Cultivate Your Happiness

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“No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in mould, and tilled with manure.” 

-- Villette, Charlotte Brontë

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about happiness. I've been studying Mills and Kant and Aristotle. I watched the documentary Happy the other day. I've been trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. The above quote was read for my 19th Century British Women Tales class (shut up, I'm an english major and this is fascinating), and if you've read Villette, you know that Lucy Snowe is a narrator of woe and malaise. As well as unexpected hilarious quips (look, she compared happiness to a potato, I mean come on). However! I quite disagree with her belief.

I cultivate my happiness. I do it in farmer's markets picking out the reddest, juiciest apples. I do it in searching through Strand Bookstore for the perfect novel to read on a park bench. I do it in serendipitous subway rides after finding one another at crosswalks. I do it in wearing oversize sweaters and dark lipstick while the wind rustles hole-speckled, orange leaves for me to step down in a perfect crunch. I do it in using italics.

Today was really and truly pleasant, for no big reason at all. I find my best days are started with good books, a hot drink, and a song playing over and over in my head. I cultivate happiness so I can have days like this.

Since entering this so-called adulthood, I've realized that life (or mine at least) has become a process of waking up. I want to stay awake. I want to take advantage of every opportunity to create happiness. I cultivate my happiness. How do you cultivate yours?

Listening to: Who Do You Like? - Joywave

Time Warp: Autumn

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It's finally autumn! Almost-- the weather still insists on constantly switching from oppressively humid and deliciously crisp. Meanwhile, I insist on pumpkin-infused goodies and trying to get away with wearing long pants/ beginning the process of nobody-has-to-see-my-legs-so-woops-what-is-shaving.

A whole season has passed since I last blogged here, and a lot of stuff has happened! I had a rough end of the semester at university, but I grounded myself at home with the judicious application of sun, work, and fun. How have my goals been doing, you ask?

Did I:

• Eat vegan? Well... not really. I'm trying, just not very hard when there is so much cheese to consume. I've been better at limiting the amount of dairy a day to just one product and only buying cage-free eggs. This goal still needs improvement.

• Get a job? Yes, actually! I got my first waitress job at a brand new restaurant in my home town. It wasn't glamorous work of course, but I had a lot of fun with my co-workers. And because I'm from such a small community, I always saw people I knew or hadn't talked to in a few years. I'm just a townie. I also ended up being a bit of an assistant to the manager and owner, since I knew how to work with computers and make seating charts and etc. Anyways, I had to leave because obviously I go to college in a completely different state. Right now, I have a few job interviews lined up so hopefully all goes well and I can get another job!

• Move into an apartment? Not this summer, it just ended up making more sense to live at home. However, I feel like I became a lot closer to my family and (surprise!) I missed them more than ever when I moved into this Jersey apartment. Living here is great, though! My two roommates are just as big of nerds as I am. And I get a lot of reading done on the commute to classes.

• Get fit? Right when I moved back home, I exclusively ate fruits and veggies, and only ate when I was actually hungry. And through this method, within one month, I had reached half of my weight loss goal! Then I started waitressing, and I continued to lose inches from my waistline while building up some wicked muscle, so the number on the scale didn't matter anymore. I've somewhat maintained my fitness level since starting the semester, but I think my progress my summer did wonders for my body and my mind! Eating healthy and staying active is key. 

• Stuck with a blog? I'm tryin'! And I think I'll be writing for my university's blog as a food journalist? Updates soon.

So! I think it's time to add more goals to my list.

What should I try to do this fall?

How to Adult

In the style of Kelly of the wonderful blog Adulting, I think I will post a series of posts covering my attempts to be a functioning adult. I imagine that they will be short, humorous vignettes and I've already got a few stories in mind!

And check out her blog! I believe she'll be coming out with a book in the next year or so, I'm sure it will be hilarious and enlightening.

"sweet spring is your

Love this poem lots. Also where I got the title "awandering awandering" from, naturally.

That First Post

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Hello! Welcome to the magical journey that is my life, or something. My name is Bobina. Nice to meet you.

This isn't my first time blogging- I've got my original blogspot, a tumblr, and a twitter. But what am I doing starting another blog when I've got important business like catching up on schoolwork and dipping almonds into cocoa almond spread. (Repetitive? Yes. Delicious? Obviously.) Well, the thing about the other internet platforms is that they've just turned into places where I just record a lot of feelings. Feelings are very important, don't get me wrong. But I'm not a teenager anymore and I want to start committing seriously to a blog. With content that other people may want to read.

So here you go! I'm going to bust out my big-girl pants and put down some goals.

Official Goals for Official Blog Business:

• Eat vegan. I've been a vegetarian for over 4 years and have just recently confirmed that I am, in fact, lactose-intolerant. My efforts to eat more vegan began just over a year ago, but now I will try to be almost exclusively vegan. So far, I haven't been able to resist the siren song of cheese, pizza, grilled cheese, pasta, cheese, ice cream, anything with cheese. Ahem.
• Get a job/internship. I worked all through high school- summers, weekends, I worked all the time. Since coming to college, I've only been able to get a small, one-week job within the school. Either the economy is tanking or nobody bothers to call back the girl with the strange name, I don't know. All I know is that I miss having an income, I miss being active, I miss chipping away at my huge student loans. I just... really need a job.
• Move into an apartment. I definitely know that I will be living in an apartment in New Jersey come the fall (subletting from a friend doing study abroad, living with two other friends!). However, I would really like to move into an apartment this summer. I love my home and my family and, you know, not paying for rent or groceries. But I feel like it's my time to leave, and when you know you know, you know? Of course, this all depends on a job (see above).
• Get fit. To be frank, I've gained weight (not much! but I still care) and just feel blah and restless when I go to sleep at night. I need to find yoga or zumba classes, start running in Central Park, SOMETHING.
• Stick with a blog (based on original content, this ain't tumblr) for more than a few months. I haven't been so hot at doing this in the past, but this is a new era! You know, hopefully.

Yep, that's all I've got to say for now. Until next time, best wishes!