#12 on my 22 Before I Turn 23 List

I’m a little more than halfway till my next birthday and I’m still plugging away at my 22 Before I Turn 23 list. #12 was to eat a Sprinkle cupcake but after moving into the area, I’ve discovered SusieCakes is the way to go instead!

I first tried SusieCakes when my boss bought a little treat for a week well done and I grabbed a slice of their German Chocolate Cake. I’m usually not a fan of coconut topping (while I do love fresh coconut) but their cake just looked too appetizing to pass up! I was not disappointed. The slice was huge and I ended up having some more of it for breakfast the next morning – and I still couldn’t finish it.

In January, my company celebrated its first anniversary. Many companies don’t make it past the first year so I was extremely proud of what my team had accomplished and very excited for the next months to come. I went to go pick up our cake and while I was there, I dropped my business card into their fishbowl for a chance to win two dozen cupcakes. I completely forgot about it until February came along and I received an email telling me I had won the drawing! That makes two drawings I’ve won in my entire life. Pretty exciting :]

What surprised me most was SusieCakes excellent customer service. They emailed me and verified my office address and then told me that they would deliver the cupcakes two weeks later. Needless to say, our office was extremely excited. The day they arrived, the cupcakes were accompanied with a handwritten note congratulating me again. Handwritten notes nowadays are so rare and it’s really a special touch to add that to an already sweet surprise. They even specially decorated a cupcake with our company name!

Customer service is an attribute that lacks in many industries. I’m sure we’ve all experienced the horrendous wait on the phone during a tech support call. Help should be easy to come by, not painful. SusieCakes is a reminder that there are still businesses and companies out there that truly care about their customers and make an effort on their part to reciprocate the kindness. At work, we’re reading “Delivering Happiness,” the book written by Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh. Throughout the entire book, he stresses the importance of customer service and customer interaction and how it’s the most important thing a company could deliver on. It’s not just about the revenue but success is measured by the happiness of the company and the customer. It’s a practice that my company tries to uphold and put into all of our interactions and it’s a practice that should be much more universal. How much more forgiving would a customer be if their initial interaction was that much more positive? How would a customer’s loyalty to a brand or product be if they were not on hold for hours at a time to solve or troubleshoot a problem?

Customer service is the crux of building any sort of business. It can make or break your company and it’s a so important to be aware of how each and every interaction affects the customer, the interaction, and the culture of the company you’re trying to build.

Getting Back in the Groove

It’s no surprise that I’ve put on a few pounds since I’ve started my new job. I’m not boastful about it – it’s not exactly my proudest moment. But I’m pushing myself to get back in the habit of exercising and luckily I have a few coworkers that are willing to join me on my endeavor. We’ve begun to put aside one night a week to all exercise together, usually by taking classes. So far we’ve done a class of cardio barre (my doing of course :] ) and tonight we took a spin class.

My bottom is very sore already from sitting on my spin bike but it was nice to sweat it out in a dim room with pulsating music. It’s been a while since my last spin class. I used to take spin classes when I was on the dance team at Cal – it was part of our work out regime in the summer time while we prepared for football season. I knew what to expect but it never makes it any easier.

Tonight, we went to a studio named Fit On, a boutique studio based in Manhattan Beach. Elizabeth provided the Groupon and we got our fit on. The rom was initially pretty bright but as classes started, the lights were substantially dimmer. It took me a while to get adjusted but it’s probably better that I couldn’t see myself and watch myself in the mirror: a bad habit I tend to have. The music was your usual techno/pop but what surprised me the most was the second song of the class: the Survivor theme song!! At that point I knew I was going to love the class. Any fitness class that brings my favorite competitive reality show into the mix is a winner in my book.

The class was pretty standard: some hills, some flat roads, a lot of sweating. My knees were quivering at the end and it was a crapshoot as to whether I would be able to walk out of there, much less drive home. But I survived and had a lot of fun! I’m excited to go back next week, we were told that the instructor we had was the hardest and he got off his bike to walk around and give us corrections or turn up the resistance on our bikes. But I really enjoyed the class and can’t wait for the next. Spin tends to be one of those classes where you walk out really feeling like you’ve burned some calories. Tomorrow, if I’m not too sore, I’m going to try and take a dance class! I took one last week and I was unpleasantly surprised by how sore I was the next day. It’s time to get back in shape!

Nostalgic

Ok, I just checked my posts for the year of 2014 and there are only 3. That’s really quite unacceptable considering how I had originally planned to write every day. I mean it was a lofty goal but I don’t think I’ve even stuck to once a week lately! Bad on my part.

