Bored Blog 27: How is The Start of Your Year Going?

1/1/2022

Happy New Year!!

I hope you already started working on your goals. It's very easy to think, "The year just started...I can start working out tomorrow." Nope. We do it now. Whatever it is you're working on this year (this month, this week or today), make it fun and have it at arms reach. Have your gym clothes out and your dumbbells next to your bed (though watch out for your toes in the morning). Then get the party started and work out.

For the last three days of 2021 I was babysitting my friends' cat.

It was nice to pretend I had my own apartment for a while. Yesterday night, my siblings came over (to see the cat) and to eat some sushi. By the time they had to leave (9pm) they were getting their coats on and I said the lame, "See you next year!" Which was really tomorrow.

My sis then said as a matter of factly, "Nothing is going to change next year." I said, "No! It has to change!!!" She smiled and said, "It's going to be the same." They then left me alone with Melon (the cat).

I sat there thinking, "This year is going to be different. The tiny home community will be built this year. It has to. We're going to have money for the land and we're going to build it." It's been two years of waiting. Two years of thinking what I can do to help. My dad tells me that God will give it to us when the time is right. I understand that, while I also understand that it could be a sign that we're not ready (mostly me). My marketing skills need more work. My confidence also needs work.

Which is why I did the next thing on my scaredy-cat list.

To swim in cold water!

This morning I woke up early, got my things packed, said goodbye to Melon (her owners came back today),

went back home to change and get my dad to come with me to Coney Island. The friend I made the scaredy-cat list with (not sure if she'd want me saying her name), got a cold and couldn't come with me. My other friends were busy/not interested, so I asked my dad. He said yes!

The polar bear plunge started at 10am and ended at 2pm. I wanted to get there at 1pm. I got home, got my things ready by 12pm. I checked on my dad and he was playing loud music in the shower. He couldn't hear me knocking on the bathroom door saying, "We need to go!"

We don't leave until 12:25pm. So, we got there at 1:45pm. I told my dad, "We can go somewhere else along the beach if we're late." On our walk over there I started feeling a little disappointed. People in bathrobes and towels were packing their stuff into their cars or were heading to the train. They already took a swim in the icy NYC beach water (yes I still wanted to go for it).

My dad said we should still check out where they plunged into the water. So we did.

People were having a party! I then checked to see if people were still in the water and...

People were being told to get out. These were the last two crazy swimmers in the water.

My dad and I liked the energy so we hung out for a bit. Then! All of a sudden-

-people were getting into the water! My dad said, "Emel, go!" I looked around and none of the staff who were in charge of the event said anything...so I took off my jacket. I was so scared of going in.

It took me a while to get in because I was thinking of how cold it was going to be. So cold that my body would get numb and then it would start to burn my skin off. But I was thankful to the kind lady who ran in with me...and then the lower half of my body turned numb and I felt like I was on fire. But I did it! Once I was out of the water I felt so much warmer.

Did it make me feel alive? For a split second yes, when I was in the water. Then once I was out I was glad it was over. Maybe next year I'll try to stay in longer. I'm glad I did it. I did what I said I would do.

As long as I'm trying to push myself out of my comfort zone I'm making my way towards having confidence in myself! People usually follow confidence. So, as I slowly build it up I'm sure the tiny home community will become more than just a dream.

This year is definitely going to be different. Are you ready for 2022?? Good!

Best,

Emel ^-^

P.S.

Would you do the polar bear plunge? How long do you think you'd last in the water? What are your thoughts?

Bored Blog 26: Why Wait For Next Year?

12/22/2021

The year is ending guys!

Do you have your New Year's resolutions ready? Did you resolve this year's resolutions?

That last questions is probably a no, or "I was able to do one of them!"

For me, I got 4 out of 8 of my resolutions this year. Not too bad. I was able to finish writing a short story I was working on. Make up my fasting days (for Ramazan). Finish a documentary, and add $4,000 to my savings account (trying to start with small goals for money then work my way up).

The rest of my goals are for building the tiny home community, love life stuff, and making more money. They say you should be specific with your goals if you want them to happen.

