When does a ‘first love’ begin?

“When was your first love?”

You get this question once in a while as long as you are a social human being. I got into this topic recently with a friend of mine and it struck me; what really is a ‘first love’?

Ever since you were born you had emotions. Emotions can differ in various categories such as joy, interest, anger, distress, disgust, and et cetera. What about love? Is that an emotion? Or is that a whole other concept?

Before we get into the topic of first loves, I want to set a clear ground on the concept of love itself. I recognise the fact that I am not a ‘love expert’- theoretically and literally – but I can definitely express my opinion on the concept itself. I believe that love is definitely an emotion. But I also believe that it is so much more complex than just an emotion. Just like how an emotion is different from a feeling or a sense. A feeling or a sense, in my definition, is a bodily feeling; a physical reaction. For me an emotion is something that derives from within – something that derives from your heart. And that is what I believe, leads to love. Hence, it just makes me conclude that love is something along the lines of an emotion.

Now we have drawn a line to what love really is: a derivation from emotion yet more than the concept. Please do note that this my opinion only and I am only entitled to this opinion by my thoughts from my head. Then, we should answer the ultimate question: what is the standard of a ‘first love’?

The answer is so cliché but I must advocate the truth: the standard doesn’t exist. (This somehow reminds me of when Lindsay Lohan said: “The limit does not exist!” in Mean Girls) As complex love is on its own, for myself or for actually, anyone to draw a line when it first begins is nonsense.

Now, I know this topic has been leading up this. When was my first love?

I don’t quite remember when my first love was. I just know for a fact that I have loved someone during the past years that I have lived in this world. And I don’t believe first love should just be between your significant other. You can really love your parents and that could be your first love; you can genuinely adore a true friend and that could be your beginning. Who knows? But I will tell you what I remember so far. And I won’t talk about my parents because, honestly, how boring would that be?

I think it was back when I was in elementary school. I was in second grade and I was a tiny, shy little kid. I am still a shy kid; the only difference is that I am a lot bigger than I was back then. I was in division 5 and he was in my class. I am not really sure what he exactly looked like but I remember he had chocolate-brown hair and matching eyes. He wore rimmed glasses, I believe. It was a rarity to see a second grader wearing glasses but I think he liked to read a lot, which explains the glasses. I wore glasses too. I totally thought we were soulmates just because of that, being naïve.

I imagined a lot about him before I went to bed. Nothing dirty, mind you, I was in second grade. I imagined just trivial things about him. I wanted to know what he talked about with his friends, what kind of books he read, and just every little bits and pieces that I could manage to scrap up in my 9-year-old brain. It was cute, thinking back to it. And I wish it could have just stayed that way forever. Resting in my mind as a beautiful memory and something to look back upon years later – just like I am doing right now.

But something happened. My best friend at the time, obviously knew about my little crush on him. I actually liked him for 2 consecutive years and we always seemed to end up in the same class. I really thought this was like a meant-to-be. I honestly did. By the time I reached fourth grade, my second year of liking him from afar, I thought I had the courage to tell him. I mustered up all my strength and confessed….not to him but to my best friend.

Now you would ask, why? It was because I wanted to tell someone about this feeling I had so buried deep inside of me but I was too shy. So I decided to just kind of tell her. But this friend of mine was nice. Too nice. She decided confess to him for me. The word got out and naughty classmates – boys, actually – went around the hallway yelling at the top of their lungs. For a shy person like me, that is an absolute nightmare.

Just a few years ago, I spent a bit of time alone thinking about it and decided for myself that the feeling, the emotion I had all those years ago wasn’t love. At least, it definitely wasn’t my first love. But now I stand corrected. Whatever it was, or whatever age I was, love is still love and humans are definitely capable of loving another being even when they are still a bit young.

So, whether you are in love with the boy next door, or you are infatuated by a celebrity, and you can even just adore a really good friend; love is still love. This is what I believe in and despite all the things that people might raise about the concept of love, one thing still remains as it is.

Love is beautiful.

Do keep it when you have it and treasure it when it comes.

