Author: Susan

Eat This in Tampa

Eat This, Tampa

If you’re a first time visitor, make sure to check out Eat This: An Introduction.

My boyfriend hails from Tampa, so we’re often back in his hometown to visit family and to enjoy the warm weather. While Tampa is known for beaches, strip clubs, and cigars, it also has a ton of great food to offer. As always, feel free to comment if you have any questions!

1. Bern’s Steakhouse (Steakhouses; Dinner)

  • Menu: Bern’s Menu
  • Reservations: Yes, this is a must for Bern’s.
  • Try: The steak, of course, but the Red Snapper a la Plancha is also excellent. For sides, don’t skip the Okinawa sweet potato.
  • Tips: Don’t skip the dessert room!
  • Read my Yelp review here.

2. Wright’s Gourmet (Sandwiches; Lunch/Dinner)

  • Menu: Wright’s Menu
  • Reservations: Nah, this place is casual!
  • Try: The Monte Cristo sandwich, Turkey & Pecan Salad Plate, Alpine Cake
  • Tips: The sandwiches are amazing, but so are the salads and the cakes. Order take-out. Avoid lunch hour at all costs.

3. Datz  (New American; Brunch/Lunch/Dinner)

  • Menu: Datz Menu
  • Reservations: No can do – prepare to wait in line during busy times like lunch and brunch.
  • Try: Barry C’s Stuffed Meatloaf, Sriracha Patty Melt
  • Tips: Parking’s kind of a pain, but you can find some more if you go down the street right next to Datz.
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Jalapeno Mac ‘N’ Cheese | Datz | Tampa, FL

4. Oystercatchers  (American/Seafood; Brunch/Lunch/Dinner)

  • Menu: Oystercatchers Menu
  • Reservations: Yes.
  • Try: Oyster (obviously!), Ale Battered Fish & Chips
  • Tips: Great view of the bay, so ask to be seated by the windows. The smoky seasoning they provide with the butter and bread is awesome.

5. Rooster and the Till (New American; Dinner)

  • Menu: Rooster and the Till Menu
  • Reservations: Yes.
  • Try: Cheese and Charcuterie; BBQ Pork Neck with Scallops; Gnocchi with Short Ribs and Smoke Ricotta
  • Tips: Ambiance is on the darker side and great for dates.
  • Read my Yelp review here.

Eat This: An Introduction

Eat This

Welcome! Eat This is a section of my website I’ve created with a personal list of restaurant and food recommendations (hover over the “Food” tab on the main menu to find this page).

I will be the first to say that I do not have a refined taste. I love food – no, I love many foods. And I’m one of those people who thinks everything tastes good, who can’t tell the difference between two different types of chili, who thinks anything tastes better with truffle – like I said, I do not have a refined taste.

That being said, I do of course still judge the restaurants I go to. And I have menu items that I like more than others – for example, I absolutely love meat and need it with most of my meals. As someone who’s been lucky enough to have eaten in a variety of cities, I’m excited to share my own favorite places to eat.

You’ll notice that Eat This is organized by city. I’ve tried to keep my recommendations at 5 places per city, because I’ve often noticed for myself that I’m overwhelmed when I have too many choices. Yes, I have eaten at 100% of the places that I recommend – and more. I will occasionally update the pages if I try a new restaurant that edges out an existing one.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like any additional recommendations, and enjoy eating!

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Shrimp and Grits | Edgehill Cafe | Nashville, TN

 

P.S. Generally speaking, I value the following when I judge a restaurant, so keep this in mind as you consider my recommendations:

  • Interesting ingredients. Given that I don’t have refined taste, I’m not one who can appreciate that so-and-so makes the best fried chicken around – because all fried chickens will taste similar to me. However, if said fried chicken is served with cool ingredients that I’ve never really gotten to taste before, then we’re talking.
  • Value Proposition. One of the topics I blog about is saving money, so you can bet that I will be judging my dining experience on whether it’s really worth the money. Going to a restaurant and overpaying for a boring, simple meal is one of the worst experiences I could have. I also tend to shy away from ordering carbs (i.e. fried rice, noodles) because I know in my head how ridiculous the markup is for something that’s mostly made of such a cheap staple.

Conversely, here are things I don’t really think about in my dining experience:

  • Drinks. I’m not a huge alcohol drinker and will not pretend to know anything about beer, wine, or anything alcoholic.
  • Cleanliness. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. If the food’s good, I don’t really care if it’s in a gross little alley. Food poisoning? Shrugged off in 24 hours. Remember that Per Se in New York once got a C rating – but who cares? The restaurant is probably still amazing.

Hong Kong 1-Day Itinerary: Central & SoHo

Hong Kong

Walking: Moderate || Good For: Families || Price Range: $

Morning: Central to Escalators. Make your way over to Central via one of Hong Kong’s many excellent transportation systems. Chances are, you’re getting over jet-lag or maybe even took that early-bird flight over to HK. Make your way over to the Central-Mid-Levels Escalators and admire the sights as you ride part of the world’s longest out-door escalator system. Don’t ride it all the way, though – get off at Staunton Street, head to your right, and take another right when you hit Elgin Street, where you can enjoy some brunch.

Brunch: Dim Sum, of course! Try some of Hong Kong’s dim sum at Ding Dim 1968. This isn’t the most local place, nor the most famous (that’s Michelin-starred Tim Ho Wan) – but it has pretty good dim sum with classics like shrimp dumplings as well as dishes with more unique ingredients like quail eggs and truffle (the foodie’s obsession and the food snob’s eyeroll). It’s a pretty small space although there are two rooms, so you might need to wait a bit. They even have a combo plate for two people so you can try more food!

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Early Afternoon: Wandering SoHo. You’re already in the middle of Hong Kong’s SoHo, so explore away! Wander up and down the streets to work off that dim sum and admire the murals that adorn the buildings of SoHo. Shop at unique Hong Kong stores like Goods of Desire (48 Hollywood Road) or Homeless (29 Gough Street) for cute household goods and attire that you never knew you needed. In fact, add all of Gough Street to your list – and break off to explore all the side streets as you please!

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Head a bit uphill on Aberdeen to check out PMQ , a four-level semi-outdoor mall made up of independent store-owners selling everything from clothing to stationery to jewelry. A lot of the items are hand-crafted and you can even see them make their items in-shop.

If you’re not into shopping, go down Hollywood Road to Man Mo Temple and inhale that strong incense as you mingle with worshippers and tourists inside.

Late Afternoon: Snack Break. If you’re tired of walking, pick up some milk tea at Lan Fong Yuen, a popular local tea restaurant. It’s a tiny shop, though, so don’t expect to be able to sit around – pick up the milk tea so you can say you’ve tried it, and try to find somewhere else to sit. Alternatively, you can go to Honululu Cafe – a more diner-style place with a lot of seating, you can try Hong Kong classics like pineapple buns or HK-style French toast. Pair it with some iced yuanyang, a half-coffee/half-milk tea drink and you’ll be feeling refreshed in no time!

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Evening: The Peak. Hong Kong has incredible night views, and The Peak is one of the city’s most popular tourist destinations for a reason. This viewing point atop the mountain can be reached either via the historic but more expensive Peak Tram (expect lines) or the regular bus from Admiralty’s bus terminal. Both will get you to the top, where you can enjoy the expansive view of Hong Kong Island and its across-the-water neighbor, Kowloon. Enjoy your time up there, but be warned that it can get windy and quite chilly at night during the winter months.

Dinner: Simple and Cheap. If you want to stay and eat at the top of the Peak, check out Tsui Wah, one of Hong Kong’s many tea restaurant chains. Be warned that this location is probably more crowded than the ones back down in the city, so you may want to take the tram or bus back down and find other Tsui Wahs. Or try sweet and sour rice noodles at Nam Kee, where you order at the counter to choose the soup bowl that fits your desire.

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Late Night: The One and Only LKF. If you’re not utterly exhausted, head on over to Lan Kwai Fong – Central’s main bar/club/hookah area. It’s generally crowded on any night, ridiculously crowded on holidays like Halloween, but one of the best places in Hong Kong for people-watching. Duck out from the crowd to sit down at a bar, or grab some beer from 7/11 and watch the crazies from a distance – you might want to leave the kids at home for this one, though. Enjoy the rest of your night!