Those were my main goals. But do you know what successful people do for their New Year's resolutions? They usually focus on months instead of one year. Which makes me think, why not have goals for every week or for every day? Though they probably do that as well. Which is what makes them where they are today.

If you focused on small goals every month, every week or every day, that would get you up and moving too, right? Try it out! You don't even have to wait for next year to start.

I have already started working on my goals, and it's not even Christmas yet.

A couple weeks ago I messaged my friend, "Do you want to do a scaredy-cat list with me?" It's like a bucket list, but instead it's a list of things you're afraid of (that is doable.) She said "Yes!" So, we each made a list of 6 things that scare us. We then met up. I chose three things from her list for her to do, and she did the same with my list. She even offered me to go first. (⌒_⌒;)

For my list she picked, singing in public, ask for a guy's (whom I don't know) phone number, and to swim in cold water. For her I picked hitting on a guy at the gym, trying fugu and going to an upscale lounge.

Last week we did the first thing on my list. I got my karaoke mic, Christmas songs and a light ready. My friend has a 9-5 job so by the time we met up, it was dark. I always wanted to sing in Central Park...so that's where we went. When we got there it was empty. My friend suggested singing in front of the mall at Columbus Circle. I got scared and I didn't want to stand in the way of people.

I had my friend walk with me alllll the way to this place.

But there were people there (this is a photo from a different day).

Sooooo there was other spot I've always wanted to go to (photo from google).

I pointed it out to my friend and she was up for it.

I got my things out to set them up. My friend was helping out and she noticed two 60 year old men looking at us as if they were waiting for us to perform. Wow, we already had an audience. My friend told them to wait because we weren't ready yet. With the light shining on us I couldn't see their faces, so I was thinking, "Ahhhh...okay let's do this! I'm going to sound bad but let's do this!"

So, I did. I sung Jingle bell rock.

Yes there is a video...but you don't want to hear me singing.

I was a little shy at first, but then I got into it. You can't see her, but my friend is on the far left dancing next to me and shining her phone's light around.

After the song was finished we took a bow and thanked them.

I could not see the expression on the mens' faces. I think they were foreign from their accent. They didn't say much. I then got the next song ready. I looked up from my phone and saw they were already walking away. My friend and I laughed. "Guess they didn't like our singing."

We sung a few songs. At one point we saw the cops driving by. We weren't sure if we should keep singing or not...We kept going and they didn't stop us.

We sung all the Christmas songs on my list. I started packing up. My friend said, "You didn't do what you said you would." Which was to sing in front of PEOPLE. I thought this was enough. There were two more people who stopped and watched us for a bit. But she had a point. I said, "Why don't we go in front of one of the Central Park's entrances?" She agreed.

By the time we got there my friend was tired of all the walking we did. She said, "I'm going home." I laughed and said, "Sure, okay. We can do this again next time."

It was a lot of fun for a Friday night. I feel so out of place at bars, so I rather do things like this. My friend said "This is something we'll talk about when we're old!"

Yeah lol.

That's what I want to do. I want to do more things that I can talk about when I'm old or now when I meet up with my friends lol. This year I tried to do as many things as I could.

The year isn't over yet and I'm still looking for things to do. My sis and I are going to have a kimchi Christmas (make/eat kimchi for Christmas). I'm looking forward to it!

What are some goals you want to achieve this month? This week? Today?!

You can email me at LuckyDaruma7@gmail.com

Merry Christmas! and Happy Hollidays!

Best,

Emel

Bored Blog 25: What is Your Voice?

12/6/2021

Hope all is well with you. This might be a little long ha...ha.

How long has it been since you went to your local library? For me it's been...maybe...since the summer of 2017 or the winter of 2016? Oof. I think it's mostly due to whenever I want to go to the library, I get there and the doors are locked because it just so happens to be a Sunday.

Yesterday YouTube suggested some random YouTuber who was 23 years old when he reached 1 million dollars. I clicked it and now I keep getting recommendations of other people who reached 1 million dollars. With the amount of these stories out there they make becoming a millionaire look easy!