______________________________________________________________

P.S. I am sorry I haven’t been posting really anything on this blog lately – I’ve gone to a new school which you would know if you are one of my regular visitors – But I’ve gotten accustomed to this school and I can definitely post more now that I am better adjusted. Thank you for those who are sticking by and reading my somewhat tedious posts! Love you all! -Sally

Should a country be liberal or illiberal?

Humans are social creatures. We are affected by the environment around us and that makes it vital for the environment to be free of all negative factors of our society. Hence, men have searched in various ways to attain that state. Throughout the history of time, men have fought for dominance, fought and bled their way through torturous wars, and sought a single goal that seemed to be nonexistent; the men themselves never really knew what they were fighting for, resulting a chaos in its own form. Fortunately, in the world that we inhabit now, it is a rarity to see such wars and miserable occurrences since — as people usually remark — times have changed. We now live in a world where one individual is independent of the supreme power and has the right to speak up for oneself. Alas, there are still nations out there where people do not have the right to defend and to pronounce for themselves. I believe that everyone around the world should have that right. In order for that in the long run, a country needs to be liberal and open.

Imagine a blank piece of paper. If you look at it, it is literally nothing more than a paper. However, if you look at it closed up with a microscope, you would be able to see that each piece of paper is unique. The material, the colour, and even the texture of the pulp that the paper is made out of is different. And it is not surprising that this uniqueness is what enables us to utilise paper the way we do now. The same method applies to a nation; a society. If a country is liberal, one of the advantages that it can attain from it is that it can be full of colours. Why is this so important, you may ask. Well, a society is formed by different personalities coming together and forming a group. That way, even if the colours clash, a society has a chance to develop. On the contrary, an illiberal country would be restrained back from projecting that uniqueness to the public thus making our society bland and tasteless. For instance, look at an oppressed nation like North Korea. I remember seeing a picture on the internet where it showed a satellite photo of the country taken from space. At night, North Korea was barely visible to the naked eye if it weren’t for the Ocean surrounding the peninsula. In contrast, South Korea, a more liberal country, was full of colourful lights and flashes that simply made the country more lively and desirable. After all, it is vital for the citizens to want to live in their homeland.

In addition, try to take yourself back to when you were thirteen. Going through puberty, trying to adjust to new friends and just generally feeling that unmerited hate for your parents. Albeit knowing your parents just really care for you and they just want the best for you, you just want nothing to do with them. This is why parenting is one of the hardest yet one of the most important roles a human being can play in a play called life. During parenting, it can go in two separate ways. One being the oppressive and bossy parent that tells their children to do as they say and another being the more lenient one. Even though cases may differ, the chances are that the child that was grown with more conservative parents will grow up conservative. In even more extreme cases, the child could rebel against his or her own parents and decide to take things into one’s own hands. This case is a pain in the back for parents — imagine what it would be like if a whole nation were to be like this? The other positive side of being a liberal country is thus here: liberal countries, unlike those illiberal, have a less chance of violent and inappropriate rebellion but a smoother road to development in the long run. Despite the fact that many argue society needs these rebellions, I believe that the time, money, and peoples’ lives put into this cause is worth more and should be valued. To value these morals, shouldn’t we leave the door unlocked in the first place?

Liberal or illiberal, a country shall be a country. However, myself advocating the idea of liberalism in countries, I believe that it can bring more colour and liveliness into our society and also provide a smoother way to development without the need of peoples’ efforts wasted. Individuals form a group and groups come together as a country. If we were to restrict them by being illiberal, wouldn’t we be, in the long run, restricting ourselves?

How to do the Atkins diet as a vegan: The Eco-Atkins Diet

So even before my transition to a vegan, I was on an Atkins diet or more commonly known as the low-carb diet. I think it has worked out for me pretty well since I dropped a good amount of weight on that diet. But I think there is a limit to the Atkins diet. After about 7kg of weight loss, it just didn’t work anymore. I mean, I have been slacking off on my workouts lately but it has come to my realisation that I just needed a new kick. Make it a lifestyle and give a little boost.

This is called the “Eco-Atkins Diet.” 

Now, I was kind of conflicted with my choice to become a vegan because protein is a main component of the Atkins diet and becoming a vegan will cause me to give up a good amount of protein resources like meats, fish, seafood, egg whites, dairy, et cetera. However, I realised that I did have so many other sources of protein such as tofu (I love tofu), avocado, lentils, beans, nuts, spinach, artichoke, grains, etc. And there are so many recipes online! Taste buds are important too, you know.

The only hardship of being on a eco-Atkins diet is that you can’t have that much carbs. During my usual Atkins diet, I only had carbs via my fruits and once when I had to take my vitamins because without carbs, it hurts slightly. I think I am just going to stick to the similar portion sizes but I will definitely switch up the kinds of foods I eat.

So instead of feasting on chicken breast for my protein, I would be eating tofu with seasoned sesame leaves. But since that can be bland sometimes, I am planning to make some vegan soups and maybe have some brown rice with lentil beans in it. So far, it feels okay.

And as for cheat days, as much as I would love to be vegan 7-days a week, I do have social situations where I cannot just be that one weird person who’s like ‘I’m sorry I’m vegan.’ That’s when I have cheat days. But I try my best not to have meat and other junk foods.

And the best part about this is, even after I reach my goal weight, I can continue on this lifestyle and maintain a healthy life as well as a beautiful body. Long term goals last, you know.

P.S. For vegans, it is easier to keep off the weight and it is easier to lose weight because….I mean do you have to ask?

Good Luck!

-Sally

 

My decision to go vegan & other health decisions

So after considering for a few days, I decided to go vegan.

Now, I have done a good amount of research before I decided this so please stay with me.

If you have been following my blog for a while, you might know that I have been struggling with my weight for a long time. Recently, I have gained back several pounds because I just honestly felt so sick of doing THIS. I didn’t really want to have to refresh and go on a new start. I didn’t want to go on another fad diet. I didn’t want to make another set of rules for myself to follow.

Thus I decided to make it a lifestyle.

I know it’s super cliché – “Diet is a lifestlye” thing – but it honestly is kind of true.

I am now slowly planning out my transition. Becoming vegan is definitely not like a one-night thing where you just wake up and you’re vegan and everybody’s happy. No. I realise that it is going to take a lot of commitment and will that I am going to have to make myself come up with. For now, I am believing in myself.

I am going to slowly take this through the remaining days of October and I am planning on transitioning from a

non-restrictive diet > pescetarian > vegetarian > VEGAN.

And some other health changes, so to say, that I am planning on making in my life is about sleep and water.

Sleep.

I barely sleep.

No, to put it correctly, I don’t sleep right. I don’t exactly sleep at the correct time. I have this issue with overeating and feeling tired due to overeating and consequently falling asleep due to the post-dining haziness. This is one of the reasons I have decided to go vegan. It’s currently 3AM and I really shouldn’t be up. I didn’t exactly finish any work that I was supposed to do, missed my dentist’s appointment and made an excuse to stay home from academy.

Sounds pretty pathetic, huh? This is why from now, I will try my best not to go to sleep right after a meal because I am fully aware that it is a bad habit. I want to be able to go to sleep like a normal human being and wake up like a normal human being.

Water.

Again, I barely drink.

I have this one cup of tea-root tea that I have in the morning and I probably don’t bother drinking after that. I don’t know why. I am not exactly the busiest person on the entire planet and I certainly do have time to grab a cup of water or so. I am planning to have 2L of water every day, or at least try to.

From now on, I am just planning to be a bit easier on myself yet not be too generous to myself at the same time. Finding the middle ground. Honestly, I feel like happiness is when we achieve that middle ground. And you know what? That could take hours, days, weeks, months, and even years. Maybe decades.

But I know I will continue to work towards my goal to until the day I die.

P.S. I am not exactly sure how this blogpost turned so “motivational” but again my blogposts always turn out this way….lol

Good Luck!

-Sally

The ultimate post for weight loss & getting over weight loss plateau – Finally wear those pair of new jeans

Hi, my name is Sally. I’ve been trying to lose weight for about 10 months now.

