Things I Learned In 2021

1. Sometimes strangers will tell you if you have a bug infestation before your landlord does.
2. ​German roaches suck.
3. The ropes attached to the handles on storage units are actually used to pull down the garage door, not lift it.
4. ​You can stick a mattress into a small SUV with the help of Southern Hospitality™️ and sheer luck.
5. Miami Beach traffic during Memorial Day is the fourth circle of hell.
6. I am the first and only person to trip on the Sinha’s stoop.
7. I suck at caram.
8. The Netarhat network to Florida pipeline is strong.
9. I will ship Malina and die on this hill.
10. Hair is worth the cost.
11. If you force yourself to socialize, you can makes friends with a random Russian lady with amazing shoes in Brickell.
12. Sometimes your stupid ideas can become a reality.
13. Yes will take your farther than no.
14. California is spoiled with good weather and outstanding nature.
15. You can get the best deals at the sketchiest thrift stores in Inglewood.
16. Pitching your next entertainment venture is how people in Los Angeles say hello.
17. You haven’t really seen stars if you haven’t seen them in Joshua Tree.
18. Do not accept misery — do not be a destructive editor.
19. Memoirs and autobiographies are two different things. 
20. And the former is better than the latter.
21. Twitter threads are kinda fun to make.
22. Protect your knees when using a slip and slide.
23. There are so many ways to feel alone.
24. Rock climbing is the closest way to feel like a ninja.
25. Nine out of 10 times my weekends either end with puking or sunburns.
26. Don’t underestimate kids, sometimes they’ll push you off the pool ladder.
27. Nothing will clean your colon like yellow pitaya or malanga.
28. You can bully fruit vendors if they don’t know where Syria is.
29. Aishani’s parents do not have faith in my jewelry untangling skills.
30. You can infiltrate the bread community with puns and illustrations.
31. Follow the people with chicken hats at Oktoberfest
32. Just double check the address for the movie theater.
33. Watch out for dog poop on hikes.
34. Anything you say when you are deliriously tired will be the title of your next group chat. 
35. You can see vultures, iguanas, roosters, cats, a monkey on a man’s shoulder and an opossum in a woman’s shirt during a radio race.
36. Invest in board games and make sure you know how to play well ahead of time.
37. I don't know and I'm still learning how to be an advocate for AAPI stories and voices. 
38. No more LDRs.
39. Sometimes you are not always in a place to make concrete goals and it's ok to still be flexible right now. 
40. Adulthood means learning how to deal with feeling alone.
41. Heartache made me a reformed Swiftie.
42. Find people who are in the same stage of life as you.
43. You never know when you’ll have your last moment with someone.
44. No one teaches you how to deal with grief.
45. Grief takes on different forms. 
46. You can’t rationalize every feeling, sometimes you just gotta go through it.
47. You gain as much as you lose as you get older. 
48. Socrates was right, “The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing.”​

Moments of joy and despair shared custody of 2021, tossing me around whenever it was their turn to play ball — and just when I thought I had sussed myself out too. Anthony Bourdain put it best, “smug clarity.” What a perfect encapsulation of my year. For all the times I expressed wariness over slipping into self righteousness, I found myself fulfilling my own prophecy. I know I should contribute to my 401K, I know I should settle down by this age, I know I should invest more in my relationships, I know I'm not supposed to have all the answers. I know I have a lot more to learn. I know what's easy and what's right often do not align. Bourdain also said, “it's not enough just to know, we must apply.” I guess that's the crux of life at 25. We're old enough to know better but not enough to know exactly how — at least for me. Cheers to another another year on this damned planet.