.
So, we attempted to cook ourselves something "fancier" and to splurge on ingredients instead. Expensive ingredients are still WAAAAY cheaper, than going out to dinner for two at a fancy steakhouse. We were actually able to cover four quite fancy meals with the amount we would spend on ONE fancy schmancy steakhouse dinner.
First cookout was lobster rolls for lunch. John and I tasted lobster rolls for the first time in New York, when we were visiting his sister and brother-in-law. They treated us to these babies and oh my goodness, they were so good! They were also super expensive, priced at $25 per roll! Also, I haven't found very many places in California that serves this dish. So, we attempted to try making it on our own!
Turns out lobster rolls are super easy to make and don't cost anywhere near $25 a roll! We snagged 5 lobster tails from Costco for about $30--easily enough to make 5 servings! Have I mentioned that cooking your own food is waaaaay cheaper? Yeah.
For dinner, we had John's famous steak. I call it famous because everyone who has tasted it loves it (except people who don't like their steaks done to medium-well. Then we can't be steak buddies.)
Before you criticize the ratio of vegetable to meat, John wanted to recreate the "restaurant experience" where they serve you random bits of veggies as garnish so that it's more "upscale". But still not complete IMO because it lacks the random splatter of sauce on the sides. Lolol.
Of course we can't forget about the birthday cake! We got it from 99 ranch because I still haven't taken a liking to the overly sweet cakes from American bakeries.
It's a tiramisu cake with fresh cream! It was good but too much just for the both of us. I don't really have a sweet tooth.
Needless to say, there was enough lobster (and cake) for another round the next day. We decided to take a different spin on the lobster. This time, we wanted to capture more of the lobster's natural taste, so we only added some lemon, butter, parsley, and tiny bit of garlic powder to the mix. We ended up liking this version a LOT better because we can taste the sweetness of the lobster flesh, whereas the mayo in the salad version kind of masked this flavor.
Also, note to self: Use a regular split hot dog bun for this type. Hawaiian bread was a little too sweet and was competing with the lobster's sweetness.
We also bought some salmon sashimi as a treat.Actually, we just have no control over buying groceries because we are fatties and can never tell when we obviously have too much food. This is my attempt at making salmon nigiri:
Not bad, right? Dude, I should probably seriously consider a catering service as a side business for poor college students who still want a treat. *hidung tinggi*
With all that food high I already felt super blessed, but then my birthday weekend got even sweeter when I received a package from my sister-in-law (the NY/lobster roll one) and found this inside!
So cute the packaging can?! It's a mini mani month set by Ciate. It has like more than 20 different nail polish colors, including a glass nail file, nail treatments, and nail toppers. What lah, I've always walked past the nail polish aisle at Target but never bought any because a bottle of nail polish is like $6-10! Surely there are better things to spend $10 on than nail polish, no matter how pretty they are. And now I have a set of 24! 24 nail set for my 24th! Woohoo!
Aside from all the food and gifts, I want to end this blog post on a more thankful and reflective note. I may whine about how I'm getting older and wrinklier (soon), but getting through another year in good health in itself is a wonderful gift from God. So many of us look at aging as a bad thing when we see our bodies gaining weight, our hair thinning, our once great memory fading, and our responsibilities soaring, but there are so many who do not even get to a glimpse of what adulthood may be like due to a sickness, accident, or some form of tragedy. Being 24 means God gave me life, relationships, and experiences for 24 years.
And so, I am going to list or talk about 24 things I've learned after turning 24 in no particular order of importance:
1) There is no such thing as a fixed timeline of when to achieve milestones.
2) Always set a timeline of when you want to achieve your goals, but be flexible.
3) Learning how to cook your own meals and experimenting for improvement can save you lots of money $$$$.
John and I decided to celebrate it at home this year. I know I sound kind of conceited, but I think my cooking has probably surpassed many of the restaurants in Davis (to be fair, Davis isn't really known for good food), so there isn't any particular place in Davis or Sacramento I consider a treat. There *are* still some places that are amazing, but the tradeoff in cost for a steak dinner at one of those fancy places to what John can make (which is pretty amazing), it's just not worth the splurge.
