Feel like you haven’t figured your life or even yourself out? Welcome to the club. I’ll proudly claim to be the face of it if no one else wants too. As much as it seems like I have my life figured out, I don’t. Not even close to it. I’m just out here living my life as much as I can.
I wanted to say and let you know that it’s okay to not have your life figured out. It doesn’t matter how old young or old, if you have achievements or if you’re in school or not. That’s okay, you have time to figure it out. You have your own time to do things at your own pace. Do what feels right to you, but also know what you’re going to be getting yourself into.
There will be people who will automatically look down on you because they think that not following society’s ‘norms’ means you are less, not as achieved, lazy, not willing. Don’t let anyone like that get into your head. They aren’t you, they don’t understand what you personally go through or feel about anything. You are enough the way you are and you’re doing your best everyday. I’m one that loves to celebrate small steps because sometimes that’s all a person has. You may not feel figured out, but that doesn’t mean you are failing at anything. Be proud of the little things that you’ve accomplished.
I’ve been feeling over whelmed the last few weeks and strongly this week. It feels like everything is coming at me all at once. I’ve started writing a blog every day this week to express how I’ve been feeling, but I haven’t been able to finish any of them because I also feel mentally exhausted. Then it’s 5 am and I need to sleep or I’ll be tired for work. Well hello 6 am, it’s me. I’m up even later than usual. I guess I just have to take the L for work.
It’s frustrating, I’m feeling frustrated at this point. It’s exhausting, I’ve been exhausted. It’s overwhelming, I’m overwhelmed with everything, I have been overwhelmed with everything for a long time now. It’s not with just what’s going on around me and within my personal life, but also with all the overthinking and trying to process situations and understanding and trying to figure out how I feel about things. Then I go to work and that takes up a lot of my time, so I don’t even have that much time out of my day to work everything out. I feel like I’m trying to catch up with myself from the times of 2 am – 6 am everyday. That’s all I get and it’s not enough. I think I’m starting to burn out. You don’t want to try to figure things out during those times especially when you’re alone anyways. It’s not something I can’t handle, but I’m starting to feel defeated. Which makes me feel sad and then it’s another thing for me to add on. Everything all at once.
Your mental health is important. You are important. It’s important and very needed to put yourself first. Allow yourself to unload your mind, give yourself the time and a safe space or environment. Really focus on helping yourself. You are the only you that you will ever have. Do whatever it takes to feel okay again and remember to do it in a positive way and not with something that will later negatively effect you. Build yourself up and then protect that.
Letter to myself: You got this, Sally. You can pull through. Adjustments are coming, just hold on a little longer. Things are going to change and it will help with a lot of the things. Do what feels right even if it’s not what you want. Let go of things that you cannot control. Communicate what you can, baby steps. Don’t forget to celebrate the baby steps along the way. Give yourself some sort of break. Things feel hard, but you’ve, we, us, I have been making progress. You’re stronger than you know, but I still worry. Remember, everything at once will eventually become nothing at all. Truly, take care of yourself this time.
I will admit that I am not drunk, but I am tipsy tonight. it still counts, I’m actually half a wine bottle down! I am blessed to be surrounded by love for my birthday today (or yesterday if we talkin technicalities) It just be hitting a little harder when you’re in a whole different state and been going through how I’ve been feeling moving. (Another blog, another time haha) I appreciate EVERYONE for the love and all the sweet personal messages I’ve been receiving. It does mean the world to me ♡ Public or privately, I don’t care. EVERYONE took their time out and I appreciate and love it so much! I’m so blessed to be surrounded by love like this. I really truly mean it. Even work showed me love and I’ve only been there for 1.5 weeks. As I get older and now that I’m out of Michigan, I really don’t care for material things. It’s the friendships and bonds that I make that matter the most to me. To keep those friendships alive or going, to still have those connections or making new ones. I just want to be a good person for myself and to others. What’s most important to me is quality time. We only have one life and I want it to be surrounded by people who truly care for me for me and not for anything else, like “Sally’s this persons friend, girlfriend, sister, aunt, etc.” Just there for me because I am my own person and I act upon my own. What you see is what you get. My astrology sign is a cancer, so I care deeply for those with good intents who care about me the same as well. Maybe i’m heading to the drunk zone, with this astrology talk LOL. But for those who have asked and wondered. I’m doing good over here in Wisconsin. I had my struggles, but you know this bitch got herself and she holding it down and getting through whatever comes her way in anyway she can help herself. I have some really good friends over here too and I really want my close Michigan friends to meet my really close Wisconsin friends one day. Let me clear up the space and say this too, NO ONE IS GETTING REPLACED. Leave that petty shit at home, I got a lot of space to love. ♡
To my Michigan friends or even out of Wisconsin friends, please send me your address over social media because I do want to send you guys little things in the mail! I’ve been going old school pen pal type route with postcards and letters lately. I do send randomly too. Getting a personal piece of mail is something that you get excited about and love and I want to give that to you all! My nieces have LOVED it and I personally love sending it all out too!
THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE. You’ll never know appreciative I am of it cause words just can’t explain. Love you all so so so much ♡
Your apology needs to be as big as the disrespect that you gave. We’re heading straight into it, no intro bullshit. Your apology needs to be as big as the disrespect that you gave. Whether it’s publicly or privately to that person, you need to stop and think about what you have caused, own your shit, learn from that shit, and take the lesson and grow from it. Be accountable for you actions.
I’m tired of seeing people trying to save their own face and image when they know they were 100% in the wrong or when they decide to make themselves as the victim instead because they just can’t own up that they were actually the villain that time. You need to apologize because your actions not only affected yourself, but to whoever was involved and who you did it too. Like I said, publicly and privately, you own it to those people or person. If everyone just owned up, was accountable, and grew from their mistakes the world would really just be a better place.
If you felt even one ounce offended, then this is for you. I’m not perfect, I have my own tea that I’ve been working on and I can admit that. I’m learning and growing as much as I can through the years and applying it on how I can just be a decent human being. You can do it too.
If I had the opportunity to go back into time, I would go back to you and hug you for the both of us. Lord knows you were going to need it and I know I need it now. We’re the same person, but in such two different realities. I need it for the strength, for the encouragement, to appreciate how far I’ve come and because I miss that twinkle in my eye. You need it for the moment, for what’s to come, for who you are, and also for the strength. I wouldn’t go back and say sorry or try to change anything. Not because I think it was meant to happen, but because I don’t know any of the what if’s and I’d rather not try to think about it. It would be maddening either way and in every other different way anyways.
For the both of us, I would go back in time, enjoy that moment with you, remember what it was like and hug you. That hug would have been everything to you because that hug was what I needed and was looking for and felt like I never got. So I would go back in time to hug you for the both of us. The twinkle wasn’t based on truth, but love and I miss that. Sometimes they are hand in hands and other times they aren’t. Balancing them when they aren’t isn’t the easiest, but you got here. You got me here, I’m here. “Without you I can’t be, you’re the universe to me. You’re the air in my lungs, you’re the fields where I run, you’re the sky where I’m floating.“
Seven Lions at Electric Forest 2019 | June 30, 2019 11:41 PM
The way we see ourself vs. the way others see us. It’s sooo different, the different point of views. We are much harder on ourselves and see the smallest flaws that no one would ever see or care about it. We make it hard and complicated to self love. It’s time to unlearn those negatives and start seeing ourselves with the same loving, outside POV.
WHAT OTHERS SEE (Boyfriend’s POV)
I will start off and say that I actually do like this picture that my boyfriend took of me. Yes, it’s also the backside of me, so you can’t see any flaws (except my messy hair lol). I usually like the pictures that my boyfriend takes of me over the selfies I try to take. When he takes the photos I can’t see myself, so I’m not trying so hard to pose to look good. He’ll also take a lot of photos of me when I’m not paying attention, so everything just looks more genuine and in the moment like the one above. Maybe it’s just me and I’m a weirdo, but when I look at his photos I look so different to myself. Almost like “wow I really look like that?”, but in a good way. I see myself in the same way that he sees me. It’s a nice little break away from my own thoughts.
vs
HOW I SEEMYSELF (Self POV)
This picture was taken the same day just a couple hours later and from my POV. I don’t think this is a super bad picture of myself, but there’s flaws that I can see. I’m sure it’s more insecurities than body dysmorphia, but looking at the picture I can say that my upper arm is big and meaty, then I think I need to lose weight around the tummy area and do some squats. Which most people would say I’m insane to be thinking all of that because I’m small already, which I agree with somewhat. Yes, I’m small, but small in size not weight. I’m only 5 feet tall so to a lot of people I am small, but when it comes to weight it’s totally different. Seeing these two pictures, it’s hard to believe that they are both of me from the same day.
