Do Something Different #5: Go on a date with a girlfriend.

The weather yesterday was amazing! My friend and I went on a nice walk in Central Park, eating frozen yogurt, catching up on life and all that jazz.  We spontaneously decided to watch a movie and hopped over to 84th and Broadway to watch Think Like A Man. It was a HILARIOUS MOVIE! It's so funny because I'd seen ads all over the subway for this movie last month. Whenever I saw the movie poster, I secretly made fun of it--Think like a man? Really? What's the point? But on a whim, we watched it last night and it was great! We were eating honey roasted peanuts and chocolate covered raisins, (which by the way, is a delicious combination) and laughing our asses off! And we definitely went gaga over the main male lead (Michael Ealy) who is very good looking with his dark complexion and blue eyes!

It was just really nice to spend some quality time with a good friend. It was a nice treat for ourselves and of course, get to know one another better! I learned two things about my friend Daniela, a) she LOVES action-thriller movies and b) she's one of the very few girls I know that LOVES Star Wars! Very good things to know when her birthday comes around...next March! (*I'm making a mental note to remember this!)

Do Something Different #4: Donate $ to a Starving Musician

As I was leaving the subway car this morning, a man taps my shoulder and asks if I had dropped a dollar on the seat I'd been sitting in. I automatically responded "yeah! Thank you so much!" and rushed out before the doors closed. And then I thought about, and realized it wasn't mine. I'd felt guilty for taking it--but really, I had no idea and it was kind of like, well somebody is handing a $1 to you and you have to get off the train so just take it! I left the dollar in my jacket pocket and thought to myself, I must give this to somebody else who would really need that dollar. I went about my day, completely forgetting about this dollar. With the whole DSD (do something different) mission on my mind, I saw plenty of opportunities today where I could have done something I would not have otherwise done, such as...

1) FREE ADVICE GUYS: I was walking by Astor Place and there were two guys, sitting by the curb with a sign that said "FREE ADVICE". And one guy was engaged in a conversation with a girl...and the other guy was just sitting there staring off. I wanted to take him up on his offer...ask him about life, love, career--anything! But it was one of those moments where I couldn't think of a question fast enough and by the time I reached them, the light was green and I just crossed the street. Guess it wasn't meant to happen. It reminded me of last summer when Lauren, Matt, Steven and I were in Union Sq and there was a FREE ADVICE Guru. We actually asked him questions and he was really nice and listened to our problems.

2) GYM GUY: ohhh man. Back when I was working out every other day, I had the biggest crush on this guy who I call my 'gym crush'. He's probably the "beefiest" guy I've ever liked. He motivates me to work out harder! His arms are the size of my thighs and 10 times more muscular. Anyway, it's been forever since I've seen him (because it's been a while since I've been to my gym!) and so when I saw him today--I did a double take and remembered that I had a crush on him! He was wearing a CORNELL t-shirt, which I hate to admit, it made him 15% hotter. jk, but he's good looking and smart! Anyway, I wanted to smile--do something to catch his attention...but I am the biggest wimp when it comes to things like this. So I chickened out...oops!

And finally, my DSD of the day: as I was pulling out my metrocard from my jacket pocket, I felt the dollar bill and actually thought to myself "yes! It's not too late!! there must be somebody who I can give this dollar to in Union Sq!" And long behold, as I arrived at my platform, there was a skinny white guy playing a guitar. He was off key and singing, "I'm so hungry...anything helps from soy beans to cornflakes..." and I thought, "That's my guy!" I went up and dropped the dollar bill into his guitar case. I hope it serves him well!

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What'd you do today?

Do Something Different

Do Something Different is my commitment to living a more diverse and fun-filled life. I'm embracing and even igniting the spontaneity within me. Every day, I will do something that I'm not used to doing in my routine. I believe it's very easy to settle down and get comfortable with the life you have. Being complacent is easy. Adapting to change and dealing with new situations is much more difficult. It sparks growth and pushes you out of your boundaries. I'm looking for new challenges while juggling my old challenges--that's what life is: balancing the new with the old. Who knows, in the way of fulfilling this mission, I might even learn a thing or two about myself.

So I've been doing this for three day now!

DSD #1 (Sunday): I played the guitar, or rather, I just fiddled around with it for about half an hour. I wish I'd dedicated more time to learning how to play this instrument in college.

DSD #2 (Monday): I had a conversation with a stranger on the subway ride home. People love to talk about themselves and sometimes, they just want to talk. And I love to listen so I listened to this man talk about his life for 20 minutes. That's all it takes, 20 minutes. I never got his name but I hope one day our paths will cross again.

DSD #3 (Today): I'm going to a spontaneous concert with a friend! Mike Snow @ Terminal 5! I don't know this band but I've been enjoying their music all day!

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What's your DSD?

Caine's Arcade

I somehow found an article about Caine's Arcade today and watched the inspirational short film about this 9 year old's cardbox arcade business. His story was so touching and I just had to write about it. I wish I were in LA right now so I could meet the boy of the hour!


Caine, a creative boy with an entrepreneurial spirit created a whole arcade in his dad's auto shop in East LA. This is not your typical arcade, this is a cardbox arcade filled with new games invented and built by the 9 year old himself. He has found innovative ways to cut costs by assembling his own contraptions. The first game was a basketball game with a little plastic hoop taped to a cardboard box. He also made a soccer game with two plastic green army figures acting as fixed goalies. And my favorite game, out of a piece of yarn and an s-hook, he created a claw machine contraption. Genius. 