 

 

 

On Discouraging Times

Thoughts

Time flies when you’re having fun, right? I’m quickly approaching nearly four months of “funemployment,” and most of it has indeed (surprisingly) been fun. I’ve gotten to spend a ton of time with family and friends in Chicago; experiment with random concoctions in the kitchen; travel to new places like the UP, Michigan; Montreal, Quebec; and Boulder, Colorado. Perhaps most importantly of all, I’ve spent significant time thinking about my next career move: from talking to strangers over the phone/coffee to brainstorming with my closest friends, I’ve been able to give some serious thought to my “next steps.”

Overall, I was doing pretty well – until this week. This week, for the first time since I’d quit my job in July, I felt fed up with the job search. I felt frustrated at the endless applications that went unanswered; discouraged by the drawn-out interview processes that thus far have failed to result in a job offer. People around me would tell me, “You have such a great resume; I know you’ll have no problem finding a job” – but the reality is, it hasn’t been that easy.

There have been positives, of course. Despite the fact that many of my applications do go ignored, I’ve been averaging at least either a phone or in-person interview almost every week for the past couple of months – sometimes different rounds for the same company, but I know I’ve been a lot luckier than other job seekers who struggle to even score an interview. I’ve visited downtown Chicago more times in the past few months than I ever did through high school – and usually, before or after my interviews, I’ve been able to meet up with friends in the beautiful city I never got to know.

But this week, I just felt frustrated. It’s definitely difficult not to get my hopes up after later-stage interviews, and my tendency to be optimistic unfortunately makes the fall a bit harder when it happens. I’ve seen my share of rejections over the past few months, but none of them had really bothered me. This week, probably due to a combination of multiple drawn-out interview processes (one of them has literally been ongoing for three months), I just felt so stinking discouraged. I know, cognitively, that there’s no way I’ll be unemployed forever – yet today was definitely a day where I felt like that “unemployed loser” I feared becoming. Luckily for me, most days have not been like today.

As always, my friends came to my rescue. One of the best parts of being unemployed is being able to spend time on Gchat, Slack, and Facebook messenger – chatting with friends as they go through their own workdays, albeit with slower responses from their end, of course. But despite their own stressful workloads, their office drama, their startup woes, their wedding plannings, their recent engagements – despite their own lives, my friends have been there to talk to me, to encourage me, to nudge me back onto the path of positivity. Even when times are tough. Especially when times are tough. So thanks to them, I kept going today. I let myself mope for a few hours, and then picked myself up and kept right going.

The job search finally got to me this week, but luckily for me, it was fleeting. I’m back on my feet and ready to go again, thanks to my awesome, supportive friends. My unemployment experience would have been so different without them – and I know everyone says this, but seriously…I have the best friends in the world.

On Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Thoughts

I miss Asia almost every day. There are triggers all the time – evil ex-coworkers tagging me in food photos around Asia, fluid Cantonese spoken in local Chinese restaurants, media photos of F3 reunited in Bali to attend a wedding. There have been so many things, since coming back to the States, that cause a little pang of nostalgia, of missing those two years I lived back in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

I was worried about moving back home to Hoffman Estates after I quit my job in New York this past July. After all, New York City was probably the most similar setting I could have to the urban metropolises that I’d lived in abroad; I worried that I’d find the suburbs too quiet, too limiting, and quite honestly too boring – especially after my grandparents left to return to China mid-August.

But I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that this Chicago suburb I grew up in has been more than ideal for my transition back to the States after two years abroad. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I’ve found those words to be true more than ever. And while there are multiple reasons why being in Hoffman Estates has been awesome, the greatest reason by far has been the people.

After my grandparents left in mid-August, I started to spend a lot of time catching up with different people, from childhood friends, to high school teachers, to college classmates, even to new friends I’d made in New York and in Asia. After every single meet-up, I have the exact same thought: “I am so incredibly thankful to be friends with people who I admire and respect so much.”

I’ve been repeatedly blown away by how my friendships haven’t changed despite years apart; by how career success or new life chapters haven’t diminished the strong, down-to-earth characters of my favorite people. And there was absolutely no need for me to worry about my newly found confidence declining, because I have been surrounded by the support and encouragement of people who believe in me more than I believe in myself.