Recently, I’ve been feeling really nostalgic and thinking about home a lot. Maybe it’s the passing of Chinese New Year without any real celebration or the lack of Cantonese and Mandarin I’ve been missing, but a few days ago at work, I was inclined to build a playlist on Spotify revolving around the few Chinese (and Korean Pop) songs I know. My strange hunt for things relating to Chinese culture spurred a friend to question why I was so into “Asian shit” all of the sudden.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, right? An Asian girl who’s interested in Asian things? But sadly, the generations of Chinese Americans that are born and raised in the US are not nearly as engrossed in the Asian culture as we’d like to believe.

A friend posted this article on Facebook and while I read through the article I realized that there were so many things to relate to. We carry the burden of being two halves to create a whole – there’s no denying that I’m glad and happy to be an American but in no way do I ever leave my Chinese ethnicity and culture out of defining my self.

I’m extremely lucky that I never had to deal with any of the stereotypes or bullying that many ABCs (American Born Chinese) grow up with but I can relate to the author when she talks about losing her Chinese. I grew up going to Mandarin Chinese school every Saturday until I graduated from high school. Saturday mornings consisted of waking up at 8:00 in the morning to sit through 4 hours of Chinese instruction and let’s face it, I was a goody two shoes. Not only did I have to be the best in regular school because of my Asian pride (really it just was regular pride, being Asian had nothing to do with it), I had to be the top of my class at Mandarin school because that’s where it mattered. Students that came from the same background as I did, and some of them that even spoke Mandarin at home while I spoke Cantonese, were my competition and I loved it. I learned Mandarin partially because my parents wanted me to and partially because it was another thing to excel at. Looking back, I’m so glad I had that opportunity to pick up another language.

While scrolling through Chinese songs on Spotify, I was surprised at how wide the selection of songs was. I went through and picked out the songs I remembered listening to: songs I had learned at Chinese school, ones I had been introduced to by friends, ones that I had grown up listening to in the car and just never figured out the names of. I played through them multiple times and was surprised at myself because I could still sing along to so many of the familiar tunes and lyrics. I was relieved that my Chinese hadn’t completely left me and that I at least had a little bit of “culture” left in me.

I’m more than happy to call myself an ABC. I get the best of both worlds – an enriching culture that followed my parents here from Hong Kong and citizenship to one of the best countries in the world (USA, USA!). I just hope that as I go along conducting all my phone calls in English, that my Chinese never fades and that I’m able to be the combination of both.

FILD's New Website

This post is about a week too late and it completely slipped my mind to post about this but our company recently got a website makeover and the new site is pretty spectacular if I do say so myself. Head on over to check it out: www.fildit.com

And scroll around, check out the “about us” and the blog. There may or may not be a blog post written by yours truly: Why I Joined FILD.

Let me know what you think!

It was also our first anniversary last month...I am so slacking on this blogging thing.

It’s the Little Things

Oh dear, has it really been a month since I’ve last posted? I haven’t been able to focus too much time here, you know with the full time job and all. It’s weird that sitting at a desk for 8-9 hours a day can be exhausting but lots of days, I finish work, make a quick dinner and then crawl into bed and indulge in the latest episode of How I Met Your Mother before turning on my audiobook and drifting off to sleep. But in the 7 months (holy cow, has it really been that long??) I’ve moved down here, I really think I’m beginning to get in the groove of things.

I guess this post is a self-reflection one as much as it is one to update my blog on what I’ve been up to. In the last half a year, I’ve learned more about everything than I ever thought I would. Being in college is fantastic: it’s awesome to have your best friend just a room away. There’s always something to do any given night of the week. And loneliness wasn’t really a word I ever came by. After moving down here, I’ve had a lot of alone time, whether it be to think or run errands and tidy up my single living space or just be alone for a while. While I’d hardly call it solitary, there is a component of living with/by yourself that brings things into perspective.

Firstly, I realized that moving away from my comfort zone and from most, if not all, of my friends really makes you realize which of those relationships are in it to last. I always knew that my best friend and I would never fall apart and through these months, time has only been a reminder that we’re just as close as when we lived 50 feet away from each other. We text constantly, we drunk dial each other and tell each other about the ridiculous things we’re up to, despite the fact that we’re three hours apart and often she’s already sleeping by the time I’m heading out. My sister is another prime example. With sisters, there’s no need for me to check in and see how she’s doing, but if she ever has any trouble with anything – boys, school, life – it’s just as simple as a quick text or phone call to let her know that she always has someone by her side.

