graduate school – Kristi My Dao

Reflecting on 25

I’ve made it another year around the sun. It isn’t a crazy thought, but I’ve had such a great year. The crazy thought is that it will continue to get better, year after year. Since my word for 2023 is relax (I’m still working on it), instead of setting goals and intentions for this coming year, this blog post is going to highlight five things that happened that made 25 so good.

The Lunar New Year Weekend of 2023

It is Lunar New Year, the new year celebration of many Asian households (at least, my family/local community has just wrapped up celebrating yesterday). I don’t know if I’m at an age where I’m just more aware of how much I don’t know or if I just never really know anything culturally, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot this week.

For example, one of my friends that I’ve made in the grad program is Filipino, and she was telling me about how there are also elements attached to the zodiac animal of the year. This year is apparently the year of the water rabbit. Then, the computer in my apartment complex is the thing that informed me that for the Vietnamese, this is actually the year of the cat. I originally thought it was just clickbait, but when I asked my parents, they said it was true.

So this just might be the year of learning for me. Today, we’re going to dive into my weekend, which has reminded me to be grateful for how lucky I am to live the life that I have.

An Egg-cellent Weekend of Breathing

This past weekend, I have taken the time to come back home, and that is where I am spending my time for a bit. I don’t think I see my grandma enough, and we’re coming up on her birthday soon, so I’m soaking up all of her energy while I’m home. My weekend included this and more, so keep reading if you want to find out.

The Weekend of Feeling Like a Woman

At the beginning of the semester, I kind of considered delaying starting graduate school. Why? The Ladygang announced their tour, and I immediately wanted to go and be a groupie, because I absolutely love them. Their podcast is the good part about my weeks, and no show is ever the same because the crowd is never the same. So I considered it for a minute, but I already enrolled in my classes and I couldn’t forget how hard I worked to be in graduate school.

But this past weekend, I got to live out my groupie dreams. I picked up tickets to their last few shows in Phoenix and Denver (because Los Angeles was sold out). So that’s what I did this weekend, and while I missed Asanti, he’s the best for reminding me how important it is to treat myself in the midst of all my hard work.