hey, mama!

It's the hardest, most unappreciated jobs in the world; yet they do it with overflowing amounts of compassion and love.

summer 2012

Thank you to all the amazing mothers out there; words can't describe how amazing you all are. One day just isn't enough to show our appreciation for you.

Happy Mother's Day!

oh, you're going to end up forever alone too?

If I got a dollar every time someone said, "I'm going to end up forever alone." I wouldn't be twelve thousand dollars in debt with student loans. Maybe it's because the summer is coming up and I've heard people like to be single in the summer and find a cuddle buddy for the winter. Whenever my girlfriends and I get together, it's definitely a subject that always comes up. We as how Amy has kept her relationship since grade 11, how Jane and Lucy are doing after their respected nasty breakups, how Alex has commitment issues even with the boys lined up outside her house and how I'm moving on from a recent breakup.

I've learned a lot about love, relationships, breakups, heartache etc., the three most important things I've learned are:

Schedule time to mope. After my breakup, I was told to keep myself busy - I found myself working sixty hour weeks, living off coffee and timbits. It was great for the three weeks as work consumed my life, but the repercussions after my life went back to normal were horrible. Keeping myself busy with work didn't help me get over anything, it just numbed my emotions and kept me from dealing with my emotions. I crashed when life went back to normal, it was as though a big truck of emotions hit me 100km/hr. Just like how we're taught to confront our problems, I had to confront my emotions. I was angry, sad, disappointed, upset, confused, happy and eighty other emotions during a span of a couple days. It may be a cliche, but my girlfriends came over and threw me a pity party. We drank wine, ate ice cream, watched chick flicks and cried. Breakups suck, but it's not the end of the world. Have yourself a pity party, cry your eyes out, confront your emotions and get over it. Confront your emotions, they'll catch up with you - or even worse, they'll destroy future relationships. 

Ice cream straight out of the carton? Don't mind if I do! - WHISTLER 2012

A relationship is an experience. We've all had our fair share of amazing relationships, boring relationships, absolutely horrid relationships and everything in between. Everyone should be able to walk away from relationships learning something - hopefully. Lucy learned to never date anyone you meet at a club, Jane learned that she deserves to cherished and Vida learned timing is everything. I probably learned more about what I want in a relationship and  grew more as a person from the my bad relationship than the amazing relationships. I have a better understanding of how much work is needed in to make a relationship successful, how my moodiness affects a relationship and what I need from my counterpart in a relationship. No matter what experience you have, you'll be that much closer to knowing, finding and having the best relationship possible.

It's always a good time when it's a night out with the girls. SUMMER 2012

Focus on yourself. The media and propaganda has led us to believe that every woman needs a man to complete their lives. This has been a social norm for as long as I can remember - luckily the world is starting to accept the fact that women are gaining power in society. Nothing is more attractive than an independent, confident man or woman. I'm not saying you have to be at the height of your career, making X amount of money a year, drive a luxury car and have a house on the British Properties; but if you're a positive person who is confident in the person you are, excited for where you're going and appreciate those around you, it's a major turn on! You can't bring happiness or make someone else happy if you aren't happy with yourself.

Heartache is inevitable, but how you deal with it, how you use it and how you learn from it is what's going to help you grow. When you find that person that you want to spend the rest of your life with because of all the dorky jokes you laugh at together, all the places you visit together and all the memories you create together; all the heartache in the world will be well worth it. It may take time, but have faith you'll find this person - because you damn well deserve nothing but the best. 

What are your thoughts on love, breakups and relationships? Do you believe in love at first site? Do you believe in soulmates? Leave a comment!

ruining our twenties.

In the past, I've read numerous articles about how our generation don't have the urgency to 'do' and accomplish goals in our twenties. I found this article after my best friend reblogged it on tumblr. It's definitely a good read and opens your eyes about how the decisions we make today, affect us in the future. After reading Christopher Hudspeth's article, here's what I personally think are top 5 ways we're ruining our lives.

Allowing yourself to get fat. Our metabolism slows as we get older, that poutine you just ate will and is going straight to your stomach and thighs. I'm not saying you should eat like a rabbit, but perhaps you should think twice about it. Being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle is long-term choice - not a daily decision. Food prep, working out, eating well and living a healthy lifestyle is the new trend that's happening - it's a bandwagon worth jumping on.

Living in the past. We may have been Queen B or All-Star Quarterback in highschool, but we're not in highschool anymore. Your status in the past isn't going to help give you status in the workplace. Your success depends on your desire, drive and motivation to achieve the goals you've set. Living in the past isn't helping your get your big promotion, so get off your ass and get your shit together. Why stay in the past when you can shape your future?

GRAD 2010 with the girls. <3

Being in destructive relationships. This isn't just geared towards relationships but to friendships as well. There is absolutely no reason to stay in a relationships or friendships with individuals that are not good for us. We're already faced with rejection and negativity in many aspects of our life, why deal with it with those that are supposed to be our support system? You don't need that overly jealous friend who puts you down or that significant other that blames all the relationships woos on you. Cut them out and surround yourself with positive people who show nothing but support and love you.

Dreaming and not doing. You can spend your whole life dreaming about the perfect world that you want to live in - but dreaming isn't going to get you that perfect world. You can easily make your dreams into reality if you put it into action. Refer to my previous post here. It won't be an easy process, but it'll be well worth it when you accomplish those goals and can finally live that amazing life.

Europe 2012

Not enjoying your twenties. I'm not telling you to spend all your money stupid shit, making the decision of doing pyramid schemes or making horrible financial decisions; but we need to press pause and enjoy our lives. Yes, school is important, but have the ability to take a step back and enjoy being young. Take that spontaneous trip to whistler with the girls, go on that camping trip with the boys, take that extra shot you know is going to push you over the edge and be a poor university student and travel the world. I know this last one contradicts this whole post, but it's great you're planning for the future - within moderation. You don't want to be on your death bed upset because you keep thinking of the WHAT IFs. You should want to smile back and say, "I made a mistake, but I had a hell of a time making and learning from it."


What do you think are common mistakes we make early on that can cause some problems in the future? What are some things our 50 year old selves would tell our 20 year old selves? Let me know your thoughts!

road to success

We're taught from an early age the steps to success. There are many models of the road to success, but the fundamentals of it are all the same. I recently came across a video by TEDtalk on youtube yesterday about success and the road to success. Richard St. John's model had 8 steps to success, they are the following:

By following this model, Richard was able to reach success, but wasn't able to maintain his success. In the beginning, he religiously did all of the 8 things his success model taught him and didn't care about the money  that came with it. As the money started to come in, he started to focus more on the money than the 8 steps to success. Thus, he wasn't able to maintain his success and realized that success isn't a climb to the top of the mountain, but a continuous journey that maintains and expands success. 

All throughout our lives, we're taught how to reach success but nothing about maintaining success. What are your thoughts of the road to success and how to maintain it? Is there such thing as the "perfect" formula for success? Let me know your thoughts! 

daddy's girl.

My daddy is probably the most important person in my life. He's the most hardworking individual I know and idolize him for that. He may not vocalize his love for his kids or even his wife, but he does through his actions. He spoils me by making dinner for me every night, picking me up from work when it's raining, he wakes up early to make breakfast for me, supports whatever I weird phase I'm currently in, the list literally goes on forever. I'm hope everyone out there has someone in their lives like my dad. 

I came across this video and obviously cried my little eyes out. Thinking about the major milestones coming up, I couldn't fathom what it'd be like without my dad at my side. 

As much as we're working so hard to get to our next milestone, whether it's graduating post secondary, marriage, having kids, or starting our career, we need to take time out and spend it with the ones that have helped us unconditionally to get us where we are and where we're going. Don't get caught up with your life to the point where you don't have time for the oldies. Appreciate and spend time with them, time you'll spend regretting when they're no longer here. 

reeeeeeeading break.

