Cool story, bro. Tell it again.

It’s true, I’m supernaturally regenerated.

I know a lot of you are quite puzzled, wondering, “Are you back in Houston (permanently)? What happened to Paris?! She was only there for two months!” So rather than repeat the reasons why a million times, I’ll attempt to delineate them here. I know I…

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Je t’aime.

(via uhsnob)

My friend recently posted, and I quote: “These engagement/marriage notices in the corner of my newsfeed are making it increasingly difficult to rationalize my dreams of prolonged bachelorhood.”

I replied: “They’re not deterring my plans in the slightest! Marriage in five years, kids in seven. Sounds great!” For me, there are SO many things I want to do before I ‘settle down’.

I have to admit, being ‘LinkedIn’ makes me feel like a bit of a failure. People have these great careers as ‘Senior Analysts’ having moved up in their companies. Others have already / are in / are going back to grad school, med school, law school etc. 

Me? I’m taking a breather. I went big, then I went home, so to speak. I’ve been on over drive since I before I can remember, probably since I was 14. I don’t regret the life I’ve lived nor the things I’ve done, experiences I’ve had, or people I’ve met. I’ve been extremely lucky / blessed. 

But I think it’s time to slow down. It’s time tune out all the hustle and bustle of external expectations and listen to what my heart wants to do. I need to do what I want to do, not what my parents want me to do, not what my friends think I should do, not what society expects me to do. I need to do what will make me happy.

I heard a speech a while back where the speaker cautioned its listeners to take their time in selecting a path for their lives. He likened their livelihood to a ladder leaning on a wall - a metaphor for whatever is important. What if all these years you’ve been scurrying up the ladder to make it to the top, only to find at the end of the day, the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall?? Then what???

My friend brought up a good point, one that I had already been thinking about: experience / degrees has/have a shelf-life, meaning it will be difficult to find a job if I’m not keeping my resume current with professional experience. And I very much understand that lack of professional experience could adversely affect my ‘career’ in the future; however, I’m not willing to avoid risk or be pressured by external factors for the sake of padding my resume if those jobs won’t make me happy. Sometimes you’ve just got to do what you want to do and trust that everything will work out.

——-

Ideally, I’d want to work in my current job until December and save a lot of money, then move to Paris for a year and a half to learn French while simultaneously saving more money (and cooking). By the time I’m 27, I’d have a good amount of money saved, know another language, and be in the position to start a business. (IMHO, I’d also have all the skills necessary to start and maintain a family.)

Hopefully my business will be successful, and then when I’m more financially stable, I’ll be in a position to start settling down: buying a dog, meeting someone new or reconnecting with an old friend, getting engaged / married, and starting a family.

As far as what I want for a job: I want to love what I do; I want to be my own boss; I want to make all the decisions; I want to set my own schedule; I want to help other people and make a difference; I want to be able to travel for a couple of weeks during the summer; and oh, I want to wear jeans to work. 

With my current idea — my three BHP friends have given me their approval - they think it’s a very good idea with a lot of potential! — what I want in a job is completely possible. Of course I know that starting a business will require A LOT of blood, sweat, and tears. But I’ve got about 2-3 years to generate ideas, plan, develop materials etc. 

I’m very hopeful for the future… :)

Lew

I know, I know… it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. But I’m going to pick up from where I left off as if no time has elapsed. Cool? Cool.

My free time has given me the opportunity to think about what I want for my life. If you’ll remember my previous blog entries about my first two (of three) goals:

Goal #1: Speak (at least) three languages fluently: English, Spanish, French.

Right now, I’m working on making #1 happen. I’m in process of finding a job abroad, specifically in Paris. Yes, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Moulin Rouge PARIS! I’ve already applied, and I’m waiting for their response. And, I bought a discount subscription for a livemocha.com account, so I’ll probably use it to practice Spanish via skype.

Goal #2: Learn to sew / tailor well = start a fashion company.

I’ve been working on clothing brand names along with logos, but I’m still in the very pre pre preliminary stages now. Ultimately, I’ve put Goal #2 on hold because I know that once I start a company, it’ll be like my baby, and I’ll be solely responsible for growing it. Thus, sequentially, Goal #2 will be a work in progress, and its fruition will be attained at a later date. For now, I’ll be thinking up ideas, drafting designs?, getting inspiration etc. 

