Emotional Week 2 — Losing yourself, understanding yourself, and the beautiful gift of moving on

 January 9 - 11th: feeling lost, confused, and depressed

Rarest Personality Types — INFJ

• Facing a quarter-life crisis — feeling lost in my career. For the last couple of years, I have been having trouble exploring the best job suited for me. In the economy we live in today, I am fortunate and extremely grateful for the job I have today, however, it's been a while since my current role has been affecting me mentally. 

• Retook the personality test by Myer Briggs Type Indicator — I got INFJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging) (the same results I got since my high school days xD)!

• Here are some findings that resonate with me (from 16 personalities): 

I am definitely quiet and a reverse person. Many people definitely know me as a "listener".

"What if" is such a powerful question. I often ask these questions whenever I am in conversation with others, problem-solving, or when I am lost in my thoughts. 

I relate to this 100%! I value all my relationships and become very worried and protective when my family and friends are feeling down or stressed. 

As an individual, I see myself as a hard worker, and I think it is definitely true that I like the predictability of things rather than uncertainty of things. When things get unpredictive, I start to feel highly stressed and anxious.  

This is so true! I always strive to do more to further improve myself!

This is why I don't have many friends! I don't like to have friends who are fake, and who will take advantage of me, and I definitely dislike small talk. I am someone who will typically open up once I develop a stronger connection with people I am familiar with!

This is something I am currently struggling with! I hope to find my path soon!

In Summary (my conclusions from my other findings):

• Creative — I am creative when it comes to problem-solving.

• Insightful — I like to explore people's true motivations, needs, and feelings. 

• Passionate — Determining my purpose in life and where I can fit in achieving that purpose. I am a visualizer when it comes to envisioning my future. Right now, I picture myself becoming a crazy cat lady owning many furballs. :) 

• Reluctant to open up — Generally, I am a very reserved and private person. It is difficult for me to open up with others (unless I have a very close relationship/bond with the individual) and be vulnerable about my struggles; oftentimes, I feel like I am troubling others when I do open up or put others in an awkward situation. (I wish my co-workers would understand this!)

• In the workplace, I value a quiet environment, independence, fulfilling work that allows me to help others, and autonomy; this includes taking the time to process information during team meetings, hence, I am generally quiet. (Another thing I wished my team would understand!)

• Based on my results, I started exploring a new potential career for myself that will make me happy. 

• If you are interested, here are the top careers for INFJs (you can also search for careers based on your personality type): https://www.truity.com/personality-type/INFJ/careers

• After doing a bit more research, I am currently interested in exploring copywriting or graphic design. Will update once I learn more about what both careers entail!

 January 12th: heartbreak & homemade rice cakes

Brown sugar Sweet Rice Cake

• As Chinese New Year is fast approaching (next week on Sunday, January, 22nd), my mom made a batch of homemade sweet rice cakes (known as Nian Gao) from scratch. 

• For those of you who have never heard of Nian Gao, it is a steamed rice cake made out of glutinous rice flour and brown sugar — it symbolizes prosperity. There are a variety kinds of sweet rice cake flavors such as coconut, brown sugar, water chestnut (my favorite!), red bean, and many more. 

• If you are interested in making your own rice cake for this Chinese New Year, there are plenty of easy Youtube tutorials and recipes found online (my mom experimented and learned this way — thank you to the internet gods!). 

• Here is one of my mom's favorite recipes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0h8gsHKFBM

• I took a free Quickstart to Copywrite course on Udemy and realize that I am loving it so far. Excited to explore more!

• A close friend of mine broke my heart, and I am sad our friendship is coming to an end; I will always cherish all the memories we shared. 

• To overcome the heartbreak, I learned to wallow and grieve for the day and picked myself up and moved on. 

• The beauty of moving on is that we can reflect and learn from our past experiences; this allows us to improve our growth and development — as humans, we are constantly growing and learning every day. As time past, life tends to surprise us when we least expect it. When the time is right, we will be presented with a new opportunity and eventually, the right people will enter our lives. If you are currently experiencing heartbreak, please remember to be kind to yourself and that everything will be okay. 🙏

 January 13th: winter wonderland

Lego Bontanical Collection — Bonsai Tree

• Finally Friday! We have made it to the end of another week! (Good job!)

• Surprisingly, my workload was chill. I received an exciting offer from a co-worker to learn how to maintain our company's web macro (no experience required) so I accepted the offer — now I will need to learn JavaScript! Hooray!

• I wallowed some more.

• Chilled at home once work was over since it was one of the coldest days in Toronto; it was hitting the -10 range, snowing, and the roads were dangerously icy. 

• My Bonsai Tree by lego came! Excited to start building this collection! This definitely made my week brighter. 🌞

 January 16 - 17th: flowers and family time

Mofu Japanese Bakery — Oreo can cake

• Got fresh new purple orchids. 

• My older sister came home for a visit today and she picked up a little treat for me from Mofu — the Japanese oreo caned cake. You can see my review here.🤤

• Homemade mac and cheese (fun fact about me: I love anything with cheese 🧀)!

• Put on my positive mindset cap and I am ready to take on another week. 💪