This is a model wearing a pair I own….wow I didn’t know they were that pretty before 

I did make some progress. A slow progress, that. I definitely am not going to say nothing changed at all because that would be lying but considering the amount of time and stress and work I put over this, my results were definitely below expectations.

I realised this when I hit my weight loss plateau. At about 60kg, I hit my plateau. I realised by 60kg, you kind of are supposed to hit a plateau (at least from my previous weight) and I did my best to keep it up. But recently, I started eating quite a bit. I thought “hey I’m only eating protein, what can anything happen?” I was completely cutting out carbs anyways.

What I didn’t realise was the fact that I was slowly developing this strange addiction to food by eliminating carbs from my diet. I didn’t know I was slowly making my stomach larger and larger.

Problem A. Food Addiction.

Definition: Food addiction is, quite simply, being addicted to junk food in the same way as drug addicts are addicted to drugs.

Symptoms:

1. You frequently get cravings for certain foods, despite feeling full and having just finished a nutritious meal.
2. When you give in and start eating a food you were craving, you often find yourself eating much more than you intended to.
3. When you eat a food you were craving, you sometimes eat to the point of feeling excessively “stuffed.”
4. You often feel guilty after eating particular foods, yet find yourself eating them again soon after.
5. You sometimes make excuses in your head about why you should eat something that you are craving.
6. You have repeatedly tried to quit eating or setting rules (includes cheat meals/days) about certain foods, but been unsuccessful.
7. You often hide your consumption of unhealthy foods from others.
8. You feel unable to control your consumption of unhealthy foods, despite knowing that they are causing you physical harm (includes weight gain).

I think I have symptoms # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. If you can relate to 4-5 of these, then you probably do have a serious problem with food. If you can relate to 6 or more, then you are most likely a food addict.

So yeah, I’m a food addict. Great to know. Now how do I cure it.

Treatment:

Before the triggers, it is important to realise that according to the “law of addiction,” you might not be able to eat normally ever again.

“Administration of a drug to an addict will cause reestablishment of chemical dependence upon the addictive substance.”

A former smoker who has a puff of a cigarette will become addicted again… instantly.

An alcoholic who has a sip of beer will relapse, with all the horrible consequences that follow.

There is no way of getting around it. This is simply how addiction works.

I am personally convinced that food addiction is no different. One bite of cake, one sip of coke, one “cheat” – that’s all it takes.

• Trigger Foods: Write down a list of the foods you tend to crave and/or binge on. These are the “trigger foods” you need to avoid completely.
• Fast Food Places: Write down a list of fast food places that serve healthy foods. This is important and can prevent a relapse when you find yourself hungry and not in the mood to cook.
• What to Eat: Think about what foods you’re going to eat. Preferably healthy foods that you like and are already eating regularly.
• Pros and Cons: Consider making several copies of your “pros and cons” list. Keep a copy in your kitchen, glove compartment and purse/wallet. Sometimes you will need a reminder about why you’re doing this.

So I did all of the above. 

• Trigger Foods: pistachios, almonds, walnuts, fruits (literally like ALL fruits but mostly sweet stuff like pineapples, pears, apples, cherries, grapes…the list could go on forever), milk (?)
• Fast food places: I don’t really eat fast food at all….so
• What to eat: This won’t exactly help since I eat healthy foods but too MUCH healthy foods.
• Pro/Con: Well the pros of cutting down would be weight loss and being proud of myself for sticking to my goals and the cons would be being kind of stressed out from controlling myself from my primitive desires.

Didn’t exactly help.

I’m really sorry to put it down to this, but there is only one and only solution to curing an addiction. Identifying your addiction then getting over it with your own willpower. I have to do this on my own or I’ll never be able to do it. Because I really have been trying.

Problem B. Increased stomach mass

Think of your stomach as a big rubber balloon. The more air you blow into it, the bigger it will grow. The only difference is that the rubber balloon goes back skinny when the air is out of its body. In contrast, your stomach stays huge and stretched out after you eat a considerable amount of food to stretch it out. This is the kind of problem that comes along with food addiction or binge eating.

But there is good news.