Goal #3: And now… lets hear a drumroll, please… it’s probably something you never thought I’d ever say… Goal #3: Cook (well) so I can feed myself / a family.

———-

Last August, during my three-month Europe / East Coast adventure, I visited my friend in his hometown on the Eastern border of Switzerland. My friend’s dad, being ever so hospitable, always asked what and when we wanted to eat etc. He asked me if I wanted to help cook, and I told him I don’t really cook. Slightly disapprovingly, my friend’s dad said in his German accent / broken English, “Let me get this straight, you’re so well-educated etc. but you don’t even know how to cook???” I was a little embarrassed to be honest. In my defense, and hoping for redemption, I baked my mom’s famous apple pound cake, which seemed to appease him. He couldn’t stop eating it! “Great, Lew, no longer in the negative point column!” Success. Ha!

But deja vu… 

Shortly after Switzerland, I met up with my good Norwegian guy friend from study abroad in Paris back in 2008. He flew from Oslo to meet me in Denmark to hang out and sightsee. In one of our many conversations, we started talking about food and cooking. I mentioned that I didn’t really cook, and he asked me incredulously, “Lew, how are you going to get a guy if you don’t know how to cook??!?!” We both laughed pretty hysterically, but what he said, coming from a guy and a good guy friend at that, made me stop and think back to the previous conversation I had in Switzerland. 

Those two questions played over and over again in my head throughout the trip.

When I returned home at the beginning of October, I questioned myself, “How did I make it 25 years, and I barely (*know* how to) cook??” I found myself at a crossroads with only two options: continue not knowing how to cook OR learn to cook. 

Well, my choice, the road less traveled by, was obvious: learn to cook. 

———-

My choice was pretty easy for a number of reasons:

1. I had time to learn. 2. My mom is an expert cook, so I could learn from her while I was at home. 3. I love to eat. 4. I’d save a lot of money by cooking. 5. I could control what ingredients went into my dishes. 6. Cooking (well) would give me a leg up on the competition! (Lets be honest, the way to a guy’s heart is largely in part through his stomach!) 7. It’s a necessary life skill not only for myself but for my future family.

Here’s some background on my experience with food.

I grew up in a house full of good food. My mom cooked every night, and she catered to, and still does, to our preferences. (I used to be a super picky eater when I was a kid. I don’t know how my parents put up with me!) My mom can cook anything, and when she creates her own recipes, none of her dishes ever taste bad. If fact, they taste good. I also went to a private high school, which had gourmet food. And, in college, I ate out a lot - I was a bit snobby, and still am, about the food I put in my mouth. To borrow a line from the Ratatouille food critic: “I don’t like food. I love food, and if I don’t love it, I don’t swallow.” LOL. Ultimately, the accumulation of numerous good food experiences has shaped my perception of what food should taste like and what it represents in my life.

First, I think the majority of food that we consume should generally be nutritious and delicious. Secondly, I think food is extremely important because of what it allows we, as human beings, to do. Not only does it give us sustenance to live, but it brings us together as people - to bond and share life experiences.

I attribute the breakdown of family life and American health to a number of issues, but one cause can definitely be linked to food. It seems like in America, we’re too busy working (which is another cause in itself), and as a result, we don’t have time to sit down at the dinner table and share a family meal. We lose the opportunity to talk about our days and share our lives with each other.

Moreover, what and how you eat growing up shapes your prevailing attitude towards food and affects your future family. If you don’t think food is more than energy to fuel your needs so you can continue to work, that’s how you’ll treat it. You’ll eat (unhealthy) on the go, claiming that you have “no time” to sit down and enjoy life with your family. Your health will suffer etc. And well, America, one of the richest countries in the world, has so many obese citizens. But access to health care and food etc. is a completely different issue, which I won’t tackle in this post…

In my next job (fingers crossed!), I’ll be responsible for child care and cooking, which will be the final building blocks of my responsible adult persona. After I return from Paris, I will be ready, more or less, to start a family. That is, once I establish a stable career (business owner?) and have a steady income. Oh yeah, and I guess find a guy. But my cooking skills are bound to aid in that, right? ;)

At the end of the day, I do believe I can bake my cake, and eat it, too, both figuratively and literally speaking. I believe I can accomplish all three goals: fluency in three languages, starting and operating a fashion company, and cooking for and raising a BIG family in the next few to five to seven years! Bon appetit! Cheers!