Learning to self love is tough because we see ourselves so differently day to day. It’s a daily battle, but find a way to love yourself even if it’s something so small. We see the smallest flaws and turn them into insecurities, so why can’t we try to love the small things instead? When things get tough, find a picture that someone else took of you and try to see yourself from their eyes and love something you haven’t seen before. It’s time to be kinder to ourselves, to love ourselves the way we see originally see ourselves, the way we actually look. Be gentle to yourself and be gentle in your thoughts. Real self love. We owe that to ourselves, we deserve real self love.
What fulfills you? I think I’ve been avoiding this question for the past couple of years because I really don’t have a straight up answer or maybe I don’t really know what I want in life, maybe I wasn’t ready for the answer. I do admit, it’s hard to find the answer when you’re in your mid 20’s and you haven’t been able to fully experience life yet. So how can I come up with something? I’ve been kind of just floating through my life and having fun in whatever way I can. Maybe being that free is fulfilling to me, it works for me currently.
Like everyone else, I had to face some challenges and with the pandemic my daily lifestyle changed. We’ve all had to adjust in ways that completely flipped life as we know around. I was in a very unhappy and unsure spot in my life and I started to think more and more, what really fulfills me? What do I want out of life? What do I need for myself to feel like I’m living my best life? In the last couple of weeks, it’s all I can think about. I found myself stuck in yet another rut and as much as I want to blame it on the current moon cycle and astrology, it’s an all too familiar feeling. Let’s try connect the dots.
Sally, what fulfills you?
I’ve touched this topic a little bit within my therapy sessions, but there’s not enough time to get to an answer, so I did some searching on my own. To have a fulfilling life is to be happy living in the present moment. To build a sense of fulfillment, you need to stop thinking about what “should be” and start being grateful for “what is.” It’s a process of failures and victories, not being focused on one specific moment. You can find your fulfillment in all aspect in life like self-improvement, meaningful relationships, health & wellness, and career development. The more you learn and grow within those aspects, the happier you’ll become and building those habits will lead you to joy.
So where do we even start? Where can we find our certain aspects and what do we prioritize to get there? I found a blog post written by Brent Gleeson that had a great list and I’ll put some of my favorites below:
Build relationships over possessions.
Take what you can from life, but always give back.
Be accountable for your words and actions.
Be disciplined in your personal and professional life.
Expunge hate from your heart.
Pursue passions bigger than yourself.
Don’t hold on too tight.
Strive to improve a little bit everyday.
Working on these everyday even if it is just a few every week, you’ll start to see and feel something good grow from you. It isn’t easy and there will be failure, but it’s all part of the process. Without the feeling of failure, we wouldn’t know how it feels to succeed.
I think my fulfillment is changing because I’m in a new environment and experiencing a new life experience, so it’s trying to adjust. I do have some idea of my own, but I’m still figuring out the rest. Who knows, maybe I’ll never really have my answer until I’m well into my 30’s. Maybe I’ll never really have an answer at all because it changes with you throughout your life. It doesn’t hurt to start thinking about it though.
You might be wondering what is that word ‘Bánh Mì’ means. Well In literal translation from Vietnamese it means bread, but it holds so much more than that. It is childhood memories, it is adulthood, it is family time, it is history, it is culture and it is traditions plus many more. Bánh mì is a Vietnamese cuisine that is gaining popularity in the US.
Let’s go into a little bit of the history if it! Like I mentioned bánh mì translates to bread, but for the cuisine it uses a baguette that the French colonist introduced to Vietnam when it was still part of French Indochina along with some of the other ingredients. Sometimes it is called bánh mì thịt, just adding the word ‘meat’ to the end so you know it’s the person is talking about the sandwich and not about bread itself. Bánh mì has been considered a luxury cuisine a couple of times in history, during World War I and after the Fall of Saigon in 1975, but is now a common street food. It has become a staple food of Vietnam and if anyone remembers H’Hen Nie, Miss Vietnam 2018 wore bánh mì as her Miss Universe national costume.
There are different variations of these viet subs, but the ones that I will be comparing today are all Bánh mì đặc biệt which is a special combo sandwich. In these special combo sandwiches, you’ll find these ingredients:
• Vietnamese baguette • Sliced pork or pork belly • Chả lụa (pork sausage) • Head cheese or brawn • Fresh cucumber slices • Cilantro • Pickled carrots and white radish (shredded form) • Jalapeños • Maggi seasoning sauce • Mayonnaise • Liver pâté
I grew up eating these subs and I absolutely love them to this day. In the last month, I have tried 3 bánh mì đặc biệt from 3 different places, which happen to be all in different states. So here is from least liked to most liked.
