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Travel

why we need to get lost more often

lost
/lôst,läst/
1. past and past participle of lose.
adjective
adjective: lost

1. unable to find one’s way; not knowing one’s whereabouts.

2. denoting something that has been taken away or cannot be recovered

3. (of a game or contest) in which a defeat has been sustained.

The word “lost” means a lot of things and can be interpreted in a lot of ways. The word “lost” has a fear aspect to it, a negative connotation, like it’s a really, really bad thing to be “lost.” But, it isn’t. Being “lost” can lead you to the most exhilarating places, places for wanderers, places that you can’t simply find by following a map or a set of directions. So when I suggest that we should get “lost” more often, I don’t mean that we should start to lose our house keys or purposely not win a game. What I mean is that we shouldn’t be constantly stressing over our “whereabouts.” We, as people in a society, are so obsessed with “where we are” in our lives. Are we at our high point? A low point? A dive down?

Who cares?

Unfortunately, we lose our lives in this quest to prove to others that we are at an all-time high point. And we do this by buying things we don’t need, doing the things we don’t want to do, adopting the idea that if it’s not uploaded online, it might as well have never happened. We live with this constant pressure to prove ourselves, and it just leaves us unfathomably sad.

Let me give you an example. Say you decide to go to the arcade with your gang of friends. It’s supposed to be fun, go figure. But when you begin to have a strict plan for everything, micromanage every single tiny detail because it needs to be “perfect” and then take dozens of photos to show others how “perfect” it was, all anyone remembers is how they couldn’t play a single game of air hockey “because there wasn’t enough time” and how you forced everyone to take dozens of photos to get that “just right” lighting. We end up losing the importance and purpose of that event so much, it eventually just becomes a photo-shoot. It’s not fun anymore. The solution to this, though, is laughably simple. Just let yourself get lost in the beautiful chaos of everything. You don’t need to let everyone know where you are. You can just experience it for yourself.

The photo above is one of me knee-deep in seawater at a beach in Shelter Island. I didn’t plan on being there. The purpose leaving my house wasn’t so that I could take artsy photos. I didn’t write down on a to-do list to visit the ice cream shop or to bring my cousin along. I didn’t know I’d be riding a ferry until I was on it. The end result though, was gorgeous. Just let things play out in their own funny way for once, and tell me what happens.

July 15, 2017 3 comments

Life Stories Travel

Dear Toronto

This post will be about Toronto, one of my most favorite places to have traveled. Toronto was similar to New York in some ways, but had its own characteristics. I could see why it’s been consistently on the list of the world’s most livable places. Toronto, much like New York has an incredibly busy and bustling Chinatown, which is the place me and my family traveled to first. I was especially fascinated by the amounts of cables that hung from the pole to pole, which are used to string on-ground cable cars along. Another we did in Toronto was visit the Spiceland market, a place we saw on Eddie Huang’s TV show, “Huang’s World. Spiceland is basically a medium-sized Sri Lankan market, with a large assortment of goods not found in many other stores. We also visited Toronto’s K-town, which was larger than the one in New York. It was late out at night at this point, but we still got to go inside some stores and observe some pretty cool street art. I can’t wait to visit Toronto again.

June 7, 2017 3 comments

Featured Moments Stories Travel

A Day in Chicago

The photo above makes me especially smile. This was taken at night at Chicago’s famous Magnificent Mile. The Magnificent Mile is a popular commercial district that features many luxe and upscale shops, trendy restaurants and posh hotels. I bought a sweatshirt, some pants, a dress and a bath bomb. The bath bomb proved to be a very relaxing experience while the clothing items are some of my most favorite garments in my wardrobe. Treating yourself to something once in a while isn’t something you should feel guilty about. Taking time to take care of yourself is something you’ll thank yourself in the future for.

June 7, 2017 3 comments

Life Moments Stories Travel

Writing A New Life Chapter

Change, for the most part, is always good. It refreshes our eyes, it revitalizes our tastebuds, it wakes up our noses. It is incredibly important to avoid a monotonous, gray routine that doesn’t make you truly happy. This is because if you live a life of misordered priorities and you worry about the irrelevant things, you’ll become, to simply put it, sad. There’s a reason why ice cream comes in more than two flavors and why the sky likes to change colors. It’s because, without variation, life quickly becomes boring. We as humans need something to differentiate today from yesterday. Every day, I try to do something new, something different. This can be as simple as switching up my breakfast, or as drastic as completely re-organizing my wardrobe. If you’re out of ideas or choices to alter, create something new. Picking up an instrument or a new book cannot only change your life but you as well.