Lew

Parlez-vous français? ¿Hablas español? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Você fala português?

I feel like my brain hasn’t exercised in a while. In other words, I don’t think I’ve learned any NEW information since college. While teaching is an incredibly hard task — kudos to all you wonderful career teachers who love what you do and are good at what you do! — the information I was teaching (Algebra I and II), I already learned quite well when I was in middle school and high school.

Q: When was the last time I actually absorbed any new information? A: Probably my junior year of college.

Even though I went to a great public university and completed a challenging honors program, I only did a lot of work and learned a lot of new information in two of four years. (Freshmen intro classes were easier, IMHO, than Episcopal’s honors and AP classes, and senior year of college, I studied abroad, ie, played around in Pair-reeee and traveled Europe, then returned to Austin and took two capstone classes to graduate. I finished my last college class when I turned 22. So three years later, I’m thinking: “Goodness gracious, I’m about to turn 25, and I haven’t really learned anything new!” Well, maybe a few life skills like budgeting and saving money?) Needless to say, I’m bored and restless. I’m itching to do something new, learn something new, go somewhere new…?

I’ve been MIA for two months, busy thinking about and doing things that will help me further my future goals and plans.

I’ve narrowed down my thoughts to THREE BIG GOALS (OMG, TFA lingo…) to accomplish when I’m 25.

GOAL #1: Learn French and Tagalog; Become Fluent in Spanish.

RESULT #1: Know how to speak fluently (more or less) and read / write in FOUR languages (English, Spanish, French, and Tagalog) in ONE YEAR / by the time I’m 26.

REASON(S):

1. The more languages I know in a global society, the more opportunities I will have.
2. My brain gets a mental workout; I can stretch and grow my brain.
3. I cannot be labeled another ‘dumb’ American for knowing only one language.
4. What else could I be doing weaving through traffic? Listening to Drake’s “Motto” for the billionth time??!
5. I can spend more time with my mom when she teaches me Tagalog.
6. I can converse with my friends all over the world in their native language(s).

The Approach—

French: Here’s what I wrote to my friend when he asked what I thought about this blog article:

So I finally skimmed through this article, and I have to say that right now, I am in STAUNCH disagreement with this approach to language acquisition because it is very much like how language is taught in school - rote memorization through conjugation lists and vocabulary drills etc.

I took Spanish for five years (8th grade through HS all four years up to IV AP), and I know A LOT of grammar and vocabulary, and I am finally building fluency. I’ve been to Spain and I can hold a long conversation with anyone on the street. Native Spanish speakers have told me that they have no doubt I’d be fluent if I were to spend one month in any Spanish-speaking country. “Fluency” took me FIVE years, and honestly, I think I have a knack for learning languages. (I wish I could say that same about physics, finance, and accounting!) Imagine how hard it must be for someone who struggles to learn languages like I struggle(d) in physics etc. … terrible!

A couple of weeks ago, I checked out Pimsleur’s French: The Plus Course from the Houston Public Library, which is an ALL AUDIO course. At first I was quite skeptical - there is no way I am going to learn a language by listening (and not reading or writing or learning vocabulary through flashcards…). Lo and behold, I’ve listened to two short lessons (30 min each) in the last 12 days (1-2x/day), and I already know how to say complicated things in French like, “I’m going to meet the female writer. Her name is Marin Pesac. I saw her in New York not long ago. Have you read her book? It’s fascinating, no? I read her book two times.” OR “What are you going to do this afternoon? How did the meeting go?” OR “I’m very thirsty. Would you like to drink a coffee? Would you like some milk? Sit down, I beg of you.” OR “I’ve been living in New York for eight years. I work for Books International in publishing, and BI already has acquired the author’s rights. We’d like to translate and publish the novel into English.”