So, we attempted to cook ourselves something "fancier" and to splurge on ingredients instead. Expensive ingredients are still WAAAAY cheaper, than going out to dinner for two at a fancy steakhouse. We were actually able to cover four quite fancy meals with the amount we would spend on ONE fancy schmancy steakhouse dinner.
First cookout was lobster rolls for lunch. John and I tasted lobster rolls for the first time in New York, when we were visiting his sister and brother-in-law. They treated us to these babies and oh my goodness, they were so good! They were also super expensive, priced at $25 per roll! Also, I haven't found very many places in California that serves this dish. So, we attempted to try making it on our own!
 |
| Omg, look at that fat juicy lobster tail. *drools* |
 |
| Lobster salad on Hawaiian bread roll with a side of fries. Mmmm. |
Turns out lobster rolls are super easy to make and don't cost anywhere near $25 a roll! We snagged 5 lobster tails from Costco for about $30--easily enough to make 5 servings! Have I mentioned that cooking your own food is waaaaay cheaper? Yeah.
For dinner, we had John's famous steak. I call it famous because everyone who has tasted it loves it (except people who don't like their steaks done to medium-well. Then we can't be steak buddies.)
Before you criticize the ratio of vegetable to meat, John wanted to recreate the "restaurant experience" where they serve you random bits of veggies as garnish so that it's more "upscale". But still not complete IMO because it lacks the random splatter of sauce on the sides. Lolol.
Of course we can't forget about the birthday cake! We got it from 99 ranch because I still haven't taken a liking to the overly sweet cakes from American bakeries.
It's a tiramisu cake with fresh cream! It was good but too much just for the both of us. I don't really have a sweet tooth.
Needless to say, there was enough lobster (and cake) for another round the next day. We decided to take a different spin on the lobster. This time, we wanted to capture more of the lobster's natural taste, so we only added some lemon, butter, parsley, and tiny bit of garlic powder to the mix. We ended up liking this version a LOT better because we can taste the sweetness of the lobster flesh, whereas the mayo in the salad version kind of masked this flavor.
Also, note to self: Use a regular split hot dog bun for this type. Hawaiian bread was a little too sweet and was competing with the lobster's sweetness.
We also bought some salmon sashimi as a treat.
Not bad, right? Dude, I should probably seriously consider a catering service as a side business for poor college students who still want a treat. *hidung tinggi*
With all that food high I already felt super blessed, but then my birthday weekend got even sweeter when I received a package from my sister-in-law (the NY/lobster roll one) and found this inside!
So cute the packaging can?! It's a mini mani month set by Ciate. It has like more than 20 different nail polish colors, including a glass nail file, nail treatments, and nail toppers. What lah, I've always walked past the nail polish aisle at Target but never bought any because a bottle of nail polish is like $6-10! Surely there are better things to spend $10 on than nail polish, no matter how pretty they are. And now I have a set of 24! 24 nail set for my 24th! Woohoo!
Aside from all the food and gifts, I want to end this blog post on a more thankful and reflective note. I may whine about how I'm getting older and wrinklier (soon), but getting through another year in good health in itself is a wonderful gift from God. So many of us look at aging as a bad thing when we see our bodies gaining weight, our hair thinning, our once great memory fading, and our responsibilities soaring, but there are so many who do not even get to a glimpse of what adulthood may be like due to a sickness, accident, or some form of tragedy. Being 24 means God gave me life, relationships, and experiences for 24 years.
And so, I am going to list or talk about 24 things I've learned after turning 24 in no particular order of importance:
1) There is no such thing as a fixed timeline of when to achieve milestones.
God has his own time and plans for you, so stop freaking out about not hitting that milestone everyone on Facebook seems to have achieved before you do.
2) Always set a timeline of when you want to achieve your goals, but be flexible.
This may sound contradictory to the first statement, but setting timelines really help you to focus, and gives you a guideline on what to work on or pray about. This is how I got married at 23. Whether or not that was fully intentional, I can't vouch for it. But saying that it was all by luck is a little too wishful/optimistic. The key is to be flexible if it doesn't go as planned.
