After spending 2 weeks in northern Utah, I embarked on a national park tour the last week of September with a few friends. We hit all five national parks in Utah, as well as one in Nevada. I’ve detailed below a day-by-day itinerary of our schedule and activities, as a guide for anyone looking to do the same!

My 23rd year started with a big goal to purchase a home in San Francisco. I had been planning for this milestone since I was 18, and actually predicted (or hoped) it would happen by age 22/23. By this time last year, I was deep into the house hunt and had been analyzing the market for months. Despite the winter slowdown in inventory, I pushed forward with the search and finally in late January, closed on my first duplex.

In today’s world, we are persuaded to believe that doing what others expect of us is the answer to a happy life. External expectations and norms shape us as individuals and influence our aspirations. Work the 9-5 till you’re 65, and then you can start living. Surely, society benefits from the long work-life of citizens, and individuals have bought into the idea that these jobs are necessary. It adds no advantage that the easiest way in life is to follow that paved path, and not to question what you truly want to accomplish.

The week before this flight was absolute chaos and very likely the most stressful time of my life. More to come on this in a future post, but it was such a relief to finally put that behind me. Originally, I had a flight scheduled for Sunday, Sep 13, but had to reschedule it due to house renovations. I truly didn’t know if I would ever make it out with all that was going on, but I finally departed on Tuesday, Sep 15!!

This post is not as morbid as the title may allude to, but more of a necessary and realistic reflection on life. I’m 23 now, almost a quarter of my life has passed (fingers crossed I’ll make it to at least 100), and with each day and year that goes by, time is becoming more precious to me. I realize the imminence of death and that, truly, our time here is short.

It’s been a tumultuous few weeks in the world, to say the least. Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, there has been social unrest, injustices among many marginalized groups, and cries for change across the nation. There is a movement happening like I’ve never seen before in my life. Although we’re all still working towards understanding what reform looks like, there has been an immense wave of action and support from my friends, our community, and the world at large. This is what inspired me to try to make an impact myself.

I officially started this blog in April 2020, as we all hunkered down, sheltering in place. Since I was spending more time in the kitchen, baking loaves of banana bread and Levain Bakery cookies, I needed a space to store my recipes so I could come back to them. That was all the motivation I needed to revisit the idea of a blog, yet again.

As the entire world shuts down and millions of people are forced to shelter in place, we are extracted from our daily routines and habits. It is in these unexpected transitions that we may experience personal growth or change. When placed in a new environment, we may find another side of ourselves. In these times, without distraction from the outside world, what do you find yourself gravitating towards?

Once upon a time, my friend Christy told me about a 6-hour race around a 0.75 mile track that she was signing up for, and I thought she was crazy. But I did dream of doing ultras and am slightly crazy myself, so I signed up too. The course was at Polo Fields with an aid station on the track, and I’d just run as many laps as possible within 6 hours.

While preparing for the Spring Equinox Half Marathon this past weekend, I kept wondering how my running would be affected by the high altitude in Colorado. I knew my training pace had improved but would the high elevation slow me down? Apparently so, after reading various blogs online. So I didn’t set high expectations for myself to PR (1:49:12, 8:20 pace). I sort of gave myself a free pass even before starting the race. Oh, it’ll be alright if I don’t PR. It’s hard running at high elevation. It’s expected that you’ll slow down.