Turning 27!

T-Swift says it best: “I swear sixteen was yesterday. But now I’m closer to twenty-eight.” Turning 27 feels…old. It’s almost been a decade since I graduated high school!
But, I’ve never felt more connected to my emotions, body, and the world. I feel more me than ever. And, as a part of that I’ve decided to start sharing my writing online.

Sharing some things I’ve learned in my 27 years:

1. Practice joy and flow and ease. Much of my identity has been tied to the immigrant-child struggle; so much so, that it feels wrong to experience joy especially if something comes easily and without struggle.

2. Appreciation for my body and movement. Naval says “Read What You Love Until You Love to Read,” and I add to that “Move, until you love to move.”

• As a kid, I didn’t play any sports, and exercise and eating “healthy” were always a means to get skinny, not to be healthy. I didn’t love physical activity, after school sports required $ or time; neither of which my parents really had. So, I never developed the habit of moving or love of playing a sport. It’s taken me years to rewire my brain, but I now love working out and the flow state it puts me in.

3. Hire a coach. The largest privileged/life style creep thing I’ve done is get a personal trainer. I have no problem getting to the gym, but I suck at pushing myself to the max when I’m working out alone. But, add in a personal trainer? Suddenly, I’m able to push myself so much more, and I don’t need to think about what my workout looks like today. This doesn’t have to be an actual coach, but find a friend who knows just a little more than you do.

4. Learn money! I am my parents’ retirement. All throughout high school + college, my only goal was financial security for my family. I was so overwhelmed when I started making money in 2017, but I’ve spent a lot of time reading/learning because understanding how to manage your money well is a skill you will need for your whole life.

5. Finding a partner/friends with similar values is a life hack. Zain is such a huge part of any success and happiness I have today, and I’m lucky that I found him in high school. My friends have built me up and continue to love me and believe in me even though I never text back.

6. Your environment and the people you are around matter, so surround yourself with great people doing great things. I love my parents, but every time I’m home, I revert back to my 17 year-old self. I can only stay at my parents’ home in low doses; otherwise I’m back to binge-watching TV on our couch.

7. Build up belief in yourself. I was never a confident kid, and I didn’t understand that you could actually build this — I thought you had it or you didn’t. In order to build up confidence, you just need to tell yourself you’re going to do something, then actually go do the thing. Do this with small things over a long period of time, and you’ve built the trust with yourself that you can accomplish what you set your mind to.

8. Take more calculated risks. I was raised in an anti-risk household because my parents’ had taken entrepreneurship risks that didn’t pan out. There’s so much upside in taking calculated risks: maybe you move to across the world (Hello London!), meet really cool people, leave your job to start a startup (yay unemployment). But, me from a few years ago wouldn’t have the risk tolerance to do it.

9. Build up your resilience. My career has done/is doing this for me. But there was a point where I cried to my manager on a weekly basis because I was working at the far edges of what my current skillset offered. I learned to take a moment before reacting, create space for an informed decision, how to say no (repeatedly), and everything is figure-out-able.

10. Your view on the world matters. One of the reasons that I’m sharing my writing is because I’ve struggled with “Why do I matter/Why would anyone read what I’m saying.” But, those aren’t the right questions. I’m just trying to make sense of the world and writing from my own messy, biased, changing life helps me do that.

If you made it to the end, I love you.