The concept of making friends comes back to haunt you. In school, you’re thrown in situations where you’re forced to have some sort of interaction even if you’re not looking for it. Whether it’s through dorm living or clubs you join or even sitting through classes you hate, you somehow always manage to find a new friend, or companion, to get you through. After starting a full time job, most of the people you see are your coworkers and meeting new people is difficult. I’m lucky that my coworker who started in October was so accommodating and friendly and offered to show me around my area, one that she happened to grow up in. She’s taken me out to meet her friends, extending her circle to accommodate me and for that I’ll always be grateful. It’s so wonderful to have found a friend in the midst of all this new grad confusion.

Yea, I didn't even bother trying to hide the fact that I screenshotted my own Snapchat. #shameless

Another thing I’m attempting to make more of an effort to do is reconnect with old friends. When I graduated high school, I was so done. I was ready to leave behind high school and all its drama and never speak to anyone again. It wasn’t that I had such a terrible time in high school but I was ready to start anew and I valued that idea of a blank slate so much. Now that time has passed, it’s a bit ridiculous to see how much time and value I placed on the smallest of things. High school me was a bit of a drama queen and definitely not as mature as I thought I was. Now that most of us are graduated and in the working world, there’s not reason that petty high school drama should be a part of that. I recently chatted with a high school classmate that I had never really been particularly close to but the amicability of our conversation gives me hope that perhaps it’s never too late to start a friendship.

Lastly, I’ve really given a lot of thought and effort to valuing more small things. I’ll treat myself to lunch or dinner on the weekends bringing along a book for a companion. I don’t mind eating alone – I do it most nights anyway, but bringing along a book reminds me of days when I used to eat lunch at home and just read away the hours. Reading has always been my comfort and books make for fantastic covers for people watching! I’ve also learned to frame everything more positively. In a business where rejection looms around many corners, it’s up to me to realize that not every candidate is a placement but that doesn’t mean each candidate isn’t fraught with opportunity. Placement or not, it’s more important to value each candidate as a person and a learning experience. That mantra alone has gotten me through more days and weeks than I thought it would.

I guess I had tried to come up with a meaningful post since my friend reminded me that I haven’t updated my blog in a while but what ended up happening was a massive word dump instead. I guess I’ve just had a lot to be grateful for lately and until I began to write it all down, I didn’t realize how much of it there was. As I read back on some of my previous posts, I realize that I only wrote when something of importance happened or something that I had already documented with Instagram or Twitter or something. Some days don’t need an Instagram filter, but they’re just as good and just as important to remember.

What is an IRA?

Being grown up means managing your money. Getting a steady paycheck is definitely a perk of being at a full time job but it’s so hard not to spend it all on a Forever 21 shopping spree or that one really cute pair of boots. Luckily, Reddit offers some pretty good advice when it comes to things I should be doing in my 20s, one of which is opening an IRA.

Reddit offers up a surprising (or maybe not so surprising) amount of very solid advice. r/askreddit is one of my favorite subreddits to read and I’m always learning a ton of life advice, or reading some interesting stories. The askreddit question that spawned this post was something along the lines of “What should I do in my 20s that will help me out later on in life?” One answer was to open an IRA.

So what exactly is an IRA? Lucky for me, my dad has a great grip on these financial shenanigans and he was able to sit down and explain it pretty clearly to me. Unfortunately, my memory is neither eidetic or without fault so even after our hour long discussion, some of the details are still a bit hazy. Cue Wikipedia + Google.

And IRA is an Individual Retirement Account. From what I understand (meaning what I’ve deduced from my Internet research), there are two types of prominent IRAs: a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA. What’s the difference?

A Traditional IRA: A traditional IRA can be opened by anyone employed and there’s a yearly cap of $5500 a year (goes up for inflation every year). When you put the money in, it’s not taxed. Instead, the money is taxed whenever you decide to take it out. Because most taxpayers expect to be in a lower tax bracket when they retire, it’s sometimes advantageous to those who are starting their IRAs later and are making a higher income.

A Roth IRA: The main difference between a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA is when the money is taxed. With a Roth IRA, the money is taxed right as you put it in. So you’re putting slightly less in at the beginning but when you take out the money, it won’t be taxed again. Personally, this is the choice I’m planning on going with because my taxes are low right now. My first job out of college means I don’t have a spectacular income and therefore, lower taxes.

So there you have it, the main difference between the two and one of the things to do while you’re still in your twenties. This post has been sitting here for ages and it’s finally written up. I really need to get on this blogging thing again.