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May 10, 2017 3 comments

Life Stories Travel

I am on Top of The World

I visited the Skydeck in Chicago, which stands as the tallest building in the United States. The view from above was astonishing. It’s not only been with the Skydeck though. I’ve always been fascinated with looking down below from an elevated point of the ground. It gives me an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and pride. Giving myself that scenery gives me a motivation and drive to complete my tasks quickly and pursue my new interests.

April 21, 2017 3 comments

Featured Life Moments Travel

Traveling Abroad and Living Like Locals

If you really want to experience an area, you have to live like a local. New York is a pretty tourist-y place, and I can guarantee you that the tourist areas are often wastes of time and money. If you truly want to experience the true side of New York, find those hidden gem restaurants. Shop at the local fashion districts. Climb up onto a roof and bask in the lights of New York’s skyline. Live like a real New-Yorker.

April 21, 2017 3 comments

Featured Life Travel

My Life Underground

I live in New York. For roughly two years, I’ve always taken the 7 train to my school, a roughly thirty-minute commute. I’ve never put much thought into my mind how intricate and complex something so minor in my life, such as a train ride can be. The New York Subway System has twenty-three different train routes and more than six hundred fifty-five mainline track miles. Without switching trains, the A train travels thirty-one miles to one of the stops along the route. What makes the New York Subway System especially unique though, is how many people have to work in order to keep functional. There’s first the people who conduct the trains, of course, then those who power all the machines, including the trains, those who supervise the safety of subways and tunnels, and then the engineers who keep the trains in proper shape. That’s only at surface level though. The MTA Staff ranges from an elevator manager to a cabinet maker. I’m sure there are hundreds of things that I didn’t even touch on, but it’s amazing what you can find when you look into the most smallest of things a little more deeper.

March 10, 2017 3 comments

Featured Life Moments Stories Travel

Why You Should Visit Every Chinatown

I love my Chinatown.

I really mean it when I say this. Chinatown is a place that only very lucky cities have. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, the New York Chinatown is a densely populated neighborhood, filled with a variety of foods stalls, shops, and bubble tea cafes. At first visit, Chinatown might be unsettling to you. The streets are always crowded, the area is very loud and sometimes, it doesn’t smell like a bouquet of roses. But once you look past that, Chinatown is truly an otherworldly place. I seriously don’t feel like I’m in New York anymore when I enter Chinatown. Usually, I go to Chinatown to eat whatever they have to offer. Usually, my family and I go for hotpot, spicy soup or Szechuan cuisine. Either way, we always go home with filled bellies and me fanning my mouth from the spice of some of the certain dishes. To cool down, I usually drink bubble tea too, which is slowly becoming one of my favorite drinks. At first, I thought it was really weird. Why drink and chew something at the same time? But gradually, I learned that bubble tea is an acquired taste for some, and I started to like it more and more. With our drinks, we will often walk around, either around the street, observing the foods being sold and the things up for sale, or we’ll go to a mall and window shop. Often though, we pick up fruits from Chinese groceries, as their fruits are really cheap and of good quality. After the day is done, we end up home, usually skipping dinner because Chinese food is that filling.

March 8, 2017 3 comments

Featured Life Moments Travel

Family Road Trips

One of my favorite things to do when I’m on break from school is to go on a road trip to somewhere typically not too far. I live in New York, so short drives to places like Montreal or Chesapeake Bay are some of my favorite destinations to go to. There is an unexplainable comfort that comes along with riding a car along a stretched highway. Although I love traveling to other countries and other far away areas, airplane and train rides are too uncomfortable for me. I assume it’s because I’m stuck in an enclosed space with strangers for a reasonably long time. However, in the car, I’m with my family, and we can do generally anything we want without being bothered. We call the shots on where to eat, or when to stop for snacks. We can blast any music we want to play and play road games as loud as possible. Additionally, I also get extra leg space in the car, making the experience far more comfortable than any train or airplane seat.

August 7, 2016 3 comments