3) Learning how to cook your own meals and experimenting for improvement can save you lots of money $$$$.
See above post about how much cheaper lobster rolls cost when you DIY.
4) Past failures are not an indication of future failures, and by that same logic, neither are present failures any indication of your self-worth.
You CAN learn and pick yourself up. You DON'T have to make the same mistakes again. You CAN overcome (with God's help too of course). True failure is when you give up. I know this sounds so corny and cliche, but I have found this to be true.
5) Relationships and networking are more important than grades.
A grade is a grade. It's important, but never more important that any good relationship you want to foster in your life. Besides, there are so many who got jobs not because they excelled academically, but had good ties with their network of friends.
6) Learn to close a blind eye on trivial matters in marriage.
Seriously, the petty arguments have dropped drastically when I chose to ignore how chores should be done or how to organize our stuff.
7) Everyone should have at least one mentor in life.
It could be your father, mother, sibling, a teacher, or maybe an older church member. There are valuable resources on life experiences, and if they are good mentors, they can help you get through life without having to suffer as much as they did to get to where they are.
8) People who are way, way, older than you can still be a lot more immature than you are, even if they appear to have everything together.
I mean, older immature people are not surprising to me, but I always assumed that if you're old and immature, you wouldn't be able to make it very far. Someone is bound to notice or call you out, or you'd hit a road block eventually if you don't grow. I was wrong. Sometimes they can be more "successful" than you are...on the outside anyway.
9) People with good intentions are not always good.
Just because they are trying to help doesn't necessarily mean they are helping. What's good to them doesn't necessarily apply to you. It's better to just accept their sincerity and just move on.
10) There is no such thing as the perfect or holy grail makeup.
Fml. As much as I want this to be true, experience and common sense says otherwise. No company's product can ever be specific enough to your wants and needs yet be general enough to satisfy everyone's needs. The closest I've gotten to "perfect" makeup requires a lot of mixing foundations and eye products, or just whipping up your own makeup.
11) On that note, cornstarch is the perfect finishing powder. No joke.
So many people talk about how important a finishing powder is to keep oiliness at bay, and compare all kinds of brands from MUFE HD silica powder to Tarte's. Cornstarch still wins this hands down. You only need a very light hand, and is super cheap to boost! If you want it to have color like the banana powder, just buy yellow pigment and add to the mix. Much cheaper, and works the same, I promise.
12) To achieve the super crispy fried chicken texture at restaurants or fried banana kuih at food stalls, you need to double-fry.
Not nylon strings. Whoever came up with that was probably just jealous they didn't figure this out.
13) There will be people looking at your life with envy.
Even if you don't think your life is anything to write home about. Not to my blow my own horn, but more often than not, I find out that the people whose life I envy on Facebook actually envy mine. The grass is always greener on the other side, eh?
14) Living with 5 other girls/ladies in a house is a bad idea. (Even if they were your friends.)
Note the "were". Women are pettier than men in most cases. Also, women can be a lot dirtier than men! Worst decision in my life to move in with my ex-housemates, but the experience has taught me well.
15) As you get older, finding a friend that you can connect with in many aspects, if not all, gets harder.
Forming best friends in primary school is a lot easier than in college. I think this is because our mindset as a child is still very innocent and not fully developed. Once we get to adulthood, we have a a preset filter with a lot more conditions to judge those around us. I think for me, since I matured a lot faster, I am definitely more judge-y. Hahaha. This is a sad reality for me, but hey, I have a husband who is also my best friend so I can't complain, lol.
16) Sous vide cooking is probably the best way to get perfectly cooked seafood, meat, eggs, or anything really.
I have never heard of this method of cooking until Daniel gave us a device that allows you to cook anything to a certain specific temperature (usually very low temperatures) via water baths. The idea is that heat is transferred to the meat through the water, and since the water's temperature is always maintained, the meat cannot become overcooked. So even if you left it in the water bath for too long, your meat is not ruined. This method of low temperature cooking is harder to achieve by oven because most ovens have a much higher temperature range.
