Category: General Opinion
5 lessons i learned in 2021
2021 was not perfect, but I’m very grateful for it. I learned so much!
lesson 1: never lose your confidence 0:12
lesson 2: embrace challenges 2:42
lesson 3: invest in yourself 3:56
lesson 4: have compassion towards yourself and others 6:47
lesson 5: enjoy life as it is 8:59
Morning Excerpts
11/9 Monday morning
Cat – I don’t want you to forget the feeling of taking a walk at 7:45AM on a Monday morning. For a glorious hour, you are just a person simply enjoying life & nature. Congrats on waking up early, having a bit of a slow morning and enjoying life because you truly deserve it. Work-life balance is so crucial – this is something that this year taught me. In a time where work is just a few steps away at any given moment & the hours of the day blend in with each other, it’s very easy to get sucked in if you’re not careful.
Continue reading5 personal finance resources for beginners
Two years ago, personal finance was a mystery to me.
I didn’t have any grasp on my spending or saving habits and how they fluctuated over time. I thought that in order to invest, I had to spend a lot of time actively buying and selling stocks when apparently, that’s not the only way (or the most successful way) to invest. I didn’t have any concrete financial goals.
At some point after I started working full time and receiving a paycheck, I realized that I should probably figure out how to manage my money.
Today, I’m by no means an expert in any way, but I have a much better grip on my money and what I hope to do with it in the coming years.
This post is for the folks in a similar position – interested in getting their personal finances in check, but totally bewildered on where to start and how it all works.
Continue readingexcerpts from my journal
12/20/19
Coming home and seeing my parents is always a little surreal, nostalgic and sad.
- surreal because most of my interaction with them now are on the phone so it’s weird coming back and seeing how much our house has changed and all of the new things they’ve bought, and how they prepare for their kids coming home (fresh produce, our favorite foods, etc).
- nostalgic because I’m an “adult” now and everything I’m back, I’m a little more mature/grownup/feel less like a kid. And they have less control over me, which is half nice but also…bittersweet
compliments to myself
you have pretty dang good taste in music
you have nice eyebrows
you’re good at cooking
you are a great listener
you’re a really fast typer
you’re great at grammar/spelling Continue reading
being candid
me writing this stuff while listening to the songs linked below Continue reading
The graduation post
After saying a final goodbye to my friends on Saturday evening, I was sitting in bed in my hotel room, capturing those firefly thoughts that tend to come to me in moments of transition. Continue reading
The art of solicitation
source: pixeloutput
so·lic·i·ta·tion:
the act of asking for or trying to obtain something from someone. Continue reading
5 ways I look back on my personal growth
Quarterly playlists
These songs comprise my musical identity and the personal journey I’ve taken during my time at Northwestern. The songs I screamed and danced along to at concerts, listened to on my 30-minute walk to class, woke up to in my morning Snapchats (if you know, you know)…Making these playlists is one of my favorite traditions. Although the tracks don’t coordinate with the seasons at all, the playlists bring me back to all of the great times I’ve had so far. Continue reading
What I learned from keeping a journal, part 2
source: protobacillus
We’re all going through our own shit. Whether we’re worried about finding a job, finding true love, or finding meaning in our everyday lives, everyone has their own internal struggle. Continue reading
Catherine Zhang 