How long would that take the average person to say learning the way we think is “normal” (ie the way languages are taught in school)??? If you want to get back into French, or learn another language, I highly encourage that you watch this commercial. I’m a believer! I sat in French class for one hour a week for 3.5 months while I studied abroad in Paris, and I’ve learned more in 12 days than I did there.

This famous linguist, and creator of the program, Pimsleur, strongly believes that rapid language acquisition is obtained by listening to a language in context (and interacting with the program / people by speaking). I’m checking out ALL of his French audio discs from the library (they’re on hold) then learning the spelling and grammar later (which I know will be easy for me). Wouldn’t you say the hardest thing about learning a language is to speak it? He thinks that learning to read and write while simultaneously speaking inhibits the brain to absorb the language. Watch the video. It’s amazing.

I’ve already learned Spanish the ‘textbook’ way, and while I would say I’m proficient with the language, it also took me FIVE years to reach this level. Granted, I had other classes, and I never practiced a lot until now… still, I thought to myself, “There must be a better way to learn another language.”

I tried to learn French the textbook way, too, while in Paris, but not much took root in my brain. (I spoke in English every day because the classes were in English, and my study abroad friends were Portuguese and Norwegian, and to communicate, we obviously spoke English.) French more so than Spanish is all about pronunciation - words in Spanish are pronounced the way they are written, which is not the case with French. Trying to learn French by reading words that do not sound how they are written would be tres confusing! (Tres meaning very, not three! :P)

Here’s what I do: I listen to each French lesson 1-2x (more like 2x) a day while I’m commuting to my tutoring appointments because I spend about TWO hours in traffic every day. I listen to the French lesson once on the way there, and once on the way back. With the remaining time, I turn on Spanish radio…

Spanish: I’ve noticed that ever since I’ve been listening to Spanish more, I can understand when Spanish-speakers speak even very rapidly, like in radio commercials about groceries and cars. Last week, I arrived early to my second tutoree appointment, and I met one of his relatives. She’s Mexican and speaks perfect Spanish (no slang!), and she said my Spanish was really good! We talked for 30+ minutes in Spanish, and I understood everything she said, and she understood me!

Additionally, I asked my Mexican friend if he wouldn’t mind practicing speaking with me every day for 30 minutes to an hour. He agreed, and I think it has helped A LOT. I feel a lot more confident when speaking. The key to fluency is practicing EVERY DAY. We talk organically about our days and basketball, then take a word that comes up in conversation and go over all the different ways you can use it. I’m also reading and writing in Spanish for maybe an hour in total per day as well.

Tagalog: It’s such a shame that I don’t already know this language, since my mom speaks, reads, and writes her language fluently. If I’m going to be in Houston for at least another year saving money for graduate school or starting my own business, I think I should pick up yet another language. As described above, (rapid) language acquisition is about listening and speaking, in other words, full immersion, rather than verb conjugation and extensive vocabulary lists.

Eventually, I’d also like to learn German, Portuguese, and possibly another Asian language like Chinese (most useful) or Japanese (very pretty and similar to Spanish from what I’ve heard - no pun intended!).

The Bottom Line—

Wouldn’t it be cool to know and speak seven languages fluently by the time I’m 35? TEN YEARS! It’s totally doable!

I highly encourage you to buy a $10 program or check out the language program from the public library (it’s free!). If you have any interest in learning another language or traveling to other countries, no matter what age you are, YOU CAN DO IT! And you should do it NOW! What are you waiting for? Get going…

Lew

PS — I will blog about my other TWO goals soon…!

“My heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. “It doesn’t want me to go on.”

“That makes sense,” the alchemist answered. “Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.”

“Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?”

“Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life and about the world.”

===================================================================================================

One afternoon, his heart told him that it was happy. “Even though I complain sometimes, it’s because I’m the heart of a person, and people’s hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sand. Because when these things happen, we suffer terribly.”

“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

“Every second of the search is an encounter with God,” the boy told his heart. “When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I’ve known that every hour was a part of the dream that I would find it. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I’ve discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve.”