It’s said that unemployment and job-seeking can often be depressing and lonely, and that insecurity increases while confidence plummets. But being back home in Hoffman Estates has prevented me from really feeling any of that negativity – and I realize how incredibly fortunate I am. Each hangout with a friend leaves me feeling warm, happy, confident, and thankful. Each visit to downtown Chicago leaves me satisfied with how close I still am to a myriad of opportunities and (more importantly) restaurants. And each night spent at home, cooking with my parents, leaves me feeling like I’ve made the right decision in quitting and taking a break to come home after eight years away from Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

It’s so good to be home.

On Doing Good

Thoughts

In order to somewhat guide my job search process, I’ve been talking to people who work in the roles and/or industries that I’m interested in. There are two general goals I have in mind as I search for my next role: 1) To have greater ownership of my work, and 2) To be “doing good.”

The nonprofit world is one I’ve been on-and-off interested in since high school. I want to use my skills to make a difference, and to do good; I want to help people. One of my strengths is being able to do that on a personal level: I’m good at being a loyal, caring friend, and I’ve heard that I’m pretty good at giving sage life advice. In that sense, I think I have indeed fulfilled my hopes of helping people and of making an impact.

But I don’t feel like that’s good enough; I don’t feel like I’ve reached my potential: I want to do more.

So I’ve continued to explore different career paths that would allow me to do good in my job. One of those paths is through education: my own K-12 years were incredibly important in shaping me into who I am today, and I firmly believe that one’s experience as a child – particularly in terms of SEL – is a strong influencing factor in one’s success later on. Even as I talk to people in the education sector, though, I’m overwhelmed by just how many different types of roles there are – some directly related to the students, and others not much at all.

This has been a recurring theme in my ongoing job search: that there are so, so, so many ways out there to “do good,” to “make a difference.” It’s partially encouraging that there are so many potential paths to take; but on the other hand, it makes it a lot harder to narrow down how exactly to go about doing good. And it doesn’t have to be nonprofit, either: many corporations have foundations or CSR departments, while mission-oriented startups also focus on doing good while churning a profit.

All this to say: although it’s not that easy to narrow it down, the important thing is to choose a path and just try it out. Some people even see jobs as a way to fund their lives, and engage in side projects to make that difference.

I hope that whichever path I choose to go in this next phase of my life, I remember to keep that ultimate goal in mind: to be doing good, in the best way(s) that I can.

On Resilience

Thoughts

They say one of the most difficult parts of job searching is the toll it can take on your self esteem. It’s hard to be ignored or rejected when you apply for jobs, and it certainly makes you wonder why you weren’t “good enough” to be chosen.

I’m about a full month into my official job search (even though I’ve been unemployed longer than that, I was on a family vacation to Michigan for part of that time). For someone as impatient as I am, the length of the job search process in today’s market can feel long – even when, in retrospect, it hasn’t really been that long at all. On the one hand, I’m enjoying the flexibility – I’ve been able to spend extended time in Nashville with Chase given my unemployment, since I can apply to jobs from here.

But on the other hand, I’m finally starting to become anxious: what’s taking so “long”?

I’ve of course had my share of ignores and rejections at this point, some that I’ve taken much better than others. My mood has ranged from cheerfully persistent to despondently insecure, although I’m happy to say that I’ve mostly been the former. But more recently, the negativity has indeed started to poke through my optimism and it’s more important than ever that I remember to be resilient.

As an avid believer in the idea that resilience is a key factor for success, I see my current state as an incredible opportunity to test and build my own resilience. Being rejected is hard, of course, but what’s done is done: I need to focus on moving past it, either accepting the rejection and moving on or pressing further to understand why. As a naturally happy-go-lucky person, I have an advantage in framing; I naturally see situations in a positive light and it’s more important than ever that I remember to do so now.

A rejection doesn’t mean I wasn’t good enough. It just means I wasn’t the right fit, and as long as I keep bouncing back, stay persistent, and continue to learn, I’ll make it out all right. Rejection means another chance to regroup and create plans; as a friend recently reminded me, I’m looking for a career, not a job.

It’s a new week and anything can happen – I’m refreshed and ready!

On Insecurity

Thoughts

Tomorrow, I will go through an identity change.

I quit my job exactly one month ago, making the decision to leave an unfulfilling job to come home and enjoy quality time with my family – specifically my grandparents, who are spending the summer here in Chicago. This is the longest time I’ve gotten to spend with them since I was three years old, and it has been incredible.