Reading break should really be known as sleeping break. For all of you who don't know, Reading break is the university spring break that happens in February for most of the universities in the Vancouver area. It's been a sluggish reading break for me since all I did was catch up on sleep. Definitely not complaining about that since sleep is very difficult to come across these days. The excess of sleep will kick me in the butt soon since I was supposed to be doing homework and reading.

I started off my break by heading over the the island to visit one of my best girl friends who goes to school at UVIC - I mentioned this in an earlier post. It was a much needed girls weekend full of wine, girl talk, outings, piercings, singalongs and everything in between. During our last girls weekend in Whistler, we made a video to Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. This past weekend, we decided to do the same but to a different song. Take a look!!

VICTORIA 2013 

Hope you enjoyed the video! Until next time... ! xo

happy valentines day

happy valentines day lovers!

cheers to celebrating our love to everyone. 

infinite x's and o's.

nature vs nurture

There is always much debate regarding the results of nature versus nurture and its importance in childhood development. Each of us are born with unique characteristics and traits that shape who we are and the decisions we make. Among the amazing traits we're given, we're also given traits that aren't so appealing - whether it's jealousy, aggressive or angry traits, we all have it. 

Joseph Hall, a ten year old boy shot and killed his father two years ago. Child services had launched upwards of 23 investigations into the Hall home but came up with nothing. Joseph was born into a dysfunctional family surrounded by drugs, abuse and was said to be neglected throughout his childhood years. (Find out the full story HERE) His father was also apart of a Nazi group 60miles outside of LA where racism and prejudice is still very alive. Many of the Nazi meetings were held at the Hall household. 

Two years later, Joseph is now twelve years old and has been found guilty of his actions two years ago. During an interview, his grandma stated, "I knew he'd be a murderer, I just thought it'd kill later on." Do you think that Joseph was predestined to be a killer? Is it truly because it's in his genetics, the environment he grew up in or a combination of both? Is it fair that he's pled guilty to second degree murder?  

What are you thoughts on this case? on nature versus nurture in general? Leave your comments below! 

friends 4 evaaa

I'm so excited for this coming weekend, all of us girls are making the trip out to Victoria BC to visit our friend Laura - who is currently is studying at the University of Victoria. It'll be the first time since Christmas we'll all be together! 

CHRISTMAS 2012 <3

Some of us have been friends prior, but we all started hanging out, sharing our fruit roll ups around grade 3. It's been about 13 years that we've been really good friends. However, it wasn't always all smiles and laughter. Like any group of girls, we had our issues of bullying, self-esteem problems, stupid fights during field trips and all of the rest of the fun that comes along with growing up. 

At one point or another, all of us questioned whether our friendships would last. We were growing, maturing and trying to find our place in the world. Although we've had our rough times through the course of our friendship. If our friendship were to end, we'd still hold the highest respect for one another and not talk poorly of anyone. 

A couple weeks ago, I bumped into a few girls whom I used to play club volleyball with all throughout highschool. One of the girls mentioned she's no longer friends with her "best friend forever" then proceeded to go on a full fledged rant on how her now former best friend forever is a f*cking slut, whore, c*nt, dumb b*tch - every name that came to mind. It was odd to me that you can talk so poorly about if you guys had such a history together in the past. It just puzzles me when someone speaks so poorly about someone they were so close with in the past. 

Anyhow, I'm finding it extremely difficult to concentrate on my task - which is work because I'm so excited for the coming weekend! I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm beyond lucky to know I've got the most amazing friends in the world. Not many people can say this, but these girls have been my best friends since grade 3. 

Grade 4 - 9 years old.

December 2012.

What are your thoughts on friendships? 

#firstworldproblems

We've become such lazy arrogant individuals in the western world where we take everything for granted. I found this video on my friends' facebook page the other day and it's eye opening to watch. So many of us in today's society take what we have for granted and complain about the most absurd things. Complaining about leaving our charger in the other room, getting pickles even though we specifically asked for no pickles, throw a fit when our Toms get wet when it rains, turning the faucet a tad too far and scorching hot water comes out - the list literally goes on for DAYS.

I get it, we're lucky to be living in a country with such high living standards. There are hundreds of organizations to help the developing countries get clean water and education in an attempt to change their standard of living. Many of these organizations have been trying for quite a number of years - but where is the progress? Are those developing countries benefiting in the long-run from the help of these organizations. It seems as though they're tackling the problem at the wrong angle. They're helping to keep these kids alive by providing clean water and food, but that doesn't help them change their way of living.

It comes down to a sociological problem of lack of education and corrupt governments. With power crazed governments, it's difficult to make the change in these countries that need it. We have such high living standards in Canada and America because we've been educated and know that this is the "right" way of living.

My best friend, Jenna in Uganda this past year. 

It's sad to say that I don't think I'll be seeing this change in my lifetime. I'm happy that I've got friends who wish to see a change and have volunteered in developing countries in hopes of helping. But to be honest, to change those countries governments across the world are going to have to intervene on a global level.

What are your thoughts??

Western Skinny - Asian Fat

I came across this article today and reading it gave a weird uplifting feeling of relief. This conversation came up time and time again throughout my club volleyball seasons in highschool. We were all asian girls - with the odd white girl, 5'2-5'8. Some of us were petit, some of us weren't. For the petit girls, they literally ate anything and everything and still were the same size. But for us taller girls who had a bit more meat on us, it was difficult to keep up with the other girls' eating habits that consisted of junk food, soda and all the carbs in the world.

Body image has always been a struggle for me, it's a love hate relationship with my body, but I'm working on keeping a positive relationship with my body and food. I work out regularly to be able to eat the tasty - but fatty foods I love. In my household, my sister and I are quite tall, standing at 5'6 and 5'7. We've played sports our whole lives don't have the typical slender body type. We've got the broad shoulders from swimming, athletic legs from volleyball and strong arms from the combination of both sports. My mother however doesn't see this as being "athletic", she sees this as being fat. It doesn't help when my best girl friends have the generic slim, slender asian genes. Don't get me wrong, I have the best looking group of girlfriends, it's just hard to stand by them and be the "big girl."

WHISTLER 2012 <3 

I definitely agree with Jane who wrote the article, it's difficult to live in a world where traditional culture and standards clash with the western culture and standards.

What do you girls think?

ohana means family.

You never know how much you miss the constant fights, long car rides, sushi trips and pranks until they leave. My brother recently left to pursue his post graduate degree in Melbourne, Australia. 

Growing up with him wasn't always easy, he wasn't always the nicest brother but as we grew older I started to realize everything he did was out of love. He did things I may or may not have agreed with, but he did it to protect me. It scares me to know that you won't be around to help me out, look after me and be there to help screen any potential boyfriends. 

We ride together, die together, bad boys for life. <3

I know you're going to have an amazing experience, meeting new people and shape your future. I'm so excited for you and can't wait to hear all about your new adventures. 

"Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten." - Lilo & Stitch.

love always,

your baby sister. 

(belated) resolutions

Everyone these days seem to have mix emotions regarding new years resolutions. I've always been one of those girls that has a million resolutions but end up breaking them 2 weeks into the new year. This year, I only have 3 resolutions that I've kept or have made a conscious effort to uphold. They're listed below:

1. Travel to a new destination I've never been to and try to immerse myself in the culture.
As of right now, I've been planning for two trips, one to VEGAS since I'm legal in the states this year! yay! The second trip will be to Mexico. I'm foreseeing that both trips will involve large quantities of alcohol.

2. Find myself an internship.
This was done last week as I'm taking on an internship with Vancouver Fashion Week! Did you know that we're the second biggest fashion week below New York Fashion Week? We've been running for about 12 years and not everyone in Vancouver even knows we have one - which is pretty sad if you ask me. Regardless, I'm definitely excited and really happy that this came through, I just have to get my shit together and make sure I do an amazing job at it!

3. Never take anything for granted.
My girlfriends and I decided to do this jar thing after Jenny saw the idea on tumblr. We all have jars that we bought and decorated and every day we've got to write at least one thing that happened that made us happy. At the end of the year, we're going to get together and read all 365 days of happiness we had! It's a great way to always be thankful for the small things that happen on a daily basis and see the progress we've made throughout the year.

These are 3/5 jars that have been decorated. Jenna and Laura aren't in the city so they haven't been able to do it with us. 

What are your thoughts on new years resolutions? If you have them, care to share?

love always,

Cassandra 

always thinking.

Since the Mayans were wrong about the world ending, it allows me to continue posting! (lack of it really...) It's been quite the past month and a half. Reflecting back in the short 6 weeks so much has happened in my personal life, work life and professional life. (Not so much school since well, it's school, it's routine) Here are some of the things I've learned or taken away from my recent experiences:

1. It's almost impossible to be friends with your manager at work.
The reason I say this is because the hierarchy and different level of power - for a lack of a better word, makes it too difficult to be friends at work. I'm not saying you can't be friends at all. I'm just saying you can't be friends in the office. You can talk about personal issues with your manager IF it affects your work, if not go out during your own time to be friends. The biggest issue for me is that it creates a dysfunctional environment - not only for me but for the rest of the department. There's nothing worse than having a day long conversation with your manager then realizing at the end of the day you haven't finished any of the work that was supposed to be done then getting dinged on it the next day from your manager.

2. If you want to be successful, YOU need to make it happen on your own.
This is a cliche, BUT it's true. Everyone can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk? If you say you're going to be this successful businessman or entrepreneur YOU'RE the one that has to push yourself to make it happen. I'm taking a professional selling class this semester (with an amazing prof, he's one of the most inspiring prof out there) and he can tell which students are going to ace his class and which ones are going to flunk. I've always wanted an internship for the longest time, but I never actively did anything to achieve it - until these past two weeks. I have the confidence that I'm more than capable of doing any internship in marketing or communications out there, my resume speaks volumes on it's own, but it can't speak volumes if no one sees it. I got an interview within 2 hours of applying to the position and was hired on the spot after they met me. I'm not trying to be cocky or arrogant in any way, but I'm trying to point out that because I made an effort to applying, something happened. We all dream big things for ourselves, but the thing that sets the successful ones apart from the failures is the desire, ambition and willingness to put the effort into getting to our dreams. 

3. Heartbreak is inevitable.
This one sounds like a sad sob story, but it isn't! Have faith that if you're meant to be with this person, you'll find your way back to each other in the future. However, that does NOT mean you're waiting on this person. Move on, meet new people, create new experiences and work on yourself. Many people have a sixth sense when it comes to noticing people who are truly happy with where they are in life and who they are. You may have been in the best relationship or the worst, I've experienced both, but I don't regret either of them. I probably learned more from my shitty relationship than I did the amazing one. You're never losing anything regardless of how the relationship was, you're gaining experience, knowledge, and a better understanding of what YOU are looking for in someone you hope to spend the rest of your life with.

Ha, I can't believe in the 6 short weeks so much has happened. I owe a lot of my strength to overcome my fears and heartbreak to my amazing support system. Not many people can say this, the girls have been in my life for a long time, we went our separate ways after elementary school and are all over the place for university, but it doesn't change the fact that we'll drop everything if one of us is in need.

I apologize for my super long descriptions, I'm working on my writing to make it a bit more clear and concise, I'm going to need it for business anyways!

love always,
Cassandra