17) Older siblings mature slower than younger siblings, but younger siblings tend to be less capable under stress.
Or at least this is seems to be true in mine and John's family's case, where the age gap between older and younger siblings are at least 7 years apart. I might change my stance in a few years. However, I noticed that both John and my baby sis, who are the youngest, tend to be more emotionally sensitive and aware to social situations and parents' expectations as well as actions. I think it's because they have someone older to observe, and are able analyze the consequences of the older siblings' actions before making their own life choices. Older siblings would probably have to fumble through most of it on their own. Yet, my youngest sister and John just somewhat breakdown or are in denial when they are stressed. My theory is that they are not used to handling difficult situations head on because the oldest are usually responsible for it. Another reason could be they've always made choices based on careful analysis, so high stress situations that require urgent action freaks them out. I think this is important to note before forming relationships with different expectations. Cuz even though John is 2 years older than I am, I have a more older sibling mentality than he does.
18) It is better to let many people plan an event and have less satisfactory results, than to do it all yourself for superb results.
This is especially true for church events. *Yikes! I've said it!* After many, many years of working in teams and organizing events, I have come to realize that people just want to feel included and do not particularly care about what the end result of the event is like, even if the event is for others or outsiders. I know it is quite selfish of them to insistently volunteer for the role and then plan things either half-heartedly or according to what THEY want, but sometimes, not everyone gets the bigger picture: that events are meant for guests aka strangers who put no effort into it. And yes, we are working hard to please not ourselves, but these strangers because the goal is to attract them to our event and hopefully they can sponsor, donate, or attend our future events.
What I've learned is that you can either A) Plan a super awesome event on your own and get plenty of satisfied guests who are willing to support you through donations, but then have NO ONE to help you in future event planning with the money you earned, or B) Have a less than stellar event that still brings in just enough money to sustain you through another mediocre event, but hey, all your team members feel like they've contributed and feel important, so it gets you through the year. I am still in awe at how shoddy this works, but I feel like that is what makes the world go round. I am sure there are ways to go about it such that both parties are pleased, but it's probably not worth the effort or time in relation to other things. We're all busy selfish people after all, amirite?
19) Knowing how to use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator makes you more marketable.
Nevermind that you are planning to work in a financial or research field. If you know some photoshop, they are interested because all fields seem to need some form of design tweaking at some point, but are not willing to hire a full-fledged graphic designer. So ta-da! You're hired! (Disclaimer: If you meet all other requirements too at the very least.) Have I mentioned that it also saves you a lot of money when organizing and promoting your own events? *cough* like my wedding *cough*
20) Appealing to your employers or managers about your personal crisis puts you at a disadvantage.
If my boss and I are super tight, telling them that I need the hours to pay rent or buy Christmas presents, or pay for my kids tuition etc. will appeal to their emotional side and get me the extra money, right? They are all human and they'll understand our crisis, right? No. Well, it *depends*. I suppose there are bosses who are compassionate and will grant you an exception every now and then if you're a hard and honest worker. But in my experience, most bosses are more manipulative than you think. If they know you really depend on them, they have more ways to take advantage of you. This is how my ex-boss took all our tip money and abused her power to fire us if we complained, knowing that we needed our jobs desperately to pay rent. She figured that out when older sis was constantly asking for more hours, or that she pay us on time because we needed to meet rent. In reality she probably wouldn't fire us because we were exceptional workers, and we could also file a complaint against her, but because we needed the money and there were no jobs available, we had to suck it up.
No matter how compassionate they are, they are driven by a higher force as well: to make sales or increase profit. Whenever sales or productivity fall, they are forced to make you work. If manipulation is what it takes to get sales or productivity to increase again, they will resort to it if it's urgent enough. Otherwise, their jobs are at risk too. So telling them or hinting at them that your life will be in jeopardy if you lose your position or hours is not a good idea. When I finally found a second job at a competing restaurant, guess who became a lot nicer to me and gave me first pick on what hours to work or started paying me on time?
21) Disneyland is not as magical when you're an adult.