I watched the 23 year old one. He had a good story, went through a lot of struggle and was able to become rich. What he did was selling things online in bulk. And I think he did some investing as well. I applaud him for reaching his goal, but that's not what I want to do to become rich lol. It's highly likely the other Youtubers have similar stories of becoming rich. They sold things or did things that sound really boring. And that's kind of one of the secrets to becoming rich. It's usually doing some boring thing over and over, and then you get a lot of money for it.

Take selling asphalt. That sounds really boring to sell, but cities need asphalt so of course you're going to have customers for it. You're making a lot of money selling rubble. If doing something like selling asphalt is more your speed, then go for it. Ignore me and go for it.

Personally, I have an inner artist that wants to make things I enjoy and give it out to the world. It's a hard path (selling asphalt might be hard to start too), but it makes more sense to me.

So the now 24 year old millionaire YouTuber said he went to the library and read a lot of books. That's when I thought, "Today is Sunday...I'm going to make sure to go to the library tomorrow!" AND THAT'S WHAT I DID TODAY.

I went into that library for the first time in 4-5 years. I had no idea what book I was going to read, and I went straight to the biography section because I didn't want people to judge me if I went to the young adult section.

The library I went to is small and I was sad that there were actually a few people there. Most of them were on their laptops. As I walked through the biography section I thought, "What am I doing? I don't know famous people." I skimmed through the titles ignoring the majority of them that just said [Name]'s biography and found one title that caught my eye.

Yes, this is not a t-shirt! Currently I am selling t-shirts for my short film I'm Not Here at https://www.emelsaat.com/shop-1. So why don't I read this, yeah?

I read the first few pages around where the adults on their laptops were. The first sentence on the first page was "Fu%* you." Well, humph I didn't want to start a fight today. It was hard to say if Bobby Hundreds was trying too hard and will continue to try hard for the rest of his book, so I kept on reading to find out. But then I felt like it was just too dark where I was reading. I got up, was going to go to the second floor but they blocked that off because people are scared of dropping dead right now. SO, I marched on over to the kids section where there was plenty of light, colors and soft cushions. A lady who was working there warned me about it being noisy. It's a Monday at 12pm, no parents were going to bring their kids to the library for a while. I sat there on a cushion by the window and continued to read.

He talked about his childhood which I could somewhat relate to. And no, he didn't seem to be trying too hard to seem hip or anything. I wont bore you with the story too much. Though, if you know this dude or are into street wear, I'd suggest reading this book.

This may be very butchered, but he was talking about those being the black sheep, such as those skaters, Rock/indie music lovers, street-wearers and whatnot. With his t-shirts he wanted to make a community for these black sheep. He was explaining that his brand had a story behind it, a message behind it. The people that wear his stuff are wearing a message.

He then talks about you finding a voice. "If design isn't your thing, you can use whatever medium you work with to carry your voice...But you have to first home in on who you are. Once you've carved out your little corner, the next move is stepping out and inviting people in."

That's when I had to stop reading. I had to stop and reflect on what in the world I am doing with my projects. I thought about the groups I've been in while growing up. There weren't many, and I'm still looking for a group of people to call home. Usually if you can't find something you want that's when you make it yourself.

But what would my community be? Bobby Hundreds listed he is a middle child, Asian American, a skater, kind of a rebel and a few other things. I tried listing things and then thought, "I don't want to label myself as anything." Why are we labeling ourselves so much?

There was a dream I had a few nights ago. Someone asked me in the dream what I wanted or what I was doing, and I said, "The American dream."

Back to today, sitting in the child section of the library all alone, on a Monday afternoon, without a job, no boyfriend or husband, and still living at my parents' I thought, "Maybe that's just it. The American dream. Especially for our tiny homes. We want to bring back the American dream. For everyone."

My dad has said that numerous of times. He's such a positive guy, that his positive energy and the meaning in his words can brush past me. Somehow it really clicked today, of what he meant.

Thank's for reading this much. I wanted to tell you what happened today!

Like this post or comment below, what do you think your voice is? I'd love to see what it is.

Best,

Emel ^_^