Youthful Life: X

"I'm an off-the-charts introvert. To me, being around groups of strangers is exhausting. I've had to sort of train myself to think about two tactics: finding common ground  and invoking humor." Sam Yagan There are times where I love being me - which more and more is my mode of operation, and for that unabashed self-love I am grateful - and there are times where I wish I could take on the qualities of others around me. Being social is one of those situations. From the outside people read me as comfortable, charismatic, and confident. I tell a lot of jokes, can light up a room, and connect with just about anyone, but what people don't see is how anxious, afraid, and awkward I am, or at least how I feel. I use humor as a defense mechanism, focus on other people to avoid talking about myself, and, worry constantly about whether or not people like me. I have spent so much of my life living in fear of not being liked, namely because of internalized racism and th...

Truth - There's no way that you can ever fully be prepared for the real world. We live in bits and pieces of it as we move through life. No one actually gets to experience it in its entirety. The little sliver though that we do get to live through is more than enough. Each day we enter and exit different parts of the microcosms that make up their terrifyingly beautiful world. It's a great big world out there. It asks us to figure it out but never stays the same. You know those nights that people talk about having hit the bottle a little too hard, that's how life can be sometimes; stumbling through the dark, slightly intoxicated. This is sobering up.  " The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love" William Sloane Coffin Jr. To be quite honest, I don't quite comprehend how people make friends outside of college. It's now that I'm out of my little universe(ity) that I realize how facilitated the experienc...

The 20s are all about redefining your comfort zone. Everyone has those places and situations that knock you right on out of your safety net. You're nervous, anxious, and sometimes even a little (or a lot) scared. It's normal but it doesn't make it any less daunting. We face brand new things daily and immediately it becomes clear whether we're up for it or not. Knowing and understanding your discomfort are the keys to overcoming it. We're headed into uncharted territories. This is the final frontier.    "As you move outside of your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal" Robin S. Sharma Growing up is both exciting and scary at the same damn time. I like the adventure that it brings but the uncertainty I could probably do without. I can admit that I've spent the majority of my life trying to be in control of everything that happens around and/or to me. In a world where young people often have relatively lit...

The 20s are all about entering into a time in your life. Many a high school facebook friend has been unfriended throughout my college years but there are still a few hundred that I keep just to creep on and their lives are more interesting than I ever could have imagined. That's the twenties for ya. You never know what way your life will go. Some people are doing career-starting internships, some of pursuing education, some are dating, some are getting married, some are having kids, and some are exactly where I last saw them. The spectrum of what people are doing is almost unfathomable. For some it seems the party never started (*cough me cough ) and for others the party never stopped. Either way, there's this little thing I like to call a contact hangover, and I'm feeling it. Marriage . Pause, and just reflect on that really quick. That's a big freaking deal. Two people are becoming one so long as they live, till death do they part, forever and ever, and ever. I don...

The 20s are all about forging your own identity. Where else in life do you get to decide most of who you are? The details of your life and the back story that you share is all up to you. Give as much or as little detail as you would like. Who you are is up to you (to a certain extent). It's like being a superspy. Live under an alias, make up your cover, and have a fool proof alibi then do the dirty work. Disable the cameras, take down the guards and pilfer the prize like a pro, this is going incognito.  One of many irrational childhood dreams consisted of me becoming a spy. Reading the Alex Rider  series particularly as a teenager had me feeling like I could actually do school and kick ass under a different name on the side, cause you know casual right. I have always loved the Jamed Bond film series and pride myself on having seen every single one of them. Even the Bourne Legacy  and all the Mission: Impossible  movies (aka Tom Cruise doing what he does best, ...