So his heart was quiet for an entire afternoon. That night, the boy slept deeply, and, when he awoke, his heart began to tell him things that came from the Soul of the World. It said that all people who are happy have God within them. … “Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him,” his heart said.

“We, people’s hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them—the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place. So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.”

“Why don’t people’s hearts tell them to continue to follow their dreams?” the boy asked the alchemist.

“Because that’s what makes a heart suffer most, and hearts don’t like to suffer.”

From then on, the boy understood his heart. He asked it, please, never to stop speaking to him. He asked that, when he wandered far from his dreams, his heart press him and sound the alarm. The boy swore that, every time he heard the alarm, he would heed its message.

— The Alchemist, Paul Coelho

Lew: Role Model, Inspiration, Big Sister.

carlimei:

http://clewlessme.tumblr.com/

She taught me a lot. I mean, other than math (she was my Algebra 2 teacher my sophomore year at Kapolei High) haha. Check out her blog. She has a good head on her shoulders. She’s been all over the world. She graduated from UT (she was in their Business Honors Program, one of the top in the country). She taught math in Hawaii for two years. And now she’s going to FiDM to pursue a career in fashion! (Did I mention that’s where Lauren Conrad went? Yeah!)

Anyway, I could go on about her for a while. But she’s amazing! Check out her blog! You’ll learn a thing or two, trust me…

(I mean, after all, she was a teacher haha!)

This made my day! :) Of note: I’m not actually much bigger than Carli - I am the ‘big sister’ that stands maybe TWO inches taller than her, lololol! (What… we’re Asian! And a lot of people in Hawai’i are short, for obvious reasons!)

(via castawayy-deactivated20120705)

Upon leaving Hawai’i in June 2011, my yoga instructor asked me to make three lists. The first list of what I want in a man; the second list of what I want out of (my) life; and the third list of what I want to learn.

As I reflected on my past and pondered about my future, I finally completed my lists and proudly emailed her my PDF document: List #1: <50 items; List #2: 20 items; List #3: 15 items. This was her response to me:

“Well, I must admit you did way better with that than anyone before. It appears that you have things well thought out. Personally I believe that all that you asked for was reasonable or shall we say fair, but since when has love and life been fair? Now print them and keep them with you… and for the sake of the process shorten your man list to 25!”

Your protest to me (besides the obvious ‘Your man list consists of 40+ items?!’):

“Lew, I don’t know about all this list-making. That may work for you, but it doesn’t work for me. I’m not a planner, never have been, never will be.” Okay, that’s fine, I get it. I understand not everyone is a super detail-oriented, planner/lister, control freak, crazy person like me.

But here’s why knowing what you want is extremely important: Having a clear vision for your life points you in the right direction.

• If you don’t know what you want, how do you know where you’re going?
• If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know what steps to take to get to wherever it is you’re supposed to be going?

If you don’t know what you want, the result is wandering around in life aimlessly and listlessly (no pun intended, well maybe slight pun intended… LOL) and existing without purpose.

Which then warrants this…

That was my daily expression to my former students after they strolled in late or their pants sagged below their butts or they ‘forgot’ to do their homework or attempted to hook me up with their fathers, siblings, and/or cousins. (True story.)

———-

My point: KNOWING WHAT YOU WANT PUTS YOU ON THE RIGHT TRACK TO GET WHAT YOU WANT.

Here are a few personal examples from my life (as well as some from my friends’ lives):

In high school I knew I wanted to get into the best college / program possible. Senior year, I took 6 AP classes, held leadership positions in various clubs, and worked on my art portfolio in my spare time, sacrificing my HS experience for the promise of a better future. I finished at the top of my class, and I got into UT Austin’s business school.

No surprise, I wanted more - I needed to get into the Business Honors Program. Why? Because BHP students get offered the best positions from recruiters upon graduation. (And because the Business Honors Program is ‘exclusive. And fun. And leads to a better life’.) The only problem was that transferring into the BHP was extremely difficult. In 2005, the year prior to me applying as a sophomore admit, only 1 out of every 4 to 5 students was accepted out of a very competitive applicant pool. The average admitted GPA was above a 3.9, which meant that you could only get one B your freshman year.

