Hello friends! Is anyone still around? I am finally done with the semester (and am officially a senior!) and I’m slowly coming back to my creative outlets as my brain cells slowly come back to life. This is a blogpost that I have had drafted for a couple months now, but never finished. Today’s post is a simple catch-up one: I haven’t captured what I’ve been doing in life for a while now, and I would love to get back to that. With that, here are some things that I’ve been doing lately!
This spring was:
working:
- as a tutor: teaching has always been a passion of mine (& my go to answer to “what do you want to be when you grow up” since I was little), and it has slowly trickled back into my life over the past year. While I didn’t expect for my career to head this way, I can’t say I’m complaining about it (and may or may not be looking more into tutoring/teaching opportunities for the future?). Currently I tutor AP biology, SAT/ACT prep, as well as early elementary.
- on getting an ADHD diagnosis. As someone who’s grown up in a ~mental illness isn’t real~ home, I never recognized the symptoms of ADHD in myself. As social media posts about ADHD cross my dash, I realized that those symptoms fit me like a glove, and I’m working on getting an official label (and more time on exams?) for me.
- on school in general: this semester as a whole wasn’t /terrible/, but it was pretty brutal in terms of courseload. I’m deeply entrenched in higher level biology now, and while it is absolutely my passion, it is also still a lot of work. In particular, online lectures take me SO long to watch: it’s a phenomenon whose roots I haven’t nailed down yet, but I’ve found that watching online lectures takes me easily 2-4 times the amount of time that it would take synchronously. The ability to pause to write notes and the ability to pause to get snacks really conspire to steal my time (also: see above).
- on growing my Instagram account. My instagram account has been stuck at ~1030 followers for the past 6 months, and it is my mission to make it start growing again! (My goal was to get to 3000 this year . . . uh). I’ve been posting a bunch of reels, which help, but then I stop posting again, which defeats the purpose, lol. If you want to help, follow me here!
reading:
- The Ministry of Ordinary Places by Shannan Martin I buddy read this with Grace Anne, and it was so, so good. Shannan is such a master with words: you both feel like you’re having a coffee chat with her, while also being taught and inspired. So far this has been my favorite nonfiction book that I’ve read all year, and maybe of all time. It’s so incredibly applicable to standard life, and of course, I’m always a fan of anything regarding finding beauty in little things. I absolutely cannot recommend it enough.
- The Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradly This is a series I’ve been meaning to read for AGES now: I’ve actually read the first book three times now, because I keep intending on reading the series, but then putting it down after the first book before I finish it. This time I’m determined to finish it, though, and I’m already half of the way through the series (5/10), which is a really good sign. It’s not super politically correct, especially for a book that was written in 2009, but if you overlook it, it was an enjoyable, Agatha-Christie feeling series.
- Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez I checked out this book when I saw Hailey and Olivia read it and I really enjoyed it! It was very much not what I expected but the imagery and the storytelling was fantastic. There’s another book out set in the same universe and I’m looking forwards to reading it at some point this summer!

listening to:
- Rachel Zegler. I’ve watched her videos for a while now whenever they pop up on my YouTube recommended page, but in February, I started watching her stuff in earnest and the enthusiasm has not waned. In particular, I must have watched her cover of Anyway at least 25 times (i.e., as many times as it popped up on my recommended feed). She is also so emotionally intelligent and I love hearing her thoughts.
- Taylor Swift, of course. She has so much music coming out soon, and I’m so excited. She released two songs this month, and of course, folklore and evermore are on repeat still.
- HAIM. I learned of them through Taylor Swift, and after watching them at the Grammy’s, started to check out their music. It took one evening, and now I’m thoroughly hooked. I haven’t listened to most of their music yet, but Summer Girl and The Steps have been on repeat lately.
- good for u by Olivia Rodrigo. Like the rest of the world, I’ve been bopping along to Olivia’s songs being despite in a stable relationship 🙃 I haven’t listened to the rest of the album yet, but this one has been looping in my head lately.
