10 Things About Me

For this year, one of my goals, in terms of blog content, was to post a bit more personal blog posts so that you can get to know me more. I wasn't sure how I was going to go about doing that, but I realized I wanted to keep it simple. Which brings us to why I'm writing this post. What's a better way to know someone than by talking about a few things about them? So here goes 10 things about me...

1. I love to read and listen to a lot of books - My favorite thing to do when I'm free is read lots of books. I read a total of 70 books for 2016. I also like listening to audiobooks via Audible! I tend to keep track of my listening stats as well! So, yes, reading and listening to books is my favorite past-time. For me, it's the best way to go on an adventure and travel to different worlds. It also makes me feel like I've lived a thousand lives. 
2. I am addicted to using planners - I love planners and everything that helps me set goals and manage my time. As some of you may already know, I'm a full-time student, part-time MAC artist, freelance makeup artist and also handling this blog. I got a lot of hustling to do and I like it when planners help me maximize my time and help me be more productive. 
3. I am also addicted to coffee especially Starbucks - There is one non-negotiable thing that I have to have everyday, and that is my coffee. I am a cheery morning person, but my daily dose of caffeine just makes my day so much better and really gives it a good kickstart. You can usually tell when I have not had my coffee yet because I tend to be a little sullen as the day goes on. 
4. My ideal relax time is reading a good book by the beach on a sunny day - Every summer, on most of my days off, you will find me at the beach on Lake Michigan basking under the sun and reading a good book. The warm summer breeze, the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore, the noise of the little children playing and the occasional cries of the birds flying around is the perfect relaxing environment to me. 
5. I am into luxury items especially handbags, shoes and other accesories - There is one vice I have aside from buying lots and lots of makeup, and that will be my love for luxury handbags, shoes and other accessories.  While I am not  designer snob, I have a deep appreciation for well-crafted items that lasts a long time. I like to wear my things a lot, and so I need something that will last through possible long-term everyday use. I understand the value of quality over quantity, and for me it is not the designer but rather the quality of the designer's products that maters most. 
6. I love yoga - If there is one type workout I've completely stuck with for a long time, it would be yoga. I've been doing yoga for almost 4 years now, and it is something I really stuck with, although there's been some periods where I showed up on and off. I am a member of CorePower which offers different yoga classes for different types of yoga practices. I love their yoga sculpt class which is more of an intense workout class, but I also love their traditional yoga classes, like Hot Power Fusion and CorePower 2. I've tried going to other yoga studios, but find that I really prefer the classes that CorePower offers. 
7. I can also cook and bake pretty well - I've always been into cooking and baking. I like trying out different food recipes and making the newest dessert trend. I used to do it more often when as a sort of stress-reliever, however because of my busy schedule now, I don't get to do it as often as I want to. 
8. I've always struggled with my weight since I was young - I don't really ever recall a time when people didn't openly criticize/talk about my body weight. I never really had a typical skinny Asian body as a kid, and so I was always a little chubby and many people made sure to point that out to me. You can imagine the negative effects this has done to my body-image and self-confidence. As I grew older, I had a somewhat destructive relationship with my body, but I learned to fake confidence and self-assurance well on the outside because I was able to leverage on my other strengths that went beyond my physical features. Also, if I did not project that confidence, people could be quite mean and chew me up if I give them an in for any digs that they may give me because of my weight. In the past year, I've been slowly building a healthier relationship with my body, in terms of health and fitness. I'm still on that journey and I'm hoping to reach that healthy point of being happy with my body and size. 
9. I'm quite goal-oriented - This may be obvious to some of you, but yes, I am quite goal-oriented and driven. I like the idea of working on/chasing a specific goal and achieving it. I like my to do checklists and I like breaking down major goals to actionable items. When i set my mind to accomplish something, I tend to get accomplish it. 
10. I like being busy - Because of all the activities and jobs I'm trying to handle, I am quite used to a very packed schedule. If anything, I freak out a little bit if my schedule is wide open. I tend to have this compulsive need to fill up my schedule when that happens, and viola, my schedule is packed again! As I child, my parents had always tried to encourage all of my siblings and I to attend multiple school activities and clubs, and that's just something we got used to. I remember as I child, my mom made sure I was part of dance presentations, school contests,  and special development clubs; I had ballet and piano on Saturdays, and singing lessons on Sundays. 

Whew! That was quite a bit of details about my life. I hope this post helped you get to know me better. Let me know below if we have any similarities, I'm curious to know!