As the second semester of my freshman year rolled around, I knew I had already made a B in a meaningless (fake) biology class (the difference between my A and B was ONE test question!), so I couldn’t afford another B on my record. Yet I was dangerously close to getting a B in math (which I ironically taught for two years). But the questions were tricky, and I needed a perfect 100 on my final exam to get an A in the class and a 4.0 for the semester.

What did I do? I decided to somehow make the impossible possible. (If Ethan Hunt could, why couldn’t I? I should send him my contact information - maybe the IMF will recruit me.) Here’s what I did (rocket science, I know):

• I sat in the front.
• I went to every single lecture.
• I answered all the questions in class (despite my classmates’ annoyance).
• I did all the homework problems.
• I asked classmates for help (…well, the ones who didn’t hate me).
• I went to office hours to verify all the answers and made it known to the professor that I needed an A in her class to get into the Business Honors Program.
• I also told my academic adviser about my huge interest to get into the Business Honors Program. (Little did I know that he told my former BHP adviser about me.)

I remember several weekend nights, while everyone was partying, I holed myself up in the business school study rooms (like a loser) redoing every. damn. question. In the end, my determination and hard work paid off. I got exactly what I needed on the exam to get an A in the class. I got a 4.0 for the semester and finished with a magical 3.9+ for the year.

Oh, and I got into the Business Honors Program.

So what’s the point of this story? Knowing what you want directs your actions; therefore, you will take all the necessary steps to be where you want to be or go where you want to go. But the first steps are knowing what you want and knowing why what you want is important to you.

———-

But enough about me - meet a few of my friends! (They’re real people, just like you! They’re pretty awesome-tastic, too!)

I met one of my best guy friends while we were both Resident Assistants in college. He had always wandered around with no real direction or ambition. After college, however, he finally figured out what he wanted to do with his life. He wants to hold a political office one day. Thus, he joined the military to gain invaluable experience and network with colleagues, and he’s going to use his educational award to attend law school, both of which will give him the perfect background for political office to institute change in public policy.

I have a good girl friend with whom I studied abroad and traveled around Europe with, who got promoted a year early at a big four accounting firm because, of course, she’s a baller - duh! She’s always had a passion for traveling, meeting people, and experiencing new things. By the time she’s 30, she wants to live and work in Australia for a few years. She has been offered a job in London, but she turned it down, and is waiting for an opportunity to go to Sydney. In the meantime, she’s ‘kicking ass and taking names.’ (And dreaming about a hot Australian surfer…)

One of my good guy friends is aspiring to be the best father he can be, doing all of the opposite things he saw growing up as a child. He makes all of his decisions based on his goal. If it helps him further his goal he does it, and if it doesn’t, he doesn’t do it. Because he also wants a great family, he’s also extremely selective about the girl(s) he dates. (Yes, ladies, he’s single. But I warn you, his list is almost as extensive as mine!)

Another one of my good girl friends knew that she wanted to help the less privileged ‘on the front line,’ so to speak. She spent a year doing Americorps’ Habitat For Humanity - what she would describe as ‘character building’ - and from that experience, landed her dream job at TOMS Shoes. She deals with NGOs and travels to South America, Asia, and Africa on a regular basis helping put shoes on children who would have gotten sick without them.

My cutie wanted to buy / own property sometime in his mid-20s. Growing up, his mother was never able to afford a house for him and his brother. He told me a couple of weeks ago that he bought a condo, and he’s now renovating it. (Apparently toilets are ludicrously expensive!)

My last example is of my dear high school friend. She always knew she wanted to go to medical school, but along the way, she experienced setbacks. She decided to go to grad school and work at a children’s summer program to add more experience to her resume. Even though she started a few years later than originally planned, she’s now in medical school with a scholarship. Now she can continue to help people (and hopefully deliver my baby when the time comes)!

———-

Just about everything you do should be to accomplish some greater goal, so that you don’t drift through life existing instead of really living out your dreams.

Knowing what you want helps you focus on where to go and how to get there.

Spend some time thinking about what you really want and why it’s important because in my next post, I’ll show you how to get what you want* through effective goal-setting.

Lew

*Next up: filling that empty space with HOW to get what you want once you KNOW.