The first place is from a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin. I don’t really want to put the name of the restaurant out there because they have other foods that are really good. I had really good pho from them actually, so I won’t knock them down for just one food item. Their subs were okay though. I probably wouldn’t get any subs there again, but if someone else did they are still tasteful enough to eat. So one main ingredient that makes up a bánh mì đặc biệt is the bread right? I mean it’s in the name. Well the reason why they are my least liked is because their bread was flat, not airy like a baguette. It seemed like they scooped the breading out like how Jimmy John’s does? Also their bread was really wide and the inside ingredient portions did not match at all. The shredded pickled carrots and white radishes were all cut super thin where you could barely tell that there was any in it.
The second place is right down from where I grew up in Kentwood, Michigan at B&N Sandwiches located in the Golden Bridge Plaza. I’m probably a little bias, but the bread there has a nice crunch when you bite into it. The veggies are cut into good sized pieces, the only thing that I would change about it is the inconsistency of the sandwich. Sometimes there isn’t enough of one ingredient compared to the last time you bought some. Overall all, I would really recommend them to everyone!
The last place is from Ha Tien Super Market located in St. Paul, Minnesota. All the bánh mì that I have ever had, Ha Tien Super Market has made it the best! The bánh mì has a nice crunch to it, the inner ingredient portions are more than you can ask for. They really fill the baguette up. I really like cilantro too, so the amount of veggies that they throw on is perfect. *chefs kiss* I don’t know what else they use, but there is just way more flavor in their subs. I would travel again back to St. Paul just to get more. Might have to go back pretty soon to get some!!
I will always be trying other places, so there will be more food blogs on these Vietnamese subs! It’s nice being able to write foods that I grew up eating and that are a part of who I am. I’ll start doing more of these, it makes me feel a little more connected to my roots and my family since I moved away. The area I live in now doesn’t have too many Vietnamese restaurants like they do back in Michigan. I also wanted to quickly add that while bánh mì (and other Viet cuisines) are gaining popularity here in the US, please don’t try to take these dishes and americanize them to make a profit off of. Do not do what has been done to Mexican/Hispanic foods. Foods should be shared with others along with their traditions and origins, even if someone else puts their own twist on it, but shouldn’t be monetized. It’s quite insulting, but that’s another topic for another time.
Until next time though. Should Pho be next? Let me know in the comments or through my socials! Stay hungry♡
It isn’t one of those good days, I want to curl up in a ball and lay in bed all day. My brain really said “Hey Sally, fuck you. You’re not shit today <3” Everything you’ve been working on disappears as if that work never happened. It doesn’t exist. It’s hard to feel that when you thought you’ve moved way past it. The doubt of what you thought you achieved just sits there and eats you away making it hard to see the growth.
This may be a raw one. I’ve tried to protect it from coming out so much that today I just can’t do it anymore. Something that I wanted to keep private for me to process ended up coming out in a fire anyways and I’ve been fighting to put it out this whole time. I’m tired of fighting for myself.
To let it go. It’s been such a challenge and something I still haven’t figured out yet. Sometimes when something so heartbreaking or traumatic happens to you, you start to believe that maybe you did deserve it. For whatever reason why I may think it, I know at the same time that I didn’t deserve it, but it’s easier to believe I did. It’s the “easier” option for me to understand what or why it happened even if it hurts. Someone who loves you, but hurts you in ways they or you would never imagine, try to make that make sense. It’s heartbreaking. Now put where I’m at now into that and then try to make sense of that. Sometimes if feels like I’m fighting demons out here and the demon is myself, actually my own thoughts vs how I feel. The two peacefully agree most time, but then you have days like this where they switch up and play both sides. It’s this, but that, it’s that, but this. Tugging me back and forth and back and forth. I just want to lay down and rest or drink. A drink would be nice. To let it all go would be nice.
Self defense mechanisms, thank you, but also you are my worst enemy. Thank you for trying to soften the next unknown, but it’s not helping me personally with healing. I can’t keep holding on to this thing, I don’t want too. I want to make my peace and I want to move on. Let me do that, let me let it go.
Good morning everyone! I asked on my Instagram last month if I should start creating some wallpapers and a lot of you said yes, so here is my first set! I’m trying to figure the program I’m using out more and how to properly upload them so you guys can easily save it. Bare with me until then! 🙂 Any advice or help would be appreciated too.
So I made just a simple desktop and phone wallpaper and just one design for May. Eventually I’ll get to 2 or 3 designs. I don’t know if I can be consistent with a design every month, but I’ll try my best. Hope you enjoy them! ♡
SALLY♡THINGS 