To be fair, I don't know if it'd be magical as a kid since I've never gone as one. But my dad told me when I was a kid that even if I went to Disneyland as an adult, it would br just as fun. My dad is usually right about a lot of things, but sorry dad, this time you were wrong. LOL. I went on my 18th birthday, and even though the pass was free (regular park hopper ticket was $96 at the time, pretty sure it's over $100 now), everything else in the park was SO expensive! Food, water, souvenirs were waaaay overpriced. M for Magical? More like M for Money-sucking. I envied the kids who knew nothing about the cost and had big smiles on their faces, and I almost wanted to slap the kids who threw a fit when their parents didn't buy them the toys they wanted.
22) Skydiving is not as scary as you think.
Unless you have fear of heights. Well, I jumped with someone who had a fear of heights and she said when you're up that high, it's not the same. Hahaha. I agree though. I had the "pleasure" of sitting right at the door of the plane, and they didn't close it AT ALL even after we took off and got really high up. As I saw the plane lifting higher, I got really scared. Like omg, what if I fall out? But as it got higher and higher in the air, everything got so small that the fear just somehow disappeared. No idea why. Perhaps when you get that high up, everything SEEMS to be happening in slow-mo. When I finally jumped (strapped to a professional of course), you feel an initial fall, but only for a split second. And then when you hit the max falling speed, you feel as if you're just FLOATING. You're much higher up than you expect so the ground below looks really, really far way...like you're not closing up on it at all. In short, it feels AMAZING. Roller coasters are scarier and more thrilling.
23) People who always say they are great at something are usually not that great, and people who say they aren't or don't brag much are usually amazing.
They say empty cans make the loudest noise. Or according to my BM primary teacher, "Bottles that are half-full make more sounds than a full or empty one." That is, those who know nothing and those who know a lot usually keep it to themselves. The ones who are half-a**ed talk about themselves non-stop. Which I find to be a more accurate depiction. Asians are taught to be humble, but here in the States we are taught to boast and promote ourselves. So perhaps it's just a cultural thing?
24) Changing your perspective is more powerful than changing many small things in life.
I actually started out writing a woeful post about how I feel melancholy about turning 24. About feeling I haven't achieved much and wanted to reflect on why I haven't done much. And then halfway through the post, I deleted everything and decided to take on a positive perspective, and to stop being a negative Nancy. This is the result. I am actually feeling very happy with myself and am very grateful for all the experiences I've had along the way of turning 24. Man, I've learned a lot! Even though some may seem like setbacks at the time. I can even use some of these as advice for others! I didn't even do anything differently besides choosing to think positive thoughts, and now I feel like I've done so much with my life.
Anyway, that took WAAAAAY longer than I thought it would. A total of 3+ hours. Was it time worth spending? I suppose so. =) Reflecting on good things is always good. Here's to another year of life and leaning on God!
9) People with good intentions are not always good.
Just because they are trying to help doesn't necessarily mean they are helping. What's good to them doesn't necessarily apply to you. It's better to just accept their sincerity and just move on.
10) There is no such thing as the perfect or holy grail makeup.
Fml. As much as I want this to be true, experience and common sense says otherwise. No company's product can ever be specific enough to your wants and needs yet be general enough to satisfy everyone's needs. The closest I've gotten to "perfect" makeup requires a lot of mixing foundations and eye products, or just whipping up your own makeup.
11) On that note, cornstarch is the perfect finishing powder. No joke.
So many people talk about how important a finishing powder is to keep oiliness at bay, and compare all kinds of brands from MUFE HD silica powder to Tarte's. Cornstarch still wins this hands down. You only need a very light hand, and is super cheap to boost! If you want it to have color like the banana powder, just buy yellow pigment and add to the mix. Much cheaper, and works the same, I promise.
12) To achieve the super crispy fried chicken texture at restaurants or fried banana kuih at food stalls, you need to double-fry.
Not nylon strings. Whoever came up with that was probably just jealous they didn't figure this out.
13) There will be people looking at your life with envy.
Even if you don't think your life is anything to write home about. Not to my blow my own horn, but more often than not, I find out that the people whose life I envy on Facebook actually envy mine. The grass is always greener on the other side, eh?