Since your stomach is a massive muscle tissue if you look at it in that way, you can manipulate it to shrink as well you increased its size. How to? Simple. Don’t eat.

If you refrain from eating with the exception of a couple of meals to keep you alive, your stomach size will decrease. Then, when you start eating normally again, you will notice that you won’t be craving as much food as you normally would.

I’m starting my own kind of “decrease-plan” to help me cure my food addiction and increased stomach mass altogether.

Solution

Hence the solution.

I have come up with a week-long-plan to do this and you can follow along with me.

For breakfast: Drink detox juice. You can have as much as 2 glasses of this, depending on your glass size. I drink tomato juice, which is just blended tomato and sometimes add a slice of lemon for beauty reasons. (Lemons whiten skin)

For lunch: I have school lunch, but my school lunch is usually all white rice with sodium-packed side dishes. Thus I plan to pack a single banana with exactly 2 walnuts, 5 almonds, and 10 pistachios.

Here are the good health benefits of bananas from howstuffworks.com 

Bananas are ideal for people looking to lose or maintain weight through sound nutrition, while also giving the body sustenance for daily strength and fitness. Bananas offer the body carbohydrates — its main source of energy — and provide a good source of vitamin C, vitamin B6, potassium and fiber. Bananas offer an amazing fat-free package of natural energy, minerals, vitamins, and fiber.

Bananas are loaded with potassium, and researchers state that adding potassium may play a stronger role in the control of high blood pressure than restricting salt. Bananas also have a lot of magnesium, a mineral that helps keep blood pressure levels in check.

Generally, fruit is a poor source of vitamin B6, but bananas are the exception; a single serving has more than 30 percent of the recommended daily amount. Vitamin B6 helps to keep your immune systemperforming at its peak, and recent studies have found that, like a deficiency of folic acid, a long-termdeficiency of vitamin B6 may increase your risk ofheart disease.

For dinner: My mum and I usually have dinner together. We usually have only-protein. I plan to have 70~80g of protein for dinner. We usually have chicken, duck, fish, or tofu. Not really pork or beef because they are high in cholesterol. I’m actually going to measure my food.

womenshealthmag.com: Experts advise consuming between 0.5 grams and 1.0 grams of protein per pound of your body weight. That’s 70 grams to 140 grams a day for a 140-pound woman. Skew on the high end if you’re very active, and on the low end if you’re trying to lose weight. If both apply, shoot for an amount somewhere in the middle—around 130 grams.

And I as a side, I can have as much as veggies as I want. Veggies have super low calorie and they actually make you drop weight. Also, I have a problem with fruits. I don’t think I will be able to cut myself completely. So since I already have one fruit on my diet at school. I am going to allow myself to one another article of fruit. 1 serving of every fruit. You can get how much is one serving here

shape.com:Limiting carbohydrate intake to 100 grams per day is a common target for people using a moderately carbohydrate-restricted approach to weight loss. If that is the case, eating two bananas and one apple will take up 84 percent of your carbohydrate intake for the entire day. Even if you are eating 1800 calories per day and 40 percent of those calories from carbohydrates (a ‘zone’ type approach), two bananas and one apple will take up 46 percent of your carbohydrates for that day.

Snacks: I will try not to have any snacks at all. If I want snacks, I would go for a glass of milk or a glass of detox juice.

Wow that was a long post.

But that was basically my ultimate guide post. I hope it helped.

Any questions, please comment below. Thank you. Good luck.

-Sally

 

How you’re fattening yourself by not thinking & how napping can kill you

So today went wrong.

Sorry about the negative note on a start of a blogpost, but I am really strict when it comes to judging myself. Everybody’s their own worst critic, right?

So there is an old Korean saying that my mother taught me when I was young. It is “작심삼일.” It means that you give up within three days that you started something. Well, I have worked my whole life to avoid going down that path but really, it is difficult for us to not give up easily. Giving in to something is so tempting and so sweet that a lot of us do tend to fall for it.

Yeah, I think that happened.

If you read my post yesterday, you would know yesterday was only the first day of my detox journey. To be quite honest, I can’t really call it “detoxing” – more like “clean eating.” I’ll tell you why.

