When there are 86,400 seconds in one day, 30-40 seconds doesn't seem very significant. But that didn't matter when I met Taron Egerton at ACE Comic Con Midwest on October 13, 2019.
If you didn't already know, Taron Egerton is my favorite actor. If you don't know who he is, you should and you will (whether you keep reading my blog post or you hear his name come Oscar and awards season). Egerton is a British actor best known for portraying the characters of Eggsy Unwin in the Kingsman movie franchise and Elton John in Rocketman, which was released earlier this year.
I first watched him in Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2015 and was instantly a fan. It took me a while ― I think nearly a year! ― for him to become my favorite, though. But literally the second I heard him in the Sing trailer in 2016, I was sold. I was amazed that the same guy who played street kid turned super spy Eggsy Unwin sang these soulful songs as Johnny in Sing. I basically fell in love with his voice and closely followed his career from then on.
So when I saw a Facebook ad on July 29 for ACE Comic Con Midwest saying Taron Egerton would be there in October, I was so excited and knew I had to go meet him. It's funny because I remember at the time I recently mentioned wishing that someone I wanted to meet would come to a comic con in the Chicago area, and it was going to happen!
In my family (and by family, I mean immediate family ― mom, dad, brother, sister ― because my actual family counting all my living relatives is huge), I feel like I've always generally been the least healthy one. It's not like I grew up with a serious illness or got sick all the time or anything. I was just always the one who seemed to have the most little health issues.
When I was around 4 or 5, my ankle would often feel weird and painful so much that I wouldn't want to walk. (I don't know what was wrong with me then because I haven't been able to look at my medical history, but it did stop.) I got nosebleeds a lot as a kid. The nurse and my teachers at my small Catholic school were never surprised whenever I got one. My vision is the worst and always has been of my family. I have pretty thick lenses in my frames. I had braces longer than both of my siblings. I had to get gum surgery two or three times.
But none of those health issues really compare to this: I've had two seizures ― technically three if you count the time I had tingling in my left arm and foot which the epileptologist said was a seizure that never spread to my entire body.
Not many people know my story, but as a writer, it just makes sense to at least try to share my own story in a gesture of support to those who can relate and to raise awareness.
The start of the year means it's time for goals: evaluating how I did with my goals from last year and setting new ones for this year. Some people may do new year's resolutions, but I like goals, and lots of them. Setting lots of goals helps me strive to become a better person and be accountable for my actions. What also helps me is physically going over and seeing my goals, which is why I like to dedicate a blog post to them every year. Even if no one reads or cares about this post, it makes me accountable for what I set out to do.
Evaluating 2018 Goals
I've color coded the goals I set by whether I accomplished them and/or by how much I did/didn't accomplish them.
Green means I successfully completed the goal!
Yellow means I somewhat completed the goal.
Red means I definitely did not complete the goal.
Professional/journalism
Get a full-time job
Unfortunately, I did not get a full-time job last year. However, I did accept a part-time job with a school district doing communications, and I did increase the frequency of my freelancing with FloGymnastics, so combining those, it's like I have a full-time job. Technically, this should be red, but since I have made progress, I made it yellow.
If you've gone on social media ― specifically Facebook or Twitter ― or opened Netflix in the last two weeks or so, you've probably heard of To All the Boys I've Loved Before, one of Netflix's latest original movies. Based off the young adult novel by Jenny Han, To All the Boys follows the story of protagonist Lara Jean Song Covey after the secret love letters she wrote to five boys she had a crush on are somehow sent out.
The movie has quickly become a sensation for various reasons, from its cute but not terribly stereotypical story to the lovable and relatable characters to the family relationships to the Asian-American representation― not to mention it's a good adaptation of the book.
I've already watched To All The Boys twice (I know that's not much compared to others, but my sister doesn't want to watch it all the time like me), and I could honestly probably watch it every day. What I love most about the movie (and the book) is Lara Jean herself. I didn't realize this when I was reading the books last month, but I relate to Lara Jean so much. I like to joke that I am Lara Jean. As I read the books, it was easy to see how I was similar to Jenny Han's protagonist. But it wasn't until I watched the movie and saw Lana Condor bring Lara Jean to life on screen that I truly realized just how similar and how much Lara Jean meant to me. (Side note: there might be spoilers for the movie and entire book series in this post.)