- Moms and Murder podcast. As a diehard type 6, true crime has always been so interesting to me. This is my current favorite true-crime podcast, and I listen to it to fall asleep to every night (is that weird? I’m not a serial killer I promise).
- lots of audiobooks! I discovered the Libby app and it has worked so well for me! I’ve really enjoyed being able to listen to a book while I do chores or walk, and I check out both the audiobook and ebook so that I can read on my phone whenever I have a spare minute!
watching:
- Shadow and Bone (on Netflix): I’m definitely a books-before-film kinda person, but when Shadow and Bone came out, my roommates were going to watch it and invited me to do so as well, so I watched it with them! It was really good and now I’m looking forwards to reading the books this summer!
- Cruel Summer (on Hulu): This is another TV show that my roommate introduced me to and we’ve been watching it together! It is so well done and the story is so intriguing! It hasn’t wrapped up yet, but I’m excited to see what the show does. It covers the story of two teenage girls, one of whom goes missing, and the other takes her life. It’s told simultaneously over three years (i.e., one episode is July 4th, 1993, 1994, and 1995), which is super unique. The 90s aesthetic is fantastic as well.
- Niamh Adkins: I first found Niamh through Instagram reels, where she posts reels about Taylor Swift and also her boyfriend. I’ve seen also enjoyed watching her Youtube channel and her instagram story, where she shares insights about her life. She is so insightful and funny, and has lots of good Taylor Swift content as a bonus! This video in particular made me laugh SO hard.
- * e m m i e *: I’ve realized that I work significantly better when I have something playing in the background, and my “something” of choice is relaxing youtube videos. Emma is my current favorite: she is a booktuber, and her enthusiasm for books and the thoughtfulness in which she talks about her craft is motivating me to read more. Her voice is the most soothing as well, and her videos are such a good counterbalance to my chemistry lectures.
- basicallyreese: like I said, I’ve really been into calming lifestyle videos lately and I’ve really been enjoying Reese’s. She does aesthetic lifestyle content and they always motivate me to get things done.
cooking:
- White Chocolate Lemon cookies: I don’t really think these need justification haha but they are fantastic!
- Starbucks Copycat Banana Bread: as a young adult, my biggest problem (other than the soaring rent prices, the economic crash, an unreasonable minimum wage, and a global pandemic) is buying groceries I end up not eating, and this banana bread is the perfect solution for when I buy 6 bananas at the grocery store and then end up only eating 3. The one whole cup of sugar and three overripe bananas make this banana bread top-tier, and I also add about half a cup of chocolate chips, because why not.
- Homemade Hamburger Helper: my Asian mom would never deign herself to cook hamburger helper, but as a ✨college student✨ this is one of my FAVORITE meals to make. It’s definitely noooot the healthiest, but it is SO good.
- Like basically poke bowls but without the fish? These are my favorite lazy weeknight dinners: I cook some 5 minute rice, add half a sliced avocado, a tablespoon of soy sauce, and a sunny side up/fried egg (and occasionally
usuallysome cheese). They turn out beautifully and taste delicious. - Salads. I don’t know if I can rightfully call this ~cooking~, but salads are fantastic for the springtime. I make mine as unhealthy as possible by adding chopped up hard boiled egg, avocado, tomato pieces, turkey, cheese, and sesame dressing. They are fantastic and I love them.
- Scrambled cheesy eggs! I put out an ask on my Instagram story for people to teach me how to cook fluffy scrambled eggs, and SO many people delivered. I’ve made some BANGING scrambled cheese eggs lately and they have been delicious.
If you want to see more of what’s going on in my life, I filmed a week in my life/reading vlog! I’m very proud of the editing: it is my biggest project to date and I am really happy with how it turned out. (I only found 1 glaring error in the 4th watch through so I count that as a win.) You can find it here: