🍂 Sugar, Chai, and Pumpkin Spice
— This journal entry was written from the comfort of my home office in LA, while testing Arc from The Browser Company, and listening to ‘How Are You’ by Johnny Drille.
The color for Autumn is burnt orange, everyone act accordingly.
The last time you heard from me, I was vacationing in the South of France, attending brunches and celebrations in Los Angeles, weddings in New York, and had slightly longer natural hair.
Much has changed since then, (FYI: managing short hair is an extreme sport you must experience to believe).
Let’s start with some life updates, shall we?
The elephant in the Wall Street room
Ya girl is still employed at Instagram, a Meta company.
Just in case you were curious and happen to find yourself on my LinkedIn profile searching for an update.
This is the update.
I’ve been doing quite a bit of domestic traveling for work as we prepare for 2023 — TL; DR we’re discussing what we’ve learned this year and creating a product roadmap for what we will build next year. Exciting and exhausting!
Speaking of traveling, I came THIS CLOSE🤏🏾 to going on my first international research trip and adding more countries to the ‘worldwide Tai’ list.
Business class flights booked, itinerary confirmed, but then, out of nowhere plans changed and the woman was too stunned to speak.
Talk about a plot twist — I was on the verge of ‘tearing my clothes’ as the Bible characters do when in despair. But if I’ve learned anything from this season, it’s that when God says no, then issa no for me dawg. No resisting. No forcing. No negotiating.
These days, I’m able to find contentment in undesired circumstances by knowing that God has my best interest in mind. So, if He closes a door, then it wasn’t the best for me.
Creating for fun — not for FREE
Life as a Creator ain’t been no crystal stair.
It comes with its share of ups and downs, like everything in life. But the pros have been outweighing the cons lately and for that I’m grateful.
If you’re part of my Instagram community, then you might’ve seen my recent partnership with Amazon. If not, there she is!
It’s still wild to think that this time last year I posted my first “viral” video on TikTok. Virality was never the goal for me, but rather value. In fact, I’m just a girl who enjoys documenting my favorite life moments and the algorithm just so happen to recommend it to 1.6 million people.
In retrospect, I underestimated my capabilities when I wrote down my creative vision at the beginning of the year. But the chances of repeating that mistake are slim to none. As Creatives, we should think BIG, and make bold goals, despite follower count, engagement metrics, and whether the algorithm pushes the content or not.
Personally, it all boils down to enjoying the creation journey, and feeling proud of the artwork — both of which I am. And the best part, being adequately compensated for the work, because we can’t pay bills with likes.
Honorable Mentions
📚 Reading: I officially joined the CoHo BookTok. I finished “It Ends with Us” back in July and started book number 7 this weekend🥁 — “It Starts with Us.”
📺 Watching: I’m keeping up with these series on my Epson projector: The Playlist, and Reasonable Doubt. It’s giving cinema from home, every👏🏾 single👏🏾 night👏🏾.
🚫 Doing: I’m saying a lot of NOs in No-vember, #boundaries (my therapist would be prada me). I was inspired by Elaine Welteroth who recently shared in her advice column that “editing what you give energy to is a big part of maturing gracefully.” So, I’ll be saying yes to the things and people that give me energy, and no to everything that doesn’t. buh-bye👋🏾.
🫶🏾 Liking: There’s A TON of info. out there today, but I’ve been getting my news from Volv, heard of it? If not, it’s apparently the TikTok for news.
🫶🏾 Liking: I’m not ashamed to share that I’ve had chai tea and cinnamon ice cream multiple times this week 🫠 — I know, I have fitness goals, but sugar, chai, and pumpkin spice is the theme this season.
〰T.