So it's officially been a year (and a few days) since I've graduated from college, and it's still hard to believe it's already been that long. A lot's happened in the last 12 months.
I met my favorite gymnast, Nastia Liukin. I went to New York for the first time. I saw my first show on Broadway. I watched a lot of TV shows and movies for the first time. I saw the yearbook that I helped make and lead the creation of come to life and held it in my hands, experiencing the most rewarding feeling. I reunited with my best friend since sixth grade for the first time in four years. I traveled to San Francisco and met relatives I've never met before. I met Chloe Lukasiak from Dance Moms. I went to a club gymnastics meet for the first time. I saw Leslie Odom, Jr. sing live. I went to my first job interview. I got my first job offer. I declined my first job offer.
Like I said, a lot's happened in a year. But notice the absence of "I started my first adult job." That's definitely not what I expected or planned.
This is a blog post idea I've had for a while. In fact, this has been in my drafts for a few weeks now, but I never got around to posting or finishing it until this week. If you haven't figured it out, I'm sharing more about myself in this post, using every letter of the alphabet, I've chosen a word or phrase that is somehow about me.
Some of these letters were really easy to choose something for while others were definitely a struggle. But I thought this would be a really fun blog post to do.
Amanda
If you're familiar with my blog or got to this post from any of my social media, then you probably know Amanda is my first name. I'm 99-percent sure my parents named me Amanda because it starts with an A.
If you didn't already know, I'm a twin, and her name is Ashley. Ashley was born first, and my mom knew she wanted to name her Ashley after Ashley Judd. So I guess my parents thought of other names that began with A and liked Amanda.
Books
Just some of my books! This is probably 1/4 of the books I have in my room.
I've always loved books and reading. I do consider myself a bookworm and will forever have a never-ending "to-read" list. I have the Goodreads app on my phone and my Kindle so I can always keep track of what I'm reading. I can spend hours at Barnes and Noble browsing the shelves for new books to read (as if there aren't enough books I already want to read!).
Carmela
This is my middle name, which I use along with my first name for all of my social media usernames. It's my paternal grandmother's first name, and I really like it. I think it flows and goes well with my first name and last name. Plus, it's pretty and rather unique but not too unique.
I know it's the end of January, and goals and resolutions and whatnot are typically a start of the year thing, but it's taken me a few weeks to figure out what I want my goals for this year to be. It took me nearly a month, but I'm definitely motivated now and know what I want.
But before I get to my goals for this year, I want to go over my goals from last year and see how I did. I surprised myself with how I completed some of them but definitely had a lot of work to do with most of them.
Evaluating 2017 Goals
I've color coded the goals I set by whether I accomplished them and/or by how much I did/didn't accomplish them.
Green means I successfully completed the goal! Yellow means I somewhat completed the goal. Red means I definitely did not complete the goal.
Professional/journalism
Get a job
This one's pretty simple. I don't have a job, so I didn't meet my goal. I do contribute to the popular gymnastics website, FloGymnastics, and get paid for it, but freelancing isn't what I was thinking of when I set this goal.
Since it's Thursday, the start of the new year, and I'm not done blogging about 2017, I'm sharing my favorite moments/memories from 2017 in my first Throwback Thursday post.
I haven't done a reflection post about 2017 yet and am not sure if I will, but I'll say this. 2017 was definitely an interesting year for me. It had its ups and downs, and by ups and downs, I mean extreme ups and downs. Lots of exciting moments like graduating and traveling to new places and more difficult and upsetting moments than I would like, including two hospitalizations and being away from my sister for the first time in our lives. And while every year has its less-than-ideal moments, it's important to think past those, think about how you got through them, and cherish the best moments. Because how would I know how great these following moments would be without those low ones?
Meeting Olympic rhythmic gymnasts Jenny and Monica Rokhman
My sister, Ashley, Jenny, myself, and Monica
Last spring, my twin sister and I got to meet and interview a pair of fellow identical twins! What was even more exciting about the opportunity was that the twins we met and interviewed are U.S. Olympic rhythmic gymnasts Jenny and Monica Rokhman. (If you don't know by now, I'm a gymnastics fanatic and would love to meet any elite or high level gymnast.)
We were interviewing them for a feature we were including in the official yearbook of the University of Illinois. As it was the school year after an Olympic year, it was relevant to include, and when would I ever have the chance to put rhythmic gymnastics in the yearbook?
This past Sunday was World Suicide Prevention Day and marked the start of National Suicide Prevention Week. September is National Suicide Prevention Month. This year, mental health non-profit To Write Love on Her Arms created its annual NSPD campaign: "Stay. Find what you were made for."
I am choosing to stay, and this is what I was made for.
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being a twin, daughter, sister, niece, aunt, and friend
Having relationships, especially familial ones, is unavoidable in life. Unless you live in isolation from the rest of the world, you're pretty much going to have relationships with other people. So it's important to maintain good relationships with those in your life and to do your best at being in those roles.
I very much believe I was meant to be an identical twin. My twin sister is such a huge and vital part of my life. I couldn't imagine it without her.
Being a daughter and sister are roles I've always had. As the youngest of three children, I never knew what it was like to be an only child. My family spends a lot of time together (or at least I feel like we do), so being there and just spending time with my parents, brother, and sister are important to me.
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I'm not actually an aunt in the traditional sense since neither of my siblings have children, but several of my cousins do, so I'm an aunt to them. Over the past few years, I've become closer to my nieces and have become one of those aunts who spoils their nieces. I love buying things for people, so I definitely feel like I was made to be the aunt who spoils her nieces and nephews.
Two of my mom's sisters, whom she's closest to out of her many siblings, don't have kids. Because my mom is very close with these two sisters, I often feel like a daughter to them, too, even though I'm only their niece. So I cherish the role of niece very much since they are like second mothers to me.
being an Illini
I could go on and on about going to the University of Illinois, but I feel like I already did that in my sappy post-graduation blog post. So read this blog post from May if you want to know why I was meant to be an Illini.
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God's glory
I've been going to church for my entire life. I go every weekend (for the most part. Life gets in the way sometimes.), and I've been taught to do everything for His glory. Without Him, I would not be who or where I am.
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wearing pink
Anyone who knows me knows I love the color pink. I wear it every day. Pink is seen as a girly color, but I feel it's a very versatile color that can represent different things depending on the shade. As someone who doesn't necessarily have a set style I adhere to when it comes to clothes, I feel pink very much describes me.
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sharing stories, capturing moments, and reading lots of books
Writing, photography, and reading: three activities I enjoy doing. I've always enjoyed reading and writing. English/language arts was always one of my favorite (if not my favorite) subjects as a kid. Also, as an introvert and rather shy person at times, I definitely prefer writing to speaking. So I definitely know I was made to write. Reading just goes along with that. Reading improves your writing, and I just love to read books.
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Photography wasn't something that I was into until later on in my education. I always thought taking and looking at pictures was cool, but there's a difference between photography and just liking pictures. I love being able to capture memories and moments, communicating an emotion or message visually based on lighting and composition, simply taking a snapshot of something so you can remember it forever.
loving gymnastics
Gymnastics was just one of the few sports I wanted to do when I was younger but never got to do. But I know I was meant to love it. I've developed a passion for it unlike any other interest I've had, so that's got to mean something. I say this a lot and have mentioned it in multiple blog posts, but it really has meant so much to me and impacted my life a lot in the past few years. So instead of rambling on about gymnastics forever, here are some old blog posts where I demonstrate and explain my love for the sport:
Dance is another activity I wanted to do when I was younger, albeit briefly. I don't like to be the center of attention or have much attention on me at all, so being a dancer was a little scary for me. Also, I'd totally get stage fright before a dance performance since I get super nervous before I have to do a speech or presentation. Fortunately, I can still appreciate dance by watching it, whether that be on TV, an actual performance, or online.
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Action sports, however, were not on my list of things I wanted to do as a kid. I was totally fine just playing Tony Hawk video games on my brother's PlayStation or PlayStation 2. But action sports, like dance and gymnastics, are underrated in terms of sports and athletic activities. They're the kinds of things people see and think are cool, but that's about it. As someone who was never the superstar in sports or smartest kid in class, I appreciate the underrated. I appreciate the underdogs.
being a yerd (aka yearbook nerd)
The first time I did yearbook was in middle school. It was an after-school club, and I remember voting for the cover of my sixth-grade yearbook at the first meeting. I only went to one or two more meetings after that because volleyball took up my time. Considering middle school yearbook staff members don't really do much (at least at my middle school), I'm not too upset about not staying in yearbook then.
