A Year in Review (2019 edition)

After reinventing the content I made earlier on this year, I've realized a few things when it comes to what I'm doing with my writings. I feel like minimalism has helped me a lot when it comes to being productive and consistent with my content, but overall, I feel like I've been struggling to find my own voice and write about things that aren't reliant on other people's ideas or influences. 

I follow a few people on YouTube who make minimalism content, so because of that, I'll sometimes get inspired by what they put out there and write my own version of the material here on my blog. The same can be said for the other parts of my blog (ie. wellness, fashion and capsule wardrobes). It's hard to make up your own ideas, lay out the first draft, edit the draft and then publish it, but that's part of the process and sometimes, it is fun. 

From a writer's perspective, my goal for the New Year is to fully embrace the creative process and finding new ideas. I'll still probably take ideas from others occasionally, which will probably lessen the amount of content I make since I've been publishing one post per week for most of this year. Going forward, you might see one or two posts per month. 

My blog's uniqueness is important to me, so my content is probably going to shift slightly in terms of what I put out. 2019 was the year of just having a dash of everything, but with a heavy focus on minimalism writings. Going forward, I plan to put out a few more reviews on musicals and music in general. You can also expect more anime recommendations, but in return, I'll be scaling back on fashion and minimalism as I'm going to be working on some habits that weren't too healthy for me. 

I hope that you'll stick around to see these changes. I'm excited to be producing more content that speaks to my "inner nerd". Thanks for reading and have a great New Year! 

KonMari Method vs. Minimalism: Papers

Since I live at home, I don’t have to worry too much about paperwork. However, I do sometimes get mail, which is easy for me to stay on top of.

Some adults tend to get a lot of junk or advertisements through the mail. This can build up over time if you’re not staying on top of it, but there are a couple systems you can use. The easiest system is to have three separate piles: one for action items, ones to be saved for later reference and one to throw away or recycle.

For most people, mail can be a mix of things you need to respond back to, advertisements, newspapers, magazine subscriptions, etc., one thing you can do to reduce the flow of what’s not necessary is to find a way to unsubscribe or remove yourself from that mailing list. I’d also recommend using this “one touch” system. This means that for every piece of mail or paper you touch, decide then and there if it should stay or leave your home. It helps if you have a couple trash bins to help separate your paperwork (one for recycling and one for trash), or you could get yourself a shredder for documents that may no longer serve a purpose in your life.

My last tip that is common sense to me at least is to go digital. If you can find a way to take care of your taxes online, then that could save you more time than worrying about a bunch of papers and envelopes to be mailed out. The same can be said for other things, like insurance, finances or even those magazine subscriptions that you enjoy and don’t want to give up.

So do whatever works for you, but just know that it is possible to live your life with less. I personally find it satisfying to not have as much paperwork as other people. Even before minimalism became mainstream, I was taking care of my finances on my phone, and I’m sure I could easily do the same for insurance and taxes. If you prefer to not go digital with your paperwork, then that’s fine, but I would encourage you to at least be mindful of where all of it is going.

Opinion Piece: Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice

Why would someone who’s adopted speak up and say she’s more pro-choice than she is pro-life? It’s one thing to be pro-life if you’re religious (and some people are), and I can understand how my opinion might make me look to some of my family members. This topic is something we could argue or debate on all day because I get that everybody’s views, beliefs and opinions are different, but my main focus with this post is to just get my opinion out there regardless of whether people agree or not.

So yes, I am adopted. I was placed in an orphanage in China when I was still a baby, then immigrated to the United States when I was nine months old. This means I (somewhat) understand the argument of pro-life supporters, but I still don’t agree with it. If I had known more about my birth mother or if she were still alive, I wouldn’t be resentful or disappointed in her giving me up for adoption.

Infants aren’t fully developed whether if they’re born or unborn, and they’re not able to make decisions for themselves. Every mother on this earth, young or old, has the choice to either accept responsibility for being a parent or not; I can’t decide that for them. No person should EVER decide that for them, because that’s a choice that they have to make on their own. It’s nobody’s place to judge or speculate on why someone would decide to have an abortion. Those who are pro-life supporters need to understand that it’s okay for you to have your own beliefs, but to speculate, judge or insert yourself into other people’s lives because of your beliefs is NOT okay.

Everybody’s situation is different when it comes to this. You don’t know what other women have gone through or why they decided to choose abortion. Again, I don’t know much about my own birth mother or if she’s still alive, but if I did know anything about that, I would thank her for giving me the chance to live a happy and healthy life. And yes, I don’t believe that murder is right, but there’s a difference between a selfless sacrifice and a senseless act of violence.

Anime Review: Carole & Tuesday

This anime is honestly special. It's not like other anime out there that are produced in Japan, and while the dialogue is spoken in Japanese, the music is sung in English. Carole & Tuesday is original to Netflix, and I honestly can't say enough good things about the music.

I'd say that Carole & Tuesday is considered a "slice of life" show, but at the same time, there is a story line that tries to connect all the different events that happen within the anime. With the anime being called Carole & Tuesday, it focuses on Carole- a young girl who lives on modern-day Mars and is trying to become a successful musician. It also focuses on Tuesday, who runs away from her lavish home to pursue her love for music. When these two girls meet, their dreams finally seem within reach.

If it weren't for the music, I'd say that this anime would probably have been gone from Netflix before it was even finished. All of the vocalists who lent their hand for the soundtrack and anime are very talented, and while not all of the songs are to my personal taste, there are still a lot that stand out to me personally. Some of my favorites are Light A Fire, The Loneliest Girl, Lay It All On Me, Mother, Army of Two, Polly Jean and Kiss Me.

For those of you who finished Carole & Tuesday on some other streaming site, you'll have the upper hand of knowing the context behind the song Mother, but since the last batch of episodes haven't hit Netflix yet, (part 2's release date is on December 24 of this year) I'd say listen at your own risk.

So overall, I'd say that this anime deserves all the attention it can get. I haven't stopped listening to the music since I finished it, plus some of the characters are quite interesting (and talented of course). I can't recommend it enough!

KonMari Method vs. Minimalism: Books

I know that for a lot people, books can be fun and/or educational. For me at least, it’s just a fun, occasional addition that I’ll dive into for an escape from reality. However, I’d say that my taste is starting to change a bit as I’m getting older. For this reason, I only have one NIcholas Sparks novel, two novels that YouTuber Joey Graceffa has written, a copy of A Darker Shade of Magic, and three Ted Dekker books. I also have a coffee table book for the complete Phantom of the Opera story and background plus one other novel that I picked up from a used book store a few years ago.

When it comes to decluttering books, Marie Kondo’s rules/suggestions are quite simple: pull out every single book you own, and if you don’t know where to start, start with one that’s an easy decision to make. Another question to consider is if each book will be beneficial to your life going forward. What I’ve noticed (in the Netflix series) is that before starting the process, she suggests “waking up” the books by just quickly placing a hand on each pile.

I think that there’s really no right or wrong way to declutter books just as long as you don’t go overboard with the process. With minimalism, you tend to create your own rules as you go, or you can modify other people’s suggestions to have it work for you personally. So if you want to start small and just do one shelf per day, you can totally do that. If you want to set aside an entire day however and do it KonMari style, then that’s fine as well. Whatever approach you take will give you the same results.

My hope with this 4-part series I’ll be writing is that it’ll give you the motivation to either keep going if you’re struggling, or to give you that first push if you haven’t started yet. And while I realize that most if not all of us live busy lives, I do believe that we should try aiming not for perfection, but just a more ideal solution that allows us to feel at peace when we come home after a long day of work.