14) Living with 5 other girls/ladies in a house is a bad idea. (Even if they were your friends.)
Note the "were". Women are pettier than men in most cases. Also, women can be a lot dirtier than men! Worst decision in my life to move in with my ex-housemates, but the experience has taught me well.
15) As you get older, finding a friend that you can connect with in many aspects, if not all, gets harder.
Forming best friends in primary school is a lot easier than in college. I think this is because our mindset as a child is still very innocent and not fully developed. Once we get to adulthood, we have a a preset filter with a lot more conditions to judge those around us. I think for me, since I matured a lot faster, I am definitely more judge-y. Hahaha. This is a sad reality for me, but hey, I have a husband who is also my best friend so I can't complain, lol.
16) Sous vide cooking is probably the best way to get perfectly cooked seafood, meat, eggs, or anything really.
I have never heard of this method of cooking until Daniel gave us a device that allows you to cook anything to a certain specific temperature (usually very low temperatures) via water baths. The idea is that heat is transferred to the meat through the water, and since the water's temperature is always maintained, the meat cannot become overcooked. So even if you left it in the water bath for too long, your meat is not ruined. This method of low temperature cooking is harder to achieve by oven because most ovens have a much higher temperature range.
17) Older siblings mature slower than younger siblings, but younger siblings tend to be less capable under stress.
Or at least this is seems to be true in mine and John's family's case, where the age gap between older and younger siblings are at least 7 years apart. I might change my stance in a few years. However, I noticed that both John and my baby sis, who are the youngest, tend to be more emotionally sensitive and aware to social situations and parents' expectations as well as actions. I think it's because they have someone older to observe, and are able analyze the consequences of the older siblings' actions before making their own life choices. Older siblings would probably have to fumble through most of it on their own. Yet, my youngest sister and John just somewhat breakdown or are in denial when they are stressed. My theory is that they are not used to handling difficult situations head on because the oldest are usually responsible for it. Another reason could be they've always made choices based on careful analysis, so high stress situations that require urgent action freaks them out. I think this is important to note before forming relationships with different expectations. Cuz even though John is 2 years older than I am, I have a more older sibling mentality than he does.
18) It is better to let many people plan an event and have less satisfactory results, than to do it all yourself for superb results.
This is especially true for church events. *Yikes! I've said it!* After many, many years of working in teams and organizing events, I have come to realize that people just want to feel included and do not particularly care about what the end result of the event is like, even if the event is for others or outsiders. I know it is quite selfish of them to insistently volunteer for the role and then plan things either half-heartedly or according to what THEY want, but sometimes, not everyone gets the bigger picture: that events are meant for guests aka strangers who put no effort into it. And yes, we are working hard to please not ourselves, but these strangers because the goal is to attract them to our event and hopefully they can sponsor, donate, or attend our future events.
What I've learned is that you can either A) Plan a super awesome event on your own and get plenty of satisfied guests who are willing to support you through donations, but then have NO ONE to help you in future event planning with the money you earned, or B) Have a less than stellar event that still brings in just enough money to sustain you through another mediocre event, but hey, all your team members feel like they've contributed and feel important, so it gets you through the year. I am still in awe at how shoddy this works, but I feel like that is what makes the world go round. I am sure there are ways to go about it such that both parties are pleased, but it's probably not worth the effort or time in relation to other things. We're all busy selfish people after all, amirite?
19) Knowing how to use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator makes you more marketable.
Nevermind that you are planning to work in a financial or research field. If you know some photoshop, they are interested because all fields seem to need some form of design tweaking at some point, but are not willing to hire a full-fledged graphic designer. So ta-da! You're hired! (Disclaimer: If you meet all other requirements too at the very least.) Have I mentioned that it also saves you a lot of money when organizing and promoting your own events? *cough* like my wedding *cough*
20) Appealing to your employers or managers about your personal crisis puts you at a disadvantage.