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Fast forward a few years, and being in yearbook was so important to me. I would not be the same person I am today without it. The combination of writing, design, and photography in more of a fun magazine style (as opposed to a newspaper) is perfect for me. I've always enjoyed writing. I've been playing around and experimenting with graphic design on Photoshop since middle school. I've grown to really enjoy photography and see it as more than just taking pictures in the past few years. So what could be better? The attention to detail, combination of media, and creativity involved in yearbook lets me know I was made to be a yerd.
being a fan(girl)
For as long as I can remember, there's been a celebrity, athlete, sport, movie, etc. I've been pretty much obsessed with.
First it was Hilary Duff. I didn't have cable channels in elementary and middle school, so I didn't get to watch Lizzie McGuire as much as my classmates, but I still watched as much of it as I could. I got all the DVDs I could find. My sister and I got all of her CDs. We even had a gigantic poster of her hanging above our bed at one point.
The next big one was definitely High School Musical, which I totally still love today (no shame). Like I just said, I didn't have cable in elementary school, so when everyone at lunch would talk about it in fifth grade, I definitely felt left out and had no clue what they were talking about. Eventually I watched it and became legit obsessed with it. I own all three movies (two copies each of the first two because I needed the special edition ones that came out later!), four CDs (three soundtracks and a remix CD), did a seventh grade language arts project on Zanessa (forever sad about their breakup), and even had HSM waffles (I still have the box under my bed).
In seventh grade came my love for my favorite skateboarder Ryan Sheckler, leading me to watch action sports of all kinds. I even have old JC Penney circulars that have him in it from his old clothing line.
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Five years later I fell in love with gymnastics. And I won't go on about that for the millionth time. And now that's pretty stable. I still love Ryan Sheckler, and I've recently started to become obsessed with Taron Egerton (watch Kingsman: The Golden Circle on September 22!), but it appears my love for gymnastics beats all the others. After all, I aspire to be a gymnastics writer/reporter, so I don't see my passion for the sport leaving anytime soon.
I don't know what it is about all of the things listed above but I can't help but realize that I love to show my support for the people and things I love. Maybe it's because I've struggled with making friends and these obsessions help me make friends. Whatever it is, it was meant to be, even if I was sometimes annoying by not talking about anything else.
"Stay. Find what you were made for."
During this National Suicide Prevention Week and National Suicide Prevention Month, choose to stay, because you were made for something. Whether you know what that is or you're still looking for it, there is a reason you are still here.
I know it's been quite a while since I've last posted on here, but the second semester of my senior year of college was a lot busier than I anticipated.
Now that I've made it and earned my hard-earned degree, I have more time to blog again and would like to begin by celebrating the class of 2017 and reflecting on my time at the University of Illinois.
When I was in middle school, I remember not wanting to go to Illinois because I felt the two and a half hour car ride to Champaign was too long. I didn't want to sit in the car for that long a few times a year to get to school and come home from it.
Now I couldn't imagine spending the last four years anywhere else. I wouldn't want to go anywhere else. U of I became my home away from home, and it still hasn't sunk it that come mid-August, I won't be coming back to campus this fall.
2016 marked the second full year I've had this blog, and in terms of blogging, 2016 was alright. I only published about 45 posts in 2016, which is just okay compared to the nearly 70 posts I published in 2015.
While I didn't get to post as much in 2016 as 2015, I still have quite a few favorite posts from 2016. Whether it helped me remember a great day or event or expressed my feelings about someone and the impact he/she's had on my life, the following blog post links are my favorites from 2016:
They say "There's a first time for everything," but what about a second or third time? Perhaps the common saying only acknowledges the first occurrence because it's the first, which makes it special. If it happens more than once, it's not special anymore. It's something you've gotten used to. It's no longer a rarity, which deters from how special it is. But that's not always the case.
