My Birthday is Tomorrow

Yesterday, my dad called me to remind me that SOMEONE'S birthday was coming up really soon!!!!!! It was his. His birthday is June 29th. He's been using this joke for exactly 21 years now.

But more importantly, let's talk about me. I mean that's why I have this blog. Entirely selfish reasons, because I am an entirely selfish person.

"Birthday Happy" #gooddesign

Right now at work I'm working on a deck about Millennials and the different segments within the Millennial lifestyle and values. It's weird to research on so much, considering I AM a Millennial. Also that's a weird word which most operating systems don't recognize when written in plural. Anyway, I recently read "YOUTH MODE: A REPORT ON FREEDOM", from a trend forecasting group, and it was pretty interesting.

Look out guys, this blog is getting intellectual. (not really, not at all actually, I just read sometimes)

The overarching concept behind the report was that targeting to specific age definitions is irrelevant, because the idea of "youth" is a lifestyle as apposed to a timeline when someone was born. The writing is airy and a little pretentious for my tastes, but the idea was cool so I figured I'd share it.

I guess I get it, I don't really FEEL like I'm growing up, or whatever the case may be. Because on part of me is like "YES! I'm a full-fledged adult! I did it!! Wow!" But the other part is like "I don't even have a driver's license, who do I think I am".

There was no purpose to this post, literally. I thought to myself, "Hey my birthday is tomorrow, I should blog about it!!" and it got a lot deeper than I anticipated. My friend told me something on his birthday that I found funny enough to share on facebook, and I'm going to repeat it here. Right now. Here it is:

"I feel like once you reach your mid 20's, your birthday is really just about surviving to the next one instead of actually celebrating anything" 

So, I guess I have that to look forward to.

IN SUMMATION: I want a coconut-scented candle for my birthday. And shoes. I'm a size 7.5. 

When I was in elementary school, I got an award for doing the best in Spanish Class.

I beat a girl who was bilingual and spoke Spanish at home. This was probably the peak in my life.

New blog posts coming soon, maybe.

Laser Tag is a Hollow Victory.

Over winter break last year, I went back home to New Jersey for the first time in a while. It was a lot of fun to see all of my friends, one of our goals being to do as many activities as we could during the month and a half I'd be in town.

We went to this arcade of sorts to drive Go-Karts, where I learned I was not very good at driving Go-Karts (although this wasn't a big surprise since I can't drive...) After playing a few games we decided to use our credits towards a game of Laser Tag, which apparently is really cool and exciting. I don't know, I think I've played laser tag once in my life when I was 10 years old and I just sort of hid in a haze of confusion. When you get in there, they show us a safety video (no running, don't hit people with the gun, etc.).Then we split off into two teams, one team being our group and the other team a birthday party of small children plus one dad, and one person from our group.

Let me tell you, laser tag is some stressful stuff. This one in particular was 2 floors, with fog and these tower things we were supposed to guard. In the frenzy of laser tag, getting shot by random children who are REALLY INTO THE GAME is kind of crazy. But we had hand-eye coordination and developed motor skills to our advantage, as well as the fact that we understood the objective of "shoot the towers" outweighing "shoot the enemy". We ended up winning by like, a lot. It was a good time, but considering the fact that we were all 20-somethings desperately clinging to the nostalgia of our youth, you could argue our victory wasn't a huge win for anyone involved.

It's weird to like, grow up. I mean don't misunderstand me, I definitely think I'm better off where I am now in comparison to the small child I was up against in laser tag who ran into a pole just for funsies. But...yeah. The future is now I guess, and I'm pretty sure I'm over laser tag.

Unless you're playing with Neil Patrick Harris

Play it cool.

This week, I started my new internship. I was really excited, it's a whole new place with new people and all new experiences! What a time to be alive.

The night before the first day, I was really nervous. We were scheduled to have an orientation of sorts, seeing as it's a bigger agency with more interns. The feeling of anticipation and excitement was almost nostalgic, it felt like the first day of classes. And first impressions on the first day are always important, not only to try to impress your supervisors, but also to seem like you're really cool to your peers/fellow interns, and not lame at all.

So here I am with the internal struggle of SOCIAL INTERACTIONS. As you read this, please note that this is basically how I handle my life every day only less dramatically and not really like this at all, only on certain occasions, really. I think there are three ways it could go down, more or less, with two extremes. In most circumstances, I am one of the two extremes with literally no space for middle grounds.

1. The "I AM SO EXCITED I MAY LITERALLY DIE"
• This is the one that I usually encounter. I get so hyped up on the adrenaline of a new _____, that I kind of forget how to function as a calm person.
• In retrospect, even I find myself annoying, but hopefully it's in that endearing, bubbly kind of way that you can slowly forget about as you get to know me better.
2. The (FOR SOME REASON, I'VE FORGOTTEN HOW TO SPEAK.)
• Other times, my nerves get in the way and I kind of just sit around and smile and fidget a lot. There's not really much more to say to these situations because they're just about awkward as I feel talking about them. Minus Points.
3. The "Oh, you know, just living life"
• I was talking to one of my friends and she told me that I just had to play it cool, to which I replied "i DoN'T KNOW IF I cAN??????" But this is the ideal state that you want to come into. Really nonchalant, excited in a way that doesn't seem like you're forcing it. Pretty much if you live your life this way, I think you're REALLY COOL and I aspire to be like you. 
• The danger of this one is playing it TOO cool, at which point you may come off as a bitch. But I mean, just don't be a mean person on top of the layer of nonchalance and you can generally avoid that misconception.

If you're reading this entry and happen to be a fellow intern, then I hope I fit in category 3 this week. And if you're relating more to categories 1 or 2, it's okay, we've all been there. Just you know, play it cool. My method is cracking really awkward or bad jokes and then laughing at them to convince everyone around you that you're funny. 

This was the first picture I found image searching "interns" on google.