The Aimee Diaries

I found this questionnaire circulating around Facebook. I don’t post often on FB but I wanted to take a stab at this. So here we go

Four places I’ve lived:

My mom’s womb (almost 10 months)

Manila, Philippines (11 years)

Mississauga, Canada (~10 years and counting)

That's it! Looking forward to venturing to other places in the future.

Four places I've worked:

Family Doctor’s Clinic

Walk-in Clinic

Elections Canada

Recruitment and Admissions

Four things I love to watch on tv: (or netflix)

Grey’s Anatomy

Friends 

New Girl

Modern Family

Four Favorite Movies

Bride Wars

One More Chance

Devil Wears Prada

27 Dresses

Four places I have been:

Hong Kong

Buffalo, NY (my second home haha)

Pittsburgh, PA (longest road trip!)

Orlando, FL (Disney World!!)

Four things I love to eat: 

Spicy Crispy Salmon Sushi

Chocolate Anything

French Fries 

Noodles/Pasta

Four favorite drinks:

Christmas Blend Coffee from Starbucks (black!)

Red Sangria 

Mango juice

Doubleshot on Ice 

Four favorite teams: none because I’m not a big sports gal. 

Four songs on repeat right now: (to replace favourite teams) 

Pink Skies - LANY

ILYSB - LANY

Super Far - LANY

I thought it would be fitting for my first post in 2018 to be a recap of 2017.  Entering my 20s, two research position as the top university in the country, starting a new role as communications ambassador, and many firsts, 2017 has quite the year for me. 

In my first year of university, I was job hunting for practically the entire year and was unsuccessful in all attempts. Nonetheless, I was grateful that having a job was an opportunity that I wanted and not needed. I feel incredibly blessed to have parents that fully support me financially in all expenses that my student loan cannot cover. 

I started using agendas/planners in grade eleven when I became really involved in school and it was tricky keeping up with the dates and deadlines. I always used the ones provided by the school (especially the 12th grade one which ahem, I designed) because I didn’t see the necessity to splurge on one. 

Fast forward to first year, I had a lot of friends who carried super cute planners (even though they only use it occasionally, haha) and I told myself that when I get a job, I’ll splurge on a planner. I said maybe I’ll buy one from Ban.do which retails for about $25-$40 or the Kate Spade ones that retails for over $40. I know that if I asked my mom or dad, they’d get it for me in a heart beat but it was not a necessity. I’d rather use my allowance for books, lab materials and etc. Admittedly, this was one of the reasons why I wanted a job; I didn’t want to keep asking my parents for non-school related expenses. 

I landed on my first job in second year. At this point, I already bought a planner from the dollar store - which was so compact, aesthetically pleasing, and light weight. It was unbelievably worth it and amazing for its price! My 2017 planner was from TJ Maxx which was only $10. I could’ve bought it myself but my mom insisted on paying for it with her purchases. 

SO TLDR, this was my first planner splurge! I am absolutely in love with it and I’m so excited to use it tomorrow, August 1st which is when it officially starts. I am still using my flamingo planner for clubs, work, and personal planner while the floral planner will be for school and research planning. The floral planner was actually reasonably priced, it cost me $21 with taxes. I could have splurged on the ones on my wish list i.e. Ban.do and Kate Spade but they were so bulky and heavy, it didn’t seem practical to carry every day as an academic planner. Maybe for my 2018 personal planner, I’ll splurge on one of them. 

All photos are by my friend, Liz. Post processing by yours truly. 

The day before, the forecast was high 20s, feels like 30s, sunny. The actual weather was low 20s, and overcast. It has been tricky dressing up for this summer as the weather changes within hours. A rainy day ends up dry, and a sunny day ends up wet. 

I was suppose to wear this outfit with black jean shorts and my trusty white converse but I couldn’t risk getting my fresh pair dirty in the rain. Nonetheless, I really love my modified outfit. See below for details :)

Gang Graphic Tee - Zara Cotton Leggings - TNA Red Flannel - American Eagle (men) Leather slip-ons - Vans Leather duffle bag - Caprisa Italy

So when it was a little chilly, I wore my flannel then wrapped it around my waist when it got warm or whenever we were inside a store. 

