New blog post series? Yes, we LOVE those! Every few months, I’ll post my favorite photos or videos from each month. The point of living is to live and I’m trying my best to do just that. A little trail of memories you can say.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
AHHHH! I hit my late twenties. I don’t know if I should be excited or sad about it. It’s kind of like your sophomore year in high school where everything is the same. Nothing exciting or important really happens, you’re just older. I’m now 3 years closer to 30 and I heard your 30’s are better. I’m waiting on that cause I need it, BAD.
Do I expect anything for my 27th year of life? Not really, I think I’m done with expecting anything. What my twenties has taught me so far is that life is never the way you think it will go. You have to learn to adjust and fight your way through whether you like it or not. You’ll make tons stupid mistakes, which lead to good life lessons and good stories. You also do tons of self healing and it’s so hard, but this is the perfect time for all of it. This is really your time to set yourself and your future up. Your twenties are meant to be for living your best life like traveling, love, friendships, family, educations, jobs, etc. It’s to feed your soul without anyone else in mind, just you. Your twenties are also for you to learn the negatives or downsides of yourself and others, heartbreaks, and constantly getting pushed down. All you can do is get back up and work your way through. I still have 3 more years of this?? Can I say I kind of hate it here HAHHAHA. But really though, I’m going through the thick of it and it’s not even THICC with two C’s..
I would like to say that I am super grateful that I am surrounded by love from both friends and family. Life gets in the way and you tend to forget how much people actually care for you or that there’s even good people in the world. I really appreciate every message or post. Thank you for taking time out of your day! So with that being said here are some pictures and videos that I got. I suck at remembering to take pictures and capturing videos, so I’m glad someone did. No matter how embarrassing or how rough I look, I’m happy to have made these memories ♡
What I would like this year and for the next few or even forever is to continue living with loving eyes and just seeing things to finally start falling into place. I’m ready to be settled, but not settled as in marriage, starting a family or having kids (all that is still fine of course if it happens). I’m ready to feel settled within myself and see what I can do for me. My advice for getting older is to make those memories, be kind to others, be kind to yourself and live your best life.
Here’s to another year of life, lets slide into my late twenties. Here’s to 27! ♡
I came across this channel on Youtube called Jubilee and watched quite a few of their videos and it really got me thinking about my answers and opinions as well. There’s different episodes, but in each they bring in a group of people of the same or different race or people who believe in this or that and ask them questions. The group of people then stand on a scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree or sit down if they agree with said statement and just talk it out with one another. It’s such a nice safe space for these people to get their opinions or experiences out there about general topics or about those hard topics that most will stay quiet about. Maybe this will become a new blog series that I’ll continue to write about or not, but I just wanted to share where I am with this video called “Do All Asian Americans Think the Same?” | Spectrum (the video is at the bottom of the blog)
I think it’s great to watch videos like these especially with how society has been. A lot has happened within the last few decades, let alone the last 4 years. It’s time to start having these deeper conversations or just more conversations in general. I’m starting off with this video because I do identify with Asian American, I’m Vietnamese and American born. For me, it’s not like I have forgotten my cultural traditions or values, but I don’t really discuss them enough. So I’ll take some questions or statements from the video and discuss it. Just want to remind everyone that I am not the spokesperson for the whole community or race or the people that I hang out with! This is just me.
I have felt pressure to date within my own race.
Luckily, my parents have never put that idea onto me. They have mentioned it a couple of times, but they always made it known that it’s okay if I don’t. They don’t have a preference on another race either, so I was allowed to date whoever. Now when it comes to outside my family, like within the Vietnamese community here, I do feel the pressure. Weird right? Well I’ve gone to the Viet supermarkets, stores, hair salons, or nail salons and they’ll always ask me who I’m dating and what race they are, then make some comments like “oh, he’s not Vietnamese, why not? You need to find a Viet guy and keep the culture alive.” I disagree with that so much. I can still keep my culture alive still with whoever I’m with, it’s not passed down through blood, but through teachings.
Asian stereotypes are funny.
I think this is kind of a broad statement and you’ll see why, but my answer is yes and no. I have a lot to say about this. So asian stereotypes put on the asian group by non-asian are not funny at all. The typical asians are good at math, asians are bad drivers, asians have chinky eyes, asians eat dogs/cats etc. are just so outplayed, it’s not true for everyone. Stereotypes have a big influence in judging certain groups of people and most times they are negative. I think when I wasn’t up to par with some of those stereotypes, people I went to school with who were non-asians wouldn’t judge me differently, but they wouldn’t identify me as asian or downplay that I was asian. I heard a lot of “oh Sally, you’re not THAT asian” or “omg, you don’t like to watch anime or make boba? I’m more asian than you.” Which actually did hurt my feelings and made me feel a type of way, but I didn’t know how to correctly speak about it back in high school, so I would just agree with them. Now if it’s my asian friends and I talking about stereotypes within our different asian races, then they can be funny, but that’s because they aren’t so negative or downplaying their identities. Big emphasis on CAN BE FUNNY though.