Tomorrow, that all changes as my grandparents get on the 14-hour flight back to China. With them, they will take a part of my current identity. Because here’s the thing: as long as they were here, I was the doting granddaughter, cooking lunch and dinner every day, helping them with technology, taking them on field trips to the library.

But as soon as they leave tomorrow, I’ll just be a regular unemployed 25-year-old.

Of course, I made that decision. Rather than using my remaining vacation days or finagling some sort of extended leave of absence, I made that decision to quit my job instead. I made that decision knowing that with unemployment comes a period of job seeking, of not knowing what’s ahead, of losing the career identity I’d built over four years. And I don’t regret it at all, because it has been worth it for this past month.

Yet the insecurity has been slowly seeping in, and I see an invisible taunting “loser” following right behind the phrase “unemployed 25-year-old.” No matter what my family and friends say about my resume, my personality, my whatever, I’m not confident that I can find a job easily. I’m scared, and I’m worried. I’m insecure.

As I prepare to say yet another farewell to my grandparents tomorrow, I’m inwardly saying farewell to that doting granddaughter identity I’ve held for the past month, instead saying hello to that insecurity of unemployment that I can no longer easily ignore. I’m bracing for what feels like failure, trying to remember that failure itself is actually just another opportunity to learn. I will not only be searching for jobs, but also be coping with consequences, learning to live life as I chose.

Tomorrow, I will go through an identity change…and I hope I’m ready for it.

On Being Not Social

Thoughts

I tagged along with my parents to a family friend’s house party this weekend, where I saw friends’ parents whom I hadn’t seen in months, if not years. “How long are you home for this time?” they asked. Bracing myself against the fear of judgment that covered me, I took a breath and replied, “Indefinitely, I guess. I quit my job.”

Telling a group of Chinese parents that you’ve quit your job without anything lined up is pretty scary: in a culture where practicality and stability are highly valued, my risky plan and unemployed status probably banish me to the dungeon category of “people we don’t EVER want our kids to be like.” But now that the cat’s REALLY out of the bag to arguably the most intimidating group of people to tell, I can freely talk about what it’s been like for the past two weeks!

The past two weeks have been interesting because I went from leading an extremely active social life to basically having zero social interactions (besides my family, of course) for literally fourteen days. I know, because I counted: from an awesome lunch with the Tanakas to celebrate my newly engaged best friend + her fiancee, two weeks had passed until Laura and I caught up this weekend at a cool coffee shop nearby (check it out – really cool shop supporting kids with Down Syndrome).

This, I told my parents, is probably the longest I have EVER gone without seeing someone from outside of my family (not counting cashiers and librarians and people I run into on errands). Because of the fact that most of us spend our time either in school or at work, in fact, it’s nearly impossible to go more than maybe the weekend without conversation with a classmate, a coworker, a friend.

I guess it’s technically cheating to say I had no social interactions, because of course I’m home with my parents and grandparents. But while living in New York, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, I got into the habit of having or making plans nearly every weeknight and weekend – it was definitely a way to make sure I wouldn’t feel lonely or homesick in a new city, and I was so stimulated by the unending places to see and places to eat in these huge metropolitan cities.

Suffice to say that I thought I would quickly go stir crazy being back home in the suburbs, particularly with two weeks passing without seeing any friends. But interestingly enough, I didn’t mind it at all. So here’s what I’ve learned from this experience of being not social:

  • There’s more time to get stuff done. I had time to do arts and crafts yesterday. I cook lunch and dinner for my grandparents every day. I cleaned my room of my childhood belongings and high school scantrons. When I’d come home in the past, I would spend my time going out to meet up with old friends or just enjoying time with my parents; I never made the time to just sit down and take care of stuff around the house that needed to get done.
  • The suburbs are really pretty. I’d started appreciating being in Hoffman Estates again on my breaks from the cities, but I’m just so reminded of how pretty the suburbs can be. I like seeing the houses with the yards all lined up neatly on the streets. We are lucky to have an awesome library with surroundings that are nice enough for people to make it a pre-prom photo option. My grandpa has become a regular visitor of two turtles that live in Victoria Park. The sky is so, so, so blue. When I’m not being too distracted to get somewhere or to see someone, I’m able to appreciate what’s around me a lot more.
  • I’m okay being not social. More okay than I thought I would be, anyway. I’m still an extravert at heart, and of course it helps that I have my family to hang out with while I’m home. And I recognize that I’ve only been home for a few weeks. But these past two weeks, despite not seeing any friends, I didn’t feel at all antsy or bothered – and I’m proud of myself for it. It’s refreshing to remember that what makes me tick is really just being around those I love, not leading a packed social life. I’m excited to being more of a homebody, especially when Chase and I get to spend more time together.