Second vlog of the summer is up!! This one features a couple of meet ups with my girl friends who are home for the summer! 

I’m so excited about having everyone back home in the summer. Our town feels more “homey” when I run into familiar faces and catch up with old friends. I know I don’t exactly live in a small town as I live in a city with 700,000+ people. haha! However, it seems that wherever I go, I always always run into people I know - whether it be from old neighbourhood, high school, church and etc! 

Currently going through clips I took all over June and thinking how I will split them out (or maybe I’ll make one giant vlog, we’ll see!)

Finally had time to edit a vlog last night! I’ve been binge watching this film student vlogger who creates stunning daily vlogs and I’m so inspired to produce better quality videos. 

We recently got a Go Pro Hero 5 Black and our first testing point was during the cherry blossom season in Toronto and Mississauga. I know, I know, Go Pro is meant for action shots but I’m not heading to an amusement or water park anytime soon so this will do, just so we can play around with it. 

Cherry Blossom Season has arrived.

It was a good year for the cherry blossoms in Toronto as they survived the unpredictable Canadian winter and bloomed right in the middle of spring. I went to High Park twice this year. I used to only go once a year because I didn’t know how to commute and would wait until the weekend when my parents are free so we could all go. We did the same as per tradition but we went a day early for peak bloom. I went back on a thursday with my cousin Rachel and it was everything my sakura loving heart wanted. 

Experimenting with some new editing styles I learned from some of my newly-found youtubers. I played around with clips I’ve been taking in the past four months. 

I’m thinking of creating a compliation life update kinda vlog. 

Originally I wanted this in a vlog but it’s actually hard to carry on with school day normally and vlog your day. I dont know how daily vloggers (who are still students) do it! 

Anyway, here’s a pretty accurate day in life. I like instagram’s time stickers better than snapchat’s. 

8:02 AM: I was at the library the moment they opened and made my way up the top floor silent zones aka my current favourite study place. It’s super nice to study in the library during early mornings and evenings.

9:53 AM: Grabbing power snack at Second Cup for my 10 AM lecture. When I’m commuting, I usually get to campus at this time so I rarely grab something to eat bc I would’ve just finished my breakfast (usually pack a sandwich) or about to have breakfast. Luv munching during lectures

10:44 AM: My human anatomy lecture runs 10-11. There’s a tutorial after but it’s usually not mandatory so I leave after the lecture portion and catch up on readings while eating lunch. 

3:01 and 3:04 PM: WORK! I work for the Admissions department at my campus. Last term I work MWTH now I work TH-F. Our work schedules takes into account our class schedules which is so awesome because I never have to worry about balancing work and school. Perks of on-campus job! I will talk more about my job in a future post

7:59PM: I didn’t take a photo in between because I was just hanging out with my friends which wouldn’t be a regular thursday thing since I have a tutorial 6-7 PM. I didn’t have one today so I got to catch up with friends. I usually wait for my parents to pick me up at Starbucks or Library. I normally work on pending school work. I try my best to finish everything on campus so when I go home I can just relax and binge watch on Netflix guilt free! 

So there you have it folks! Yes I do spend 12+ hours on campus daily. My uni has truly been my second home and as I’ve said in the past few posts, I truly love where I am, my program, and everything I get to do! 

February In Bullets 

(events are not in chronological order since the photo orientations didn’t allow me to do so. I’ll just add the dates to make it a little more cohesive)

FEB1: post-birthday at my fave downtown bar: Queen St Warehouse

FEB4: birthday celebration with family, my nephew was in good mood for photos! Melted my heart when he smiled for me.