So yeah, giving the report of today as usual. Woke up at exactly 7:38 AM. Late. I fret over not having time to run the treadmill in the morning because I know for a fact I will never be able to force myself to do it in the afternoon. I sigh. I scurry off to the bathroom and have a quick shower and I multi-task as I dry my hair while blending up my morning detox shake.

I go to school as usual and I managed to put my hair up in a sloppy bun as I walked/ran to school. I realise that I was supposed to attend a student council meeting at school and I run up to the fifth floor, almost tripping over the stairs. I painfully open the door to the meeting room and about 30 pair of eyes glaze over me. Great way to start the morning.

Classes go okay until lunch time comes. I usually don’t eat the school lunch because a) it’s disgusting b) it’s mostly fatty-carbs. I had a bit of corn salad and I went to the library to read <Google-the most feared company> (It’s a Korean book)

Come back home and I sit in front of the TV watching the news and I hear about the accidents around the country due to poor construction and I make a “tsk, tsk” sound with my tongue.

Here comes the important part.

I eat without thinking. 

I remember I did grab the container full of cut-up watermelon, not thinking that I would actually eat all of it. And I tell you the container was not small.

Yeah I did eat all of it.

And then I ate leftovers from yesterday (the broiled chicken). Ended up eating one drumstick and 3 breast strips. I swear, a human can eat that much in one go. 

I took a nap. That was a bad idea. Taking a nap right after you eat is the worst thing you can do – I read in an article that it increases your rate of contracting cancer because all your blood will be aggregated by your digestive organs so your brain won’t have enough blood. Hence, insufficient oxygen supply.

I woke up and without thinking I ate pistachios. It was like an instinct. And I think I figured it out.

This is a form of binge eating that people are not aware of. It is a common misconception that binge eating solely derives from emotional detachments and dissatisfaction of current life. It can also be triggered by purely physical, instinctive derivations.

Do you ever wonder why you just can’t stop eating? If you see food it’s just click and the next thing you know the plate is empty? That’s your brain doing that. Not you, your brain. Your animal instincts. 

Especially when you’re on a no-carb diet, your body will crave for the lost components. It will want sugar, starch, and unhealthy fats. Therefore, your body will scream out for you to eat everything you can get your hands on as a compensation/substitution for whatever you are cutting out from your diet. 

So yeah… This turned out to be more of a rant rather than a daily report…. I don’t think there would be anyone that would read this far….. But anyways if you did, I would appreciate every comment telling me about what you think!

God bless,

-Sally

Traveling to China? Here are some quick and dirty Chinese tips!

So you’ve decided to go abroad.

And this isn’t like going to another state in the US or going off to Canada where they all speak English. This is the real deal.

China is a whole another cultural realm and it must be slightly intimidating to go to such a place. But I want to assure you, if you’re not going to be living there, you’ll be fine. Basically 99% of the places you go to in Shanghai, they will be able to speak English to you. Since tourism in Shanghai is very much developed, there are a lot of people that speak English.

However, if you want to try out speaking the land’s mother tongue, give these a try. Here below I listed some basic possible conversations in Chinese that you might come across! (I didn’t put the accents on there)

我们学习汉语吧！

1.  Basic conversation phrases

Ni Hao （Hi）你好！

Zai Jian (Bye) 再见！

Da rao yi xia (Excuse me) 打扰一下。

Qing duo guan zhao (thanks in advance) 请多关照。

Xie Xie (Thanks) 谢谢！< fei chang gan xie (Thank you so much) 非常感谢！

Bu ke qi (You’re welcome) 不客气

Xin  ku le (Thanks for your hard work) 辛苦了

dui bu qi (sorry) 对不起

mei guan xi (It’s fine) 没关系

wo ke yi qing ni bang mang ma (Can I ask you a favor) 我可以请你帮忙吗？

2. Introducing yourself 

ni hao! wo jiao ___ (hi my name is ___ )你好！我叫————.