I do want to point out that a lot of asian stereotypes are positive compared to other races and the stereotypes that are put on them.
Asian people have it easier than other minorities.
I would have to agree with that statement. I do think that asian people have it easier than other minorities even within the last few years and with covid happening. Yes, it’s very unfortunate and sad that covid has brought out more racism towards asians and it breaks my heart to see. Yes, we asians still have it harder than some minorities, but bigger picture we do have it easier. What asians are experiencing with covid, others have been experiencing for decades and on a more worst scale. Stereotypes on asians are also easier on asians, the “popular” stereotypes are majority positive. The reality of it is, asian minorities are more accepted in the United States with white people and I think it’s because of the history between the two and that asians have conformed with the American way. I don’t know how to really explain it, but I can see it or have experienced it personally. I do think Americans use Asians to their advantage sometimes to compare to other minorities or for other uses, when it’s good for them if that makes any sense.
Like I said earlier I do not represent a whole community or other people, but myself. I am up to having more in depth conversations and hearing other opinions, so feel free to comment or contact me. I want this to be a safe space of free discussion. I do not tolerate hate or racism though, so please don’t come around with that. Give me feedback on if I should do more post like this. Watch the video below and the others on their channel! Keep conversations going with the people around you.
SALLY ♡ T
Charcuterie board and tubing, that’s how we do it for birthdays.
There’s a place in Newaygo, Michigan where you can take your tubes or kayaks and just float along the Muskegon River. It’s about 4 fun hours in the sun if you just let yourself float naturally. I’ve actually never been tubing like that before and every time my friends go, I’m stuck working the whole day. I finally got the day off and let’s just say I took advantage of it haha. Let me tell you about my first tubing trip.
Hello, hi! I should start off with some facts about me, I don’t know how to swim, tread water, and struggle with floating, I am only 5 feet tall, and my skin sunburns very easily. This is Kona and I before we left to go tubing. (No dogs were harmed, Kona actually doggie smiled every time he got picked up) We’re alive, well, and sober. My friends also roasted the fuck out of me the rest of the day for dressing like a hooters girl LOL.
I would also like to add that my tube was very comfortable and I would recommend it to anyone who is trying to last minute find a tube. Where I live, river tubes are sold out everywhere and I was lucky to find this ducky tube on Amazon and have it shipped to me the day before the trip. Plus, who doesn’t like a big floating duck with sunglasses? Some cons of it being camo is that it gets hot in spots and the dragonflies on the river thought I was a tree so I was surrounded by them. I’m terrified of bugs, so trying not to abandon ship and drown was a challenge.
The river was a smooth ride besides some random big rocks and logs, but you could easily maneuver yourself around those. About half the time the water was shallow enough for you to get off your tube and swim or walk in the water. There was plenty of times that I could get off my tube.
My friends and I brought coolers just filled with food and drinks, we even packed a charcuterie board for the two birthdays that we were celebrating. Fanciest water food selection ever. It was just *chefs kiss*. Well I started to drink a little more than usual since the sun was beating down on me and guess where I decided to fall off my tube? Yep, a deeper part of the river. Only my luck LOL. I could touch the bottom, but the water was up to my neck and getting back on the tube was a struggle, if only it stopped there. Turns out I drank way too much and I ended up throwing up and falling asleep right after for the rest of the trip. I held on the my friends hand for the last 30 minutes as I was slowly waking up super drunk, but hungover. TYPICAL SALLY. Thankfully, my tube was big and I’m just small, so I was sleeping beauty on a river. I did get sunburn after just recovering from my Colorado one. I’m really surprised that I haven’t gotten sun sickness yet, these sunburns are pretty bad haha
When I was alive during the trip, I did get video footage and I’m working on making a video, another hobby that I’m trying out. At the end, I was able to gather myself up and pack the cars. We just all went back to my friend’s house and grilled up some hotdogs and hamburgers with asparagus, tried to sober up so I could be fine for work the next day. What a day it was. I absolutely love my friends and I would risk my life all over again to go with them ♡
Until the next adventure!
SALLY ♡ T
SALLY♡THINGS 