So far, I’m enjoying this quiet break from working. I’m sure things will change if I stay unemployed too long, but wish me luck, guys – let’s hope that this isn’t TOO long of a break!

On Quitting My Job

Thoughts

Last Friday, July 8th marked the final day at my job.  My first and only job out of college, I had been at the company for just over four years. Two weeks prior, I had given notice to my boss after endless discussions with my family, my friends, and my own little mind.

I’d toyed with the idea for a long time, weighing the pros and cons, guessing at what “funemployment” would bring to my life. Unlike people who quit their jobs because they’re stressed out, or because they have terrible bosses, or because they work awful, long, hours, I quit simply because I wanted to.

It may sound silly, especially given that I wasn’t in some unbearable situation that was taking a toll on my physical or mental health. In fact, when I’d think about it, I’d feel like I was being spoiled: here I was, with a perfectly fine job – not amazing, but by no means bad – making a steady income, living in New York City, and I basically just gave it away, back to the universe. Compared to the thousands searching for jobs to be able to feed their families, pay their mortgages – I was certainly making the ultimate wasteful, foolish decision.

But for myself – and as self-centered as it sounds, this decision was ultimately about myself – I needed to do it. Coming back after working in Asia for an incredible two years, I found myself back in the same place I had worked in right out of college. All around me, my peers were on their third jobs, or completing their MBAs. And while it goes without saying that comparing yourself to others is pointless, it was difficult to avoid feeling like I was stuck in a rut, unable to move on from a job that didn’t excite me.

I thought about it some more. I had the financial means to do it – savings to last me for a period of unemployment. I’d live with my parents until I could find a job, but I wouldn’t be a millenial freeloader; I’d pay for my “rent” and expenses, do the cooking and chores. I could do this.

In the end, what really sealed the deal was also the fact that my grandparents are here from China, staying in Chicago for the summer. This is a rare visit that’s only happened once before, back in 2000, and likely won’t happen again given their age: flying 14 hours is awful, but flying 14 hours as an 85-year-old is, I’d imagine, another level of awful. I distinctly remember texting my mom back in May, as I debated about resigning and moving home: “Mom, I just feel like if I quit now and go to Chicago to spend time with you guys, I won’t regret it. But I do think that if I don’t quit, and I miss out on this chance to be at home with them, I will regret it.”

I’ve read so many articles about nurses and doctors quoting people on their deathbeds, all with the same refrain: “I wish I’d spent more time with the people I loved. I wish I’d worked less and focused on my family and friends.”

And so, I quit my job. I wanted to be home in Chicago, after 8 years of being away in Philly, New York, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. I wanted to be closer to my parents and back in time to spend quality hours with my grandparents. I wanted a fresh start, some time to regroup after an incredible time in Asia. I wanted to rethink my career path, to reevaluate my strengths and weaknesses, figure out what really made me tick. I wanted to be out of New York City, a place I’d grown to appreciate more but still never really loved. I wanted to have control over my life, get away from the status quo of complacency, be proud of the decisions I made.

I am young and have my whole “career” ahead of me – but I would be lying if I said I was 100% confident in this path I’ve now taken, one that is now too late to take back. I am terrified it’ll take me ages to find a job (or worse, what if I NEVER find a job?). I am unsure of the career path I want to take, at a loss as to where I can or should specialize. The world is my oyster…but the oyster is freaking huge.

It’s a choice I’ve made, though, and I’m ready for it. I don’t anticipate this to be an easy period, but then again, no one ever said it would be. Laura said to me the other day, “Don’t worry, it takes time to find a job. It’s good you have time to be with your fam and grandparents, and this time around you can take time to find a job you’re interested in and passionate about.” She’s right, and I’m so thankful for a support system that loves and encourages me through my sometimes-rash decisions.

Wish me luck on this (hopefully) mini-chapter in my life!