wo cong __ guo ___ lai. (I am from __ of __ ) 我从—国－来

cf) some examples of coutries: 中国（China）美国（US）英国（England）法国（France）韩国（Korea）加拿大（Canada）

ex) I am from Seoul, Korea. 我从韩国首尔来。

ren shi ni hen gao xing (nice to meet you) 认识你很高兴。

zhe wei shi ~ (This is~) 这位是

ex) 这位是我的妈妈，这位是我的弟弟，这位是我的家庭

3. Time/weather/date

xian zai ji dian le (What time is it now) 现在几点了

jin tian ji hao a (What’s the date today?) 今天几号啊

jin tian de tian qi zenmeyang (How’s the weather today) 今天的天气怎么样

For more Chinese learning and other languages, please comment for more! Until then, good luck!

谢谢大家！我非常喜欢大家！祝你愉快！

－Sally 金佳瑩

Don’t live in your present. There, I said it.

Today my blogging “career” is on a roll.

This is my second post so far which is cool and I am trying to tell myself that this is not just reprimanding myself of laziness for the past couple of days.

So today, as you may have seen in the title, I’m going to tell you how not to live in the present. This probably goes against what you believe for most of you out there. I know there are so many blog articles dedicated to “living in the present.” I’m not going to say that that’s wrong. I’m just giving an opinion based on my experiences.

I’m just going to say I’m not a philosopher nor a psychologist and I have no academic proof or whatsoever to back up my theories. However, I really can say that I learned these throughout my entire life.

For those of you who don’t want to read the whole thing, just read the bolded parts. For those of you who can actually give a f*ck to read these things, read ahead. It’s totally cool if you don’t. Your choice.

Here’s a starter quote by the amazing Ben C. ❤

c

Photo Credit: onebuttscratcher.tumblr.com ( Found on tumblr ❤ )

1. Really visualise where you stand right now. Where are you right now? Use imagery, be a writer.

Example, (this is irl btw)

I am now sitting in my tiny little bathroom, in my white bathtub where nobody taller than me can possibly fit into. The little windows at the top are open and cicadas are buzzing away just like they would on a hot August night in Anyang, South Korea. My bathtub’s water is lukewarm and just right enough. My macbook air is placed upon the plastic mat that I can’t remember the name of and my green tea is next to it little water teardrops condensed on the surface of the sleek, fine glass. I hear the city life buzz; the cars running down the highway in a windy fashion and I hear the TV from my mother’s room.

It’s amazing how just a normal day can be turned into like a passage in a modern fiction.

Remember that your everyday is a new someday for someone else in this world and there are give or take seven billion people out there in the world. Learn to appreciate the beauty of that.

2. Just get things done. 

Humans feel generally productive when they are doing something that contributes to their future. That’s because we are a creature that survives on hope, a new light, a new road. So if that is gone, we feel like they are is nothing there anymore therefore not living to the fullest in our present lives. So yes, I’m going to say your future life and your present life aren’t separate things you can choose to live. They are a flow of time, a flow of a river. Learn to live by it and just do it. Do whatever you can get your hands on and then you brain will finally start to move for you.

3. Write, Speak, Draw, Read, Solve, Think. Just do anything creative, something that uses your brain. Appreciate the value your brain withholds.

I feel the best when I am doing something. I like to use my brain, really think. So when I am having a slump, I take out a pencil and a paper and an eraser and just draw. Draw whatever that comes into my head. As my brain exercises, I can feel the beauty of it slowly reviving. I feel grow and mature. This is why I love to write articles on my blog, why I love to read, why I love to talk and make speeches to the audience. I love thinking. 

4. The cliché part, here it comes. Think positive. 

I realise that this is super cliché and you are just this close from pushing this article out from your browser, but it’s true. For instance, I have 16 days of summer vacation left. Which really isn’t a lot if you factor in the fact that my vacation is only like 29 days anyways. But if I really think about it, that’s 2 weeks and 2 days. That’s plenty of time. And even when I get to the day before my school starts, I know in the long run I will certainly be fine and there are more events coming. This is the part where you incorporate your future.

