satisfied.

Life has been moving forward and I'm proud of myself for actively getting out of the rut I was growing complacent in and almost accepting. Thank God.

So I got myself a job at an awesome marketing and research company that focuses solely on working with clients that are seeking positive social change among youth culture. The people are awesome, the office is like one I've always wanted to work in and we're in Mission Hills.. a cute little neighborhood with a bunch of independent stores I've been dying to explore. My mornings have become focused and more driven as a result and I'm thankful for that.

I've also gotten my butt back into the gym. Of course toning up and losing weight are the main goals, but I also feel accomplished and in a great mood after a good workout. Not to mention, having a gym partner and a bf who boxes for a living help 100%

I stopped in the library the other day and dusted off my good ol' library card. Ever since I was a kid, libraries always instantly inspired me. I'm glad after all these years, it has never changed. I picked up Unbearable Lightness by Portia De Rossi, which I was intrigued to read when she was on the Oprah show and The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav which was the top book Jay-Z mentioned made a difference in his life. Excited to start reading.

All in all, I've been trying to improve the different aspects of my life little by little. I want to make a habit of taking care of myself and never losing my grasp on things to the point that I don't feel fulfilled. Work shouldn't be the only place that fulfills me but my health, my mind+heart, my confidence, my family, my relationship with my bf, all of that matters a great deal to me as I get older.

On some days, I feel ECSTATIC like this dude. I saw this on Vashtie's site and it made my day 10x even better than it already is. He is in pure, uninhibited joy and I wish that every person can allow themselves to let themselves be free like this and LOVE something that you feel it all through your body, and it just makes you want to DANCE! My dad often has these moments where he just can't help but love a song so much, he dances like a kid on his birthday. I LIVE for these moments.

Besides this, I am beginning to love the idea that no matter what, if you have a deep, genuine and unyielding APPRECIATION for the gift that is LIFE, your petty problems will slowly become minuscule.  True, the world is a fucked up place. I don't ever discount the struggle that people go through, it's reality and it hurts to the core sometimes. All you have to do is turn on the TV and you've got an endless series of bad news. Sometimes it is overwhelming and sometimes it all just makes you feel helpless. I used to feel this way in my classes in college, considering my major is International Development, I was bombarded with poverty, food insecurity, natural disasters, gender inequalities, you name it. But the upside of it all, is that when you truuuuly start to train your mind to be thankful and really appreciate every single day, the little things WE waste our time on mean so so so little and we can shift our focus to actually being good servants of Christ (or whoever you pray to), or good PRODUCTIVE members of society, or even simpler, just GOOD PEOPLE in general. Just appreciate every little thing, take some time to think of how blessed we are. How privileged so many of us are. The freedoms we have.  It's all in the bigger picture, and if you always keep that in mind, you're always going to know that YOU'RE LUCKY!