Tag: journey

How Saying Yes Changed My Spiritual Journey

Not so long ago, right after Thanksgiving day, I was approached at home by a couple of sisters from the missionary. My nephew was the one that originally answered the door but started saying some silly things which led me to intervene. I was curious, so I introduced myself. They were incredibly nice and asked me where I stand on religion.

Despite my family being Buddhist and when I was much younger, I do remember a friend of my parents offered to take us to church but I was too young to really understand and retain any memory of it. As I got older, I never really saw myself leaning towards any religion. I just did my own thing really and believed in whatever I suppose I wanted to believe in… and of course, that means Santa Claus! Even if he doesn’t believe in me.

So, when I told the sisters I didn’t have any belief, they asked if I was at least spiritual, which I most definitely am. They were more than happy to hear that. Considering Christianity is incredibly broad with many different denominations, they were Mormon, and asked if I was okay with them reading a scripture from the bible. How could I say no? This ended up leading to where they asked for my number and then offered me the book of Mormon, and that eventually led to me being invited to a Christmas party and going to church the Sunday before Christmas. With all this, I also ended up learning quite a bit about the religion.

But why did I agree to any of this in the first place?

As we started approaching the new year, about a week or two prior to the sister missionaries knocking on the door, I was rewatching the movie Yes Man from anywhere to about the tenth to fifteenth time. Overall, in my opinion, it was a great movie with how simple, easygoing, and of course, because it’s Jim Carrey, its’ comedy and his perspective on showcasing two different types of people in one.

But one thing stood out the most to me about this film: its’ relatability. This most recent time that I watched it, something triggered in me that got me reflecting on my past. The countless times I would have friends and family invite me to whatever it would be that they were doing, I would come up with an excuse not to go, causing me to miss out on so many opportunities in my life. And who knows where that would have taken me to this day.

The reason I feel that I am this way often could be because I like sticking to what I’m comfortable with. Getting out of my comfort zone does raise my anxiety and then I start to feel awkward in my surroundings. I am a bit of a homebody.

So, I took a chance and said yes.

On a weekly basis, I met up with the sisters to learn more about the book of Mormon. Now, other than my reasoning to saying yes, in these last few years alone, I became obsessed with learning. Because there’s so much out there in this world alone, it would be a waste to stay couped up in only so many places. That’s why I had to break out of that.

Being older and wiser (sort of), I wanted to understand more about this religion. So, I took it upon myself to be educated by the sisters. I was very much intrigued, although, when I was asked if I knew anything at all about the book of Mormon, my mind went straight to South Park. I didn’t tell them that. Just let them know that I have heard of it. And from there, the education began and the rest was history, as they say.

Something that I missed way back when, when I was still going to classes in grade school, was that feeling of wanting to learn. My much much underdeveloped mind at the time just wanted to make friends and hangout with them as often as I could. And even that was difficult for me. Especially when you’re typically the quiet kid in school. I couldn’t tell ya how I was able to make the friends I did, but hey, it happened and we all got to hangout as much as we could. It did lead me to constantly waiting to do my homework at the last moment before being due. But I’ll always be grateful for the friends that I made and the memories we shared.

The thing is, you don’t have to say yes to everything. As per the movie. But it’s there to just give you that kick start that you may need to the possibility of something wonderful. And if you don’t want to, you could always just say no instead of making an excuse not to. For me, I’m just getting started and already I got to have this story to tell if I didn’t. Do what feels right in your heart… or gut… or wherever. Whichever you prefer. You got this!

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Navigating Change: My 2024 Journey

How do I describe 2024? Why have I been lacking to blog? What changes will I make for this coming year? My answer… “what’s with all the questions!?” Here’s the thing, change happens constantly in my life. To start the year off, I once again had to make the decision to move out and stay with my sister and her family. That was to save some money before I can get back on my feet. After many calculations, it’s not cheap to live on your own without a second set of income to help take the edge off. Especially if you’re going at it alone. I was given an opportunity with one of my job, which I took, only several months later to have that taken away from me ( I swear I was crushing it with the job and a lot of people were thankful for me. Unfortunately, I doubt I’ll ever figure out why they did this to me).

This only shortly after I made a decision to upgrade my vehicle to something newer and hopefully more reliable than my last. Of course, when you find out about things that take you out of your routine… you stumble. If you have a good thing going, you have a routine, you have a set schedule, you can work with that, happily I might add. What made this worst for me was finding out from a peer and not my superior, not until after we got together weeks later to talk at least. When this happened, I do what I know, which was to stress just a bit, come up with a new gameplan, and as always, figure out my budget moving forward. Communication has always been an issue since I’ve been with this employer. Sadly though, communication is a big issue with a lot of other places too.