FEB7: Ice storm! our first crazy ice storm hit since the last one two years ago

FEB 11: Exploring downtown with my parents; my mom’s first time seeing UTSG

FEB14: Valentines’ dinner with my girlfriends

FEB17: RAK CITY - so surreal to see my sister organize and emcee a fundraising event we created nearly four years ago 

FEB21: Reuniting with Jess and Ria on the “first” day of reading week 

FEB9: Ramen dinner downtown with Dad and Arianne at Touhenboku. We loved the food and service so much we returned on Feb11 with my mom and cousin! 

Hellooooooo *echoes*

It has been so long since I sat down and wrote my heart out here. I truly miss blogging (as I always say in each post)! I feel bad that I’ve partly abandoned by blog as I ventured on to other projects (i.e. vlogging) 

This blog was born when I was about 13/14 and now I’m writing my first post as a twenty year old - which is so crazy! It holds many stories and photos of moments dear to my heart. So as long as tumblr is still up and running, I will try my best to update and share bits and pieces of my life. 

It still hasn’t sunk in to me that I’m now 20 and in that phase of building my life. When I was younger, I always thought I’d have a significant other at this point, graduating from college, and heading off to med school. 

However, my life now is completely different from my little six year old’s vision. 

I’m excited to enter my 20s single. I see this period as an era of getting know myself as a woman, exploring education and career opportunities, and as many millennials dream: to see the world and travel. 

As my parents always remind me: love will come at the right time and moment. I have the rest of my life to spend it with my future partner so for now, enjoy the independence and beauty of my own self as company. 

The last year of my teenhood was extremely exciting (and deserves a posts of its own, recapping all its glory). It was a beautiful transition to my 20s. In a nutshell: I landed on my first part-time job,  travelled to Florida to see Disney World, started vlogging and created a youtube channel, and became extremely involved with non-profits organizations. 

I have lots to share and excited to go back blogging, hopefully as often as I did before university. 

I always knew that one day I will be walking down Main Street USA with butterflies in my stomach as I approach Cinderella’s Castle. Whether I’ll be twelve or twenty or forty-two, it will be one of my life’s most treasured moment. In my head and during the months of planning for this trip, that was how I imagined my first sight of the castle. 

Today’s the last day of June and I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that 2016 is halfway over!! To recap my life in a nutshell, here are my monthly highlights

January

The Start of Winter Term

Covering my first UofT event as a “contributor”

Turning 19 aka Legal to drink!!

February

My first reading week 

Constant Sushi dates and Downtown trips

First few times I’ve gone day drinking

March

My first campus tours as an official tour guide

Applying to about 7 clubs as an excutive #PanicApplying

Meeting Tyler Shaw & Alyssa Reid

April

Being accepted into 2/7 clubs I’ve applied for

The end of first year F/W Term 

SAC’s first downtown food trip

May

Taking a two hour commute to visit my nephew

New term new school: Summer School at UTSG

Boddle Fight Meal for my Grandma’s 80th Birthday

Birth of my Youtube Vlog Channel

June

The end of summer school 

I’ve started vlogging!!

Well for the past three years, I’ve been really dedicated at collecting video clips from important events. Then on new years eve/day, I publish my yearly highlights. I wanted to  try vlogging as in actually talking in front of the camera.

I haven’t vlogged as much as I have the first few weeks of summer; summer school got the best of me and I felt there wasn’t any new/exciting content to share. I’m excited to jump back in and start recording and editing to get my channel back up and running. 

Vlogging has opened my eyes to quite a bit of things. First, I picked up on my talking mannerisms. I noticed I have the tendency to “eat my words” or talk really fast while using copious amount of crutch words (like and uhm). So I’ve been trying to really refrain myself from those mannerism and improve my conversational speech. 

Second, I’ve started becoming more creative with the clips I take and my editing techniques. Creating and publishing vlogs isn’t just for the sake of collaging them and having them for memory. I really want to improve my skills and produce quality vlogs that are both enjoyable to watch and professional looking. 

Hitting two birds with one stone. I’m trying improve/sharpen my skills on various media platforms to prepare myself in creating a lot of content for the upcoming F/W term (your homegirl was appointed VP Marketing of three clubs!)