This is Full-Circle

A few weeks ago I joined my very first professional organization, MIT - Millennials in Travel. I am officially a professional in the Travel industry! Just a few weeks prior to joining said organization I also received my very own business cards. It all happened in such a timely manner, I could not have planned it any better myself - and I'm a pretty dang good planner.

This year is going to be my fourth year in the workforce, but this is the first time I feel like I am actually working towards a career. I am not depreciating the jobs I have had, they definitely helped to rebuild my confidence in myself as a competent and more than capable individual. It has been a process - which I am learning isn't very different from what most of us are going through in our 20s - this is what I imagine the awkward teenage years to be. I feel like I missed out on those awkward teenage years because well, I did. I never really cared to fit in or to be accepted, all I was concerned about was getting to college to make my parents' sacrifices worthwhile. The best comparison I can come up with is like when you're breaking your running shoes in, you have to go easy at first, then you just let the insole mold onto your feet and eventually it's magical. I'm starting to get that magical feeling of, "I have actually learned so much," thanks to the fact that I am now responsible for training an intern. I know stuff! haha. I still feel like such a noob, I'm still working on feeling confident from the inside out in the workplace.

The one thing that makes me smile with utter bliss and satisfaction is that I am here, exactly where I always wanted to be from the very beginning. When we first moved to the U.S. my parents emphasized the importance of going to college as it would open up the doors to the world. My mom has always wanted me to be able to see every beautiful corner of this planet with my very own eyes, not to just see it through TV or peoples' stories. Back in high school during college application time, the school I really wanted to go to was Ithaca College because they had a Hotel and Tourism Management program . . . something along those lines. Of course that didn't happen, as I have discussed before. I veered away from that when I got into UCSB and I did not like the Econ classes hah. College then became a process of simple - yet not so simple - maintaining my sanity and just getting through school. Like I've mentioned before, with the on-again, off-again promise of resolve to the residency thing it became so difficult to hold on the possibility of ever actually being a functioning member of society here. I never ever saw a point in trying to prepare for a career. This is not a pity party.

Fast-forwarding to today, I am just in awe in the gift/plan that life has set for you. I am finally seeing a seedling to a career! Yet another surreal side-effect of this beautiful life I have been given. I could not be happier today. It certainly doesn't hurt that I have Vietnam around the corner.

Thanks for stopping by.

MUCH LOVE!!!