Photos via Creative Commons (1 | 2 ) Credit to Scott and Emer Hults
Before 2012, I wasn't a huge gymnastics fan like I am today. Before 2012, I didn't know there were any high-level Filipino-American gymnasts. Before 2012, I wasn't too familiar with the name Kyla Ross ― I'm not sure I'd even heard her name before.
Four years later, I can definitely say that's all changed.
Being in college is not easy. It can be rather busy. Of course, there are classes, which every college student experiences. But many add even more on top, like clubs, Greek life, jobs, and internships.
This semester is perhaps my busiest one yet. Although I'm currently only taking four classes, I have a lot of other responsibilities and commitments. I am the writing editor of the University of Illinois' official yearbook, Illio (which is essentially a job); an intern with FloGymnastics as the University of Illinois Correspondent; the secretary of the University of Illinois' To Write Love on Her Arms UChapter; and recently joined the Illinois Sports Business Association. In addition, I just found out last week that I will be adding another class during the second half of the semester as part of a sports media industry immersion trip to Portland.
It certainly looks like a lot to handle, and it is. I don't think I've ever had so much on my plate before. So why do it? Why pile an internship, two clubs, and a job on top of schoolwork? What's the motivation behind it? Isn't there a worry that it's too much to handle?
Of course. Since this is the most I've ever been responsible for, I'm definitely worried. But I'm not going to let that stop me from making connections, getting involved, and best preparing myself for my future, which is what these activities are doing.
While 2015 gave me many unforgettable experiences, from going to Florida and Disney World for the first time to meeting To Write Love on Her Arms founder Jamie Tworkowski, that year is in the past, and it's time to look forward to what the new year will bring. Here are a few reasons (unique to the year) why I'm excited for 2016.
It's a new year, and that means it's time to set new goals! New year's resolutions are common, but I like to have a bunch of small goals and not just one big goal. After all, setting smaller goals helps accomplish larger ones!
Whether or not I write them down or type them out, I always have goals for the year. Writing things down makes you more accountable, so I'm hoping compiling and typing them out into this post helps me accomplish these goals.
Professional/Journalism
Goals that somehow relate and/or contribute to my career aspirations
My dream job would be any job that allows me to use my talents to help the sport of gymnastics grow, so what I'm currently striving for is to be a gymnastics reporter/writer. I was never a gymnast, so I don't have nearly 20 years of gymnastics knowledge like others my age interested in the sport, and despite writing journalistically since my junior year of high school, I do admit I have a lot to learn about writing.
Last semester, during the spring of 2014, I was involved in a a project the local WILL/Illinois Public Media was doing on Vietnam veterans. My entire multimedia reporting class helped WILL interview Vietnam veterans living in downstate Illinois and compile their oral histories. As part of the project, I photographed, filmed, interviewed and recorded sound relating to one veteran and his story, applying the skills I was learning in my multimedia class. (The photos featured here are part of that class and project.)
It's finally November, and that means many things to me. It means Thanksgiving is near, the semester's almost over, and winter's almost here. But this first week is special in its own right and means something to me. November 5th and 6th are the birthdays of two of my best friends, Leslie and Carly.
It may only be Wednesday, but, honestly, these last few days have felt like a month. These past few days have been rather heavy emotionally, so it hasn't been the happiest week.
This past weekend, a fellow University of Illinois journalism student passed away. Even though the College of Media is rather small, and it's easy to know a lot of the other students in the college and major of journalism, I didn't know him personally. But my sister did, so it affected her. And my sister is my best friend, so it affected me. They weren't close, but it still hurt to see my sister and other people I know saddened by his passing.
Later in the weekend, the news of Flip Saunders' death was all over the internet. Saunders was the head coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He passed away after a battle with cancer. Obviously, I didn't personally know the late basketball coach and Minnesota basketball star, but I do follow basketball a bit, so it was sad to hear that news, especially since it seemed liked upsetting news was piling on. Plus, my sister is a huge basketball fan, so she just seemed even more sad than she already was, and I hated seeing that, knowing that.
But the news I got today hurt the most. A few minutes after I got back from class, my mom called. It wasn't peculiar that she seemed to randomly be calling. She's my mom; moms worry about their children and call them, and that seems to be more true when the kid is away at college, away from home.