The best thing about Caine's Arcade is how energetic Caine is as a business owner. He is serious and not afraid to work hard. When you win a game, Caine will personally climb into the backend and push the winning tickets out of a slot for you to stimulate a real arcade experience. 

I couldn't help but be inspired by his resilience, problem-solving skills and ingenuity. At the age of 9, I was simply reading Goosebumps and making clothes for my Barbie. I would earn 50 cents if I washed dishes after the family dinner...and that's about it. Caine's hard work created this big break. His very first customer was so impressed that he planned this flashmob customer base and produced this short film. And now Caine's Arcade is the hottest thing in town.


Good luck to you Caine and keep up that entrepreneurial spirit!

you are one serious hot shot, you better believe it!

If you can't take yourself seriously, nobody else will be able to. Seriously!

Yes, I know how ridiculously silly I am in my own head. I have all these random ideas and crazy entrepreneurial ventures and ambitions I hope to one day pursue. Then the negative voice creeps up behind my shoulder and whispers in my ear, "do you think you can actually pull that off?" And then the voice gets louder, "you don't even have a strong skill set! who are you kidding?" It's a hard voice to shake off. But there comes a point where if you don't take yourself seriously and ward off that negative voice, it becomes detrimental to your self-worth and possibly seep over to your career life. It hinders you from moving forward because you are trapped in a cycle of self-doubt and insecurity about your abilities.

Sometimes, I have a hard time believing that I am 22, graduated from college and working at a real job. It's one of those realities that I struggle to come to terms with because I simply feel unprepared to be "an adult in the real world". The transition from student to adult is a hard mentality to adapt. (not that you're not an adult in college...but an adult in the sense that you're no longer in school and can take more responsibility.) It brings up a lot of insecurities because for the first time, it really is up to you. You are creating your future in the present. And you have to take responsibility for how you spend your time. By next month, it would have been a year since I've graduated from college. One year. Already?!! I feel like I've done so much and nothing at all. After one year of cycling in and out of the "twentysomething depression", I've learned that the best way to deal with it is to take action. The "twentysomething depression" is the state of confusion about what you want to do with your life and this confusion causes you to question everything. I mean everything. And then you question your questions. It also includes a period of self-reflection and some people even exhibit anti-social behaviors due to the fact that they may not be doing anything with their lives. And that's hard to admit.

Talking to friends, doing activities, working a part-time job, meeting new people and journaling have all been very helpful in my transitional year. The hardest element of being in this "twentysomething depression" is the cycle of negative thoughts and not being able to take yourself seriously (in other words, conceptualizing your potential).

As cheesy as this may sound, you really have to work at keeping a positive mentality. For me, repeating phrases in my head are helpful in feeling empowered.

"Believe in yourself, Christina."
"Christina, if you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place."

and yes, if I'm feeling particularly feisty, I even say:

"you are one serious hot shot--you better believe it!"

It's pretty much like a pep talk to yourself. Saying your name to yourself is a pretty powerful mental tool because it sets a serious tone and it feels like somebody else is keeping you in check, when it's actually just your own voice.

So, I'm learning each and every day to not let negativity discourage me from achieving my goals.

Just take it one day at a time and a couple months from now, observe the thought pattern and you'll find that your resilience towards the negativity has tremendously improved.

living in the present

hellooo--I'm back from my little vacation to Tucson, Arizona to visit my best friend. I was there for two weeks and I've been back for almost 2 weeks now...time passes by so quickly! It feels like yesterday when I was there! We went to the Grand Canyon, hiked this trail near Sabino Canyon called Seven Falls...I went to A Mountain and saw a beautiful view of Tucson at night. We went to a 20 acre ranch south of Tucson with horses and lots of dogs. In other words, my time in Tucson was jam packed--full of activities, meeting new people and running errands. It was a busy that I was not used to. And it was this kind of busy that I came to understand my friend's life in a different light. It was so great being in a different environment and learning about a different lifestyle that is not as fast-paced as New York's.

Did you know it takes about 75 years for a cactus to grow an arm?? Fun fact I learned from Sam, one of Sophie's friends! 

One lesson, out of the many, I learned during my time there was how to live presently. Sophie's mom gave me a piece of advice that really helped me see my life from a different perspective. She said, "If you want a good look at how your future will be, look in the present because it is the most accurate indicator of how your life will turn out. That's why living in the present is so important." Her words lingered in my head during my whole trip back to NY. Living in the present is one of the biggest challenges that I have. I find myself perpetually living for the future. For example, when I'm at work, I think, "can't wait till work is over...then I'll go to the gym" --> when I'm at the gym --> "can't wait till this workout is over...I'm starving! I just want to eat" and so forth. And that's only the day-to-day routine. Every day, I dream of other possibilities about how my future will look like because I am not appreciative of my present. Living in the present means being aware of your body, your surroundings, your breath, and your feelings at the very moment. Living in the present purposefully is something I must remember to do each and every day. Every decision I make on how I'd like to spend my day contributes to my future. Even small decisions as in choosing what to eat, where to buy my clothes or how to spend my "extra" money. These are every day habits that I've created for myself and these habits will bleed into the future me. If I don't do anything differently today, how do I expect the future to be any better? 

All this is much easier said than done. There are 168 hours a week. That's a lot of time to fill with activities I want to do in the city, friends whom I love to spend time with, spending time with my family, meeting new people, studying, reading for pleasure...and the list can go on and on. The most important thing is that I want to lead a more active life and get out of this routine work rut. My present is not satisfying because all my past habits have fostered this mundane climate in my life. Practicing live in the present and planning activities to ensure that I break old homebody habits will be two tough challenges. But I am so ready for a new lifestyle so let's make it happen!