So the point of the article is, don’t try to live in your past, don’t try to live in your present, don’t try to live in the future. Why put boundaries to such a beautiful flow of river? Time is flowing and putting restrictions to that is just simply bizarre. I say just live as time flows and do your best in the moment of it. By the time I go back to God by his great mercy, I’m sure we will all by happy.

Tumblr wasn’t the only reason I was unproductive

I’m going to contradict myself today. 

After all this time of recommending people to try this and try that to manage time, I realised it really just doesn’t matter. (and yes, I apologise if you took my advice in any blogposts I have made about tracking and managing your time by scheduling ).

If I had to pick out the top 3 words/phrases I hate, it would be

“I’m fine.”

“I have to plan it.”

“Maybe.”

I am going to explain the “I’m fine” and “Maybe” part in another blogpost, which I would have hopefully finished by now.

But in this post, let me get on to tell you about how f*cking useless planning is and how it just destroys your life in the most helpful way you think you’re having it.

And it’s not just tumblr or whatever internet site you just uselessly browse.

I’m going to use my life as an example.

So I recently started summer vacation, and before vacation, I told myself that I would make this super-short summer vacation of less than 30 days worth it.

Yeah, I’m now down to having 17 days without having done anything.

So here is the Monday I should have lived if according to my plan.

After a good night sleep of approximately 6 hours give or take, I should have woken up at 6AM.

At 6AM ~ 7AM I should have had a nice breakfast as the sun rises and catch up on the morning news, listen to some of my favourite podcasts, or get inspired by amazing talks on TEDx.

From 7AM~9AM I should have memorised some HSK (Chinese characters) Words that I so intricately calculated to do 48 per day.

From 9AM~11AM I should have studied for my TOKL Exams (Korean exams).

From 11AM~1PM I should have memorised some Traditional Chinese Words. (for my exams, also)

And I should have gone on the treadmill by 1PM and ended all my workout by 3PM.

I should have had a nice late lunch and I should have went back to doing my tasks until 12AM and I should have happily gone to bed after a great productive day.

I should have slept well and I should have woken up happy and ready to start the new day.

Of course, that’s not what happened.

The night before, I didn’t go to bed at 12AM like I was supposed to but instead stayed on tumblr.

I barely went to sleep after so much surfing on tumblr and I managed to sleep at around 5AM.

I woke up at 1PM and I panic because I was already so behind schedule. I panic and panic and panic. 

And more panicking continues for like 2 hours as I munch on a couple roasted pistachios. Completely forgetting about my dietary restrictions.

After that, I go on my macbook air and commence the browsing position.

That’s danisnotonfire (Dan Howell) on YouTube 

As I start to feel a slight bit guilty about my decisions so far, I decide that I am going to get some help for the situation I am in right now.

By Googling. 

I Googled “How to stop being lazy” after trying out “How to live life to the fullest” and being thoroughly disappointed by the results.

I found this article. (On Thought Catalog by Adam Fogle)

And it f*cking shook my entire world upside down.

Like I didn’t know what was happening my whole amazing field of knowledge I thought I had for everything was corrupting. I realised this one fact.

I am a f*cking idiot. 

I’ve been planning things because I was afraid of what would happen if I took action and just generally being the lazy motherf*cker I am. I didn’t want to take action hence I planned as an escape route. I am glad I realised this now at least even after my year of slump of doing absolutely nothing. And I can’t promise I’ll be a completely better person than I am now or what I was before. But at least I know that I will now try to pursue having a better and more productive life.

The first step is deleting my schedule. 

Yep, I am now clicking on the ‘numbers’ icon on my dash and I am clicking on the godforsaken file called ‘Sally’s summer vacation schedule’ and I am dragging it across my laptop and am putting it in the trash. Yes, I confirm delete from iCloud. And yes, I am going to f*cking empty that trash.

With a delightful crumpling sound of the emptying trash, I feel now a slight bit more relieved. I don’t know how deleting a god-darn scheduling can be so liberating but it is, let me tell you that.

Planning is an excuse, it’s a cause for unwanted stress, and it’s generally the cause of my laziness.

And tumblr wasn’t the only reason. 

-Sally Lauren