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Close to You

What I Can’t Live Without

Family – This may be an obvious one, but words cannot express how much I love and need my family. My family here includes my Dad (remember Preeto?!), Mom (travel-planning extraordinaire), my younger brother, and my boyfriend. Each one of these people gives me the confidence, strength and perspective to keep me going in school and in the real world. They challenge me every single day to be a better person and I truly don’t know who I would be or what kind of person I’d be if it wasn’t for their incredibly positive influence in my life. 

Boundaries – As loud and proud as I am about being close to my family and needing them in my life, I also need a healthy balance of boundaries and good old fashioned “me” time. Once in a while I enjoy being alone either doing work or watching a movie. I’ve never been embarrassed eating alone at a restaurant or going to a movie theater alone – I love having me time and with that comes a desire to ensure I have this time no matter what stage of life I’m in. It’s my reset button that I absolutely cannot live without.  

Respect – This attribute is extremely important to me, and I would even go as far as saying that the mere existence of it (or lack thereof it) in all of my relationships is the driving force behind my being. If I feel as if I am not being respected by someone, I shut down and become a person I don’t like – defensive, snarky and insecure. This even goes when I don’t respect myself in situations. It is extremely hard for me to be myself and happy in life without garnering others and my own respect. This is one of the main reasons why earning my MBA degree means a lot to me. I truly feel that with a solid education from a reputable school, I will be able to establish my credibility with my peers and myself that will lead to a future that my family and friends can be proud of.

What I Care About

iPhone – I may be an anomaly here, but I really mean it when I say that I simply care about my phone but wouldn’t necessarily say that I can’t live without out. Ask my boyfriend and he will tell you that I am not the best at responding back to text messages and phone calls! I have always been the type to live in the moment and in my immediate surroundings. Yes it’s great to have access to my loved ones and emails at any given time, but when push comes to shove I don’t place as much emphasis on the necessity of my phone as others may.

Eyeliner – Okay so this one might seem really odd and probably silly to anyone reading this. But just ask my friends and Mom and they will be shocked to see that this isn’t in the “can’t live without” circle! The only thing I am really intense and serious about when it comes to my beauty regiment is my eyeliner! You will rarely find me without it on, and if you happen to catch me off guard without it on you may not even recognize me! But as of late, I have started realizing my dependence on eyeliner is a bit odd and I have naturally found myself leaving the house more and more without it. In fact, I have no eyeliner on as I write this blog! No big deal. 

Money – You may think I’m fooling myself when I say that I can’t live without money and that I simply just care about it, but the reason money falls into this circle is because I’ve been raised to appreciate it when you have it and work hard for it if you don’t have it. One of my family’s principles is the notion of work hard and things will come your way, and so even though money comes and goes I know if I am able to work diligently and honestly for it things will happen for the best. Therefore, it’s not that I can’t live without money but rather I care for it to live a comfortable lifestyle so I am working really hard for it.

Digital Ecosystem

 

Web Search – I use web search the most out of all the outlets featured in this exercise because I use it for everything – researching specific news and information, accessing key websites, and general web surfing. I use and like this outlet the most because it allows me to look something up quickly and efficiently, but the key here is that I usually have a purpose in mind and it’s satisfying to use web search to find what I need. I mainly use Google as my search engine because it’s easy to use, clean, and I can easily access my Gmail and Google Drive accounts from the main page. 

Social Media – Although I’m embarrassed to admit this, social media is definitely a main source of information in my life. I mainly use Facebook to keep up with friends all over the globe, update my own profile occasionally and just generally stalk, I mean read the news feed for updates. J I still believe it’s something I can live without, but currently it is a big source of information about my social network and popular trends/fads that people are talking about.

News Apps – I added this because I mainly keep up with national news through an app called Pulse, which is an app that allows you to create a mash-up of various news outlets based on categories that feature top stories and headlines. It’s an extremely easy way to access multiple news outlets and quickly browse headlines so I can dive into only those articles that seem interesting or relevant. I have category streams for news, fashion, celebrity gossip (yes, another embarrassing reveal) and recipes.

Typical Weekday

1 : Email and News – I wake up every morning to the alarm clock on my phone, which I then immediately use to check my emails and news apps. It’s a bad habit, but a habit that I just can’t shake! I enjoy waking up in the morning, as I’m still a bit groggy, to get caught up on any emails that may have come in the night before and trending world events/news. I need this catch-up time in the morning, and I utilize many resources and categories in the process! 

2: Team/Org. Meetings – This time of the day for me is one that is a bit exhaustive yet important. After a long day of classes, I stay on campus to conduct and attend any team or organization meetings. These meetings are usually filled with lots of web search (usually due to an assignment or project), calendar comparison/stalking, and innovative thinking that I will refer to as designing in this case. This part of my day is usually with a fairly large group of people, so I am constantly engaged in various digital outlets that allow me to multi-task and be an effective team player. 

3: TV – Ah the most beloved part of my day (after talking to my boyfriend and Mom of courseJ). Even though this time of the day is for me to unwind and allow my busy mind to relax before bed, I am still gathering and processing information – but for fun! This exercise further proves that I have a hard time just “relaxing” or being “disconnected” so even though I use the last minutes of my day watching TV, I am still learning and engaging with digital outlets in a non-professional and fun manner.