Live, Laugh, Leap

Taken at Tai O on July 26, 2016 by my Auntie Winnie 

I’ve been 19 for twelve days now. A college student who probably made a fool of herself many times, yet a girl told her she holds herself like a sophomore. Met many people who inspired her with their stories. Yet she is still shy, all over again, as a freshman in college with several leadership experiences in high school. Why is that? Is it the new atmosphere? Possibly. It is funny how depending on what situation, she can feel so comfortable talking to someone and another feel completely nervous and afraid to say stupid things. 

I think I can speak for most everyone. We all have much to learn. I know I do. Plenty of things I still got to learn and take my chances in life. Maybe I think too much, well that’s an understatement. I do. I can’t help but overthink, think for the future, and sometimes forget to live in the moment. I got to live my life the way I want to, laugh along the way at all the weirdest and silliest things I’ve done, and leap at the many gut feelings I have to do what I feel is crazy but right. 

My teen years are coming to a close in 346 days and frankly, I still don’t know if my choices in life are completely right and sane. I read this post on a musician’s website, how she struggled in the music industry, climbing mountains that keep moving, but she is never bored. It’s a struggle. In honestly every industry out there. Nothing comes easy. Living in this world, making a few bucks is a challenge. But I think the passion a person has really drives a person to keep going. 

I don’t know where the entertainment industry will take me. I do know that I want to be a film/tv production manager one day and be able to make people feel emotions like I do when I watch movies like Beauty and the Beast and dramas like Swipe Tap Love. Those emotions that make you feel a chill down your spine, a tear fall out of your eye, and shivers throughout your entire body. That is what I want to do. To be able to connect with people through emotions. I don’t know how I’ll get there, but I’ll start with Titan TV at my school and work from there. 

One thing is for sure. 

I’ll never stop climbing until I reach my dream. 

Officially 19

        Finished my exams for the day, went to set up tabling, headed to Titan TV training, and off to my own birthday party thrown by my roommate. Then off to another food adventure, but this time, a night food adventure. It was a hard week, hard day too, but it turned out to be one of the best birthdays I had. Thank you to everyone who made my birthday such a memorable and special one. I felt so loved and appreciated today. Words can't describe all that I am feeling at the moment. There are many I love to thank, but too many to list. You know who you are! Including the ones who made me cry happy tears! Thank you to all! Happy National Panda Day as well! I was so surprised and so blessed to share my birthday with the National Panda Day this year. (: 

Truth of Nineteen

        There comes a point when you hit that mark of the last teen year. Nineteen. Tomorrow, I will be officially 19 years old. Today is my last day as an 18 year old. For starters, my last day as 18 did not go so well. Given more things to do on top of an overfilled plate already. That was the point when I dropped it and waterworks came to soften my clumsiness. All my plans on that plate got washed out the door or changed around.
        Then at night, I thought, "Is this what getting older means? More things on your plate?" Raindrops falling out of the sky on a hot sunny day? You ask yourself, "Where did that even come from?"
        If that's what getting older means then I sure don't like getting older, especially getting closer to being an official adult in a few years. But then I thought to myself, maybe this is the test if I can handle the pressure. If I can handle it. A friend helped me plan my weekend out to fit most of the things I had planned already and add things in. For the most part, it was similar to my general plan as well (I didn't hash out all the details on which task to do on which day, usually I just try to get one done and go from there).
        I really did not think I can handle it. But I read some of my old blog posts to help me out (stumbled upon grammar mistakes so I fixed them along the way). They helped. They motivated me and reminded me that I can do this. It is funny how the old me is helping the present me. This is the real deal. Adulting is hard. No turning back. Life is just going to get harder from here on out. It will toss so many more things at you, even at your face. As if a gush of wind blew a newspaper into your face. That is the feeling I am in right now. Goodbye young me, and hello to an older, hopefully wiser child who needs to remember stress adds up as you get older.
     

Being the odd one out and figuring out how to mix into this crazy 18 going on 19 transformation like a  flower trying to find its place in a sea of lily pads.

* Made a little outline on which days I will do what for this weekend *

Two Adventures in a Row

        This past Friday, I went on a food adventure with my friend Theresa to Rubio's and Honey and Butter. I never been to Rubio's before and was so excited to get some fish tacos.

        We first went to Honey and Butter. I bought three macarons. Two of them were character ones. One was a lucky cat and the other was a cat eating ramen. The third one was matcha flavored. The cat with the ramen was for me and the other two were for my family. Then off to Rubio's we went. The fish taco was amazing. Loved it! The chips dipped in salsa with cilantro and white onions was great as well. Another food place checked off my list. 

        To top off my weekend, my sister came to visit me Saturday. I haven't seen her in a while and was really glad she decided to visit me along her way to visit another friend. After searching up Yelp on where to eat, we decided to try Kentro's Greek Kitchen. We ordered a beets salad and a chicken pita with Kentro's fries. I never been a huge fan of beets, but these beets were so good! They were sweet and juicy. The best part is, beets are healthy! Got to eat and have some veggies or roots in your diet. Then came the unhealthy part... fries. I could not stop eating those fries. They were amazing! The seasoning on them was perfect and dipped in a little ketchup made it even better. The chicken pita was excellent as well. Definitely a happy tummy. Then we went to Choux Creme, a place my sister wanted to go for a while. It is a churro bottom with ice cream on top. It was good, but for both of us, it was too sweet and a little pricy too. 

          An amazing weekend to start off my seventh week of the semester. Have a great week everyone! 

Cute artwork outside Kentro's Greek Kitchen

Deja Vu to First Productions

        Stepped into the green room, expecting to shadow for audio for Titan Weekly. The next thing I know, I got tossed into actually doing the audio for the show. First Titan TV show! I was so nervous and excited all at the same time. I never done audio back in high school, so this was my official first time dealing with sound. To add to all of the nerves, everything that possibly could go wrong went wrong.
        When the talents got to the Titan studio, the teleprompters were not working on two out of the three cameras. We tried everything to figure it out, but nothing worked. We called all the people that can possibly help us but to no avail. We tried to think of any other way to solve our problem with the limited time we have before 7PM since most of us, except me, had class at that time. Fortunately, we decided to use that one camera with the teleprompter that was working to do all the filming of the talents at three different angles.
        It was one crazy first show of mine, but that's show biz right? We got to think on our feet and roll with it when we hit a bump or a few bumps on the road.
        This reminded me of my first show in high school. In my first show in high school, I was tossed the job of working the light board for our haunted auditorium event and I had no clue how to use it, just like how I had no clue how to use the audio sound board. It's crazy how my first times are so similar, yet so memorable, fun, and crazy. I feel like I am home now. This semester was rough, but with Titan TV, I know I'll be okay. Titan TV will be my next production home for the next three years.
        March 3 marks the first of many more show dates I will be a part of. Can't wait to see my name in the credits in Titan Weekly on YouTube!


* I even met someone with the same name as me, Melina! It was so cool! *