The thing is, I am incredibly thankful my sister allowed me into her home. Even with her kids, who are young adults now, can still be crowded now that I’m there. I have lost many quality sleep since I’ve been with them. All the more reason why I miss being on my own. Which honestly would be a great motivator towards pushing myself to do more with my life so I can achieve that feeling again. It’s not all bad though. I do get to save money and I picked up a new skill in pickleball, which my niece and nephew play quite often. I even made a trophy for them for a end-of-summer event tournament they hosted with their friends. The feeling I got when crafting things again brought back some really fond memories. I think that’s the thing we lose in life as we get older though. We forget that we can make things with our hands no matter the outcome instead of just purchasing things constantly. We consume way too much in life.

Which leads me to what my plans are for this new year. I’m slow. Something I’ve known for a while but never really understood why. And I’ve accepted that. This year I’m going to take my time with life. I know I have a tendency to give myself a hard time if I don’t get to do things I would like but now that’s perfectly fine. As long as I know I’m taking a step towards the future I want, I’ll be alright. Things with my other job have been going really well and it seems like all you have to do is stay poised, stay positive. But not just staying that way, it’s about being it. Life can be difficult but maybe that’s because of how you look at it. If you have dreams, goals, and aspirations… all you have to do, is start.

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How I Manage My Time & Money

2 years ago (2020) the world experienced for the first time in this modern age, a pandemic. Right before everything pretty much shut down, I was working 7 days a week at a dead-end job that was burning me out. Sure, the money was good. But where’s my free time? When am I going to be able to spend this money? I couldn’t. For the longest, I was miserable because it was work, eat, & sleep, and not a whole lot else. My boss at the time jokingly said to me that I wasn’t getting any action. As in no sexy time. No making the bed rock. You get my point. I didn’t say it out loud, only thought about it to myself. I said to myself, “No sh*t. How am I going to meet women when I’m stuck working here every day?” Most of my energy was drained from the job. Yes, the job was easy. But when your boss asks you to do all these extra tasks and work, it’s difficult for me to say no. Not just that but the job can be stressful. Especially when things don’t go right (which was more than half the time). Machines would break down or not work properly, and half the time the lead engineers would not be around. That’s where I came in to start learning some of the stuff they did when they’re not around. My boss would rely on me quite a bit to do so much more than everyone else. He knows that I have the capabilities to do that because, and I say this lightly, I’m his best worker. No extra benefits. No incentives. No pay raise, nothing. Just a job well done (well, we did manage to get a dollar pay bump when I threatened to quit). I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose, that is to take advantage of me. I was Dwight Schrute to his Michael Scott. Except he was no Michael Scott. The Assistant to the Manager. Overall, I will say he was a good boss though. Outside of the facts I mentioned. He lacked the charisma and hilariousness of what Michael Scott represented. Still a good boss, nonetheless.

Anyway, the lockdown happened, and I was off work for just over a month. I was collecting a nice treat from unemployment. To me, this was more money than I have ever made. From 7 days a week paycheck to the unemployment paychecks, I was transferring a good chunk of that to my savings account. With some proper budgeting, I know what was needed for my expenses and what could be used for leisure. I was still saving quite a bit. For the first time ever, my savings account was at its’ highest, and it continued to grow every week. So, what did I do with the free time that I had? I spent a good amount of it golfing with my nephews & their dad. We went out about once a week, and I forgot how good that felt. Forgetting how incredible of a golfer I was when I had time and practice to work on my golf game. Despite the terrible lasagna incident (loss of muscle mass and weight), I was still driving my tee shots pretty far. Money was definitely not an issue, and this was coming from someone who probably made about 50K a year. That’s it. That’s all it was, and need I remind you this was including overtime work, otherwise it would be much lower.

The point I’m making is with time and money, I could do so much greatness that will make an impact on not just my life, but those that are close to me. Not having the luxury of a wealthy life, I could only imagine what difference I could make with more time, more money. And without even realizing it, I’ve always been giving back to the community. The donations may be small, but it’s still something. Like rounding up my bill when I’m ordering food from a restaurant for a good cause or donating my clothes to Salvation Army and Goodwill instead of selling them. Growing up, I used to sleep on the floor. To make a living, my parents had to put in a lot of work to feed us kids. We didn’t have much, but we did make the most of what we had. So, if that tells you anything about my childhood, just know that I’m okay with the rough start to this incredible journey of my life. A journey with a story I hope to someday tell my future kids, and grandchildren. Something I never received myself considering I never met my grandparents. And being that I was transitioning from one language to another at a young age, I never got to hear the stories of my parents and what their life was like. How they met, the struggles in their everyday lives, coming to America and having me… the journey.

Outside from what this pandemic has brought us, it has gotten me to slow down my life a little bit to embrace it more. With a little soul searching, I am so grateful for this life I have and most of the people that are in it. Although, there are some things about me that is considered bad, I finally picked up on some of it and am working on bettering myself. Every day I try to be a better person. Every day I try to inspire hope for others. Helping others out towards their goals and dreams is a part of mine as well. I have a passion for life. All it took was a little perspective. Let’s change the world for the better!

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