If my boss and I are super tight, telling them that I need the hours to pay rent or buy Christmas presents, or pay for my kids tuition etc. will appeal to their emotional side and get me the extra money, right? They are all human and they'll understand our crisis, right? No. Well, it *depends*. I suppose there are bosses who are compassionate and will grant you an exception every now and then if you're a hard and honest worker. But in my experience, most bosses are more manipulative than you think. If they know you really depend on them, they have more ways to take advantage of you. This is how my ex-boss took all our tip money and abused her power to fire us if we complained, knowing that we needed our jobs desperately to pay rent. She figured that out when older sis was constantly asking for more hours, or that she pay us on time because we needed to meet rent. In reality she probably wouldn't fire us because we were exceptional workers, and we could also file a complaint against her, but because we needed the money and there were no jobs available, we had to suck it up.
No matter how compassionate they are, they are driven by a higher force as well: to make sales or increase profit. Whenever sales or productivity fall, they are forced to make you work. If manipulation is what it takes to get sales or productivity to increase again, they will resort to it if it's urgent enough. Otherwise, their jobs are at risk too. So telling them or hinting at them that your life will be in jeopardy if you lose your position or hours is not a good idea. When I finally found a second job at a competing restaurant, guess who became a lot nicer to me and gave me first pick on what hours to work or started paying me on time?
21) Disneyland is not as magical when you're an adult.
To be fair, I don't know if it'd be magical as a kid since I've never gone as one. But my dad told me when I was a kid that even if I went to Disneyland as an adult, it would br just as fun. My dad is usually right about a lot of things, but sorry dad, this time you were wrong. LOL. I went on my 18th birthday, and even though the pass was free (regular park hopper ticket was $96 at the time, pretty sure it's over $100 now), everything else in the park was SO expensive! Food, water, souvenirs were waaaay overpriced. M for Magical? More like M for Money-sucking. I envied the kids who knew nothing about the cost and had big smiles on their faces, and I almost wanted to slap the kids who threw a fit when their parents didn't buy them the toys they wanted.
22) Skydiving is not as scary as you think.
Unless you have fear of heights. Well, I jumped with someone who had a fear of heights and she said when you're up that high, it's not the same. Hahaha. I agree though. I had the "pleasure" of sitting right at the door of the plane, and they didn't close it AT ALL even after we took off and got really high up. As I saw the plane lifting higher, I got really scared. Like omg, what if I fall out? But as it got higher and higher in the air, everything got so small that the fear just somehow disappeared. No idea why. Perhaps when you get that high up, everything SEEMS to be happening in slow-mo. When I finally jumped (strapped to a professional of course), you feel an initial fall, but only for a split second. And then when you hit the max falling speed, you feel as if you're just FLOATING. You're much higher up than you expect so the ground below looks really, really far way...like you're not closing up on it at all. In short, it feels AMAZING. Roller coasters are scarier and more thrilling.
23) People who always say they are great at something are usually not that great, and people who say they aren't or don't brag much are usually amazing.
They say empty cans make the loudest noise. Or according to my BM primary teacher, "Bottles that are half-full make more sounds than a full or empty one." That is, those who know nothing and those who know a lot usually keep it to themselves. The ones who are half-a**ed talk about themselves non-stop. Which I find to be a more accurate depiction. Asians are taught to be humble, but here in the States we are taught to boast and promote ourselves. So perhaps it's just a cultural thing?
24) Changing your perspective is more powerful than changing many small things in life.
I actually started out writing a woeful post about how I feel melancholy about turning 24. About feeling I haven't achieved much and wanted to reflect on why I haven't done much. And then halfway through the post, I deleted everything and decided to take on a positive perspective, and to stop being a negative Nancy. This is the result. I am actually feeling very happy with myself and am very grateful for all the experiences I've had along the way of turning 24. Man, I've learned a lot! Even though some may seem like setbacks at the time. I can even use some of these as advice for others! I didn't even do anything differently besides choosing to think positive thoughts, and now I feel like I've done so much with my life.
Anyway, that took WAAAAAY longer than I thought it would. A total of 3+ hours. Was it time worth spending? I suppose so. =) Reflecting on good things is always good. Here's to another year of life and leaning on God!
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