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The PROJECT: Offline Playlist.

#Spotify

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Declan

It Starts With Hello

Taylen’s point of view on how she met this person.

There was a time when I thought that Declan was the more annoying sibling, but perhaps I’m realizing now that I think we were both equally annoying to each other; more now I feel sorry for our parents dealing with our shenanigans and making dumb home videos. Over the past couple years, I’ve been thinking about how interesting it has been to see our relationship change from when we were younger. I think that because we are older now and we have both went through our teenage years to learn more about how to deal with life, not that we didn’t talk to each other in our teenage years, but I think having that time “apart” allowed us to appreciate each other and the time that we have to spend together when we can. Even though we currently still live in the same house hold, these last few years of having different schedules and not really seeing each other, it did feel like that we grew apart. In a way, I think that helped our relationship as now I feel that we have grown closer and have a different understanding for one another; and this makes me excited for our relationship in the future into adulthood together.

This or That

You can only choose one…

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums

Coffee or Tea

Dogs or Cats

Sleeping or Eating // That’s a tough one.

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

I am an industrial chef.

I like to workout and go to the gym.

I enjoy finance and investing and stocks.

I like listening to music; rap and R&B.

I really like cars.

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

Fudge, that’s a hard one. I would say “Love Yourz” by J. Cole. It simplifies falling in love with myself, in which that I (in a humble way) want to be able to carry out my everyday life being happy and accepting myself for who I am. But also not pretending to be something else that I’m not; and the song just simplifies that there’s “no such thing as a life that is better than yours”, and using that one main lyric in the chorus, it simplifies that if there was a group of people, no matter their success, I still would probably not trade my life for someone else’s. I find a lot of the time in life, people are upset about where they are, or where they would rather be. But I think, it’s about making the best of where you are and not wishing you were some else, right? So I don’t know, I just think that song “Love Yourz” by J. Cole resembles a lot of my life and how I perceive myself.

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is a Hot Dog a sandwich?

Yes, it is a sandwich. My reasoning behind a hot dog being a sandwich is it’s 2 pieces of bread put together with something in the middle. I do not consider a wrap a sandwich, but consider a hot dog a sandwich because I go strictly of what the guidelines say in what a sandwich is. So I bet you if we search up ‘what is a sandwich‘…

“An item item of food consisting of two pieces of bread with meat and cheese…” but the thing is…hmm okay, so the verb sandwich is “[to] squeeze something between 2 things” and the definition of the noun sandwich is “between 2 pieces of bread”.

But the thing is if that the hot dog bun is only 1 piece of bread, it depends. So if you just slide the glizzy in the hot dog at first, it is not a sandwich. But if you had “Chad” handing out the hot dog buns and he rips it apart, then puts it together, then it’s a sandwich. So, it depends. So it’s like the process of production. So if you’re making a smoothie, it’s just fruit, but once you blend it, it’s a smoothie. So it’s a sandwich until Chad breaks the buns apart. So a hot dog can be a sandwich depending on the variables that exist in a certain scenario.

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What’s the most exciting improvement that I’ve been seeing in myself recently?

Probably the biggest improvement that I’ve been seeing in myself is… I’d have to say, my time management skills and my discipline; I’ve been on top of myself about my discipline lately. Simon Fraser University’s wonderful Beedie [business school] program has allowed me to do some really good MANDATORY goal setting on how to improve using my S.M.A.R.T. goals, I don’t know the abbreviation of S.M.A.R.T. cause I forgot, but they made me make one and they really made me implement it into my life. I was just gonna make one up but then I ended up doing it to the best of my ability to help capture the real essence of the improvements in my life. So, yeah I would say I’ve been more disciplined.

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

I would say that life is too short to be stressing about the little things. You need to take one step at a time with anything you do and not be down on yourself on the sense that… I find that a lot of people in life, they mess up something good and search for something better, to only end up with something worse. And to count your blessings, and life is too short to be stressing about the little things, so.

My main message is make the best of where you are.

#Spotify

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Amena

It Starts With Hello

Taylen's point of view on how she met this person.

Out of the many places to meet someone, who would have thought you could meet someone in the bathroom. For context, it was the first week of university and upon checking out the campus, there were rumor’s that there is a couch in one of the women’s bathrooms. When entering the bathroom, I stumbled upon Amena heading in the other direction and though we saw each other around in the same cohort earlier in the day, we introduce ourselves right then and there surprisingly. As Amena and I are both science majors, we shared some classes together in our starting years of school and hung out together within the circle of friend groups. In our later years of school, we had the opportunity to do some group projects together and found ourselves growing our friendship through the projects we made together. I’m super excited of what else we can accomplish before we graduate and when we do, we will finally be graduated #WomenInSTEM

This or That

You can only choose one...

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums

Coffee or Tea

Dogs or Cats

Sleeping or Eating

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

I used to have a pet goat for a summer and then I ended up eating it without my knowledge. *Laughs and Taylen is in shock*. So background, this is in Pakistan and for Eid, we sacrifice goats. I was just attached. I didn’t realize what was going to happen. It was delicious so there’s that… it was a good sacrifice.

I can speak 5 languages. I speak English, French, conversational Korean, Urdu and Hindi (we are pretending that they are not the same language, even though they kind of are, but the writing system is different, so I can’t read or write).

I really like poetry and I write poetry on my free time. I need my sad times.

I love to sing, but I’m tone deaf. But it’s like “ayo, catch me at 9pm at night just screaming ballad songs”, but it sounds like someone is dying.

I was in a sewing competition. I came second out of two people, so I don’t know what that says about my skill but I did come second. But yeah, there’s such things as sewing competition.

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

So there’s Comeback by Carly Rae Jepsen and Bleachers. I think the lyrics are kind of a vibe right now. It goes, *singing* “I’ve been thinking about making a comeback, back to me”. So it’s like about coming back to yourself, I really like that one. And then also, I would say “BTBT” by B.I, Soulja Boy and DeVita. It’s like a KPop artist that I really like. That’s just been a song I listen too to hype myself up. So “Comeback” is more of a deep song, “BTBT” is the vibes. And then “The Curse of the Blackened Eye by Orville Peck” when I’m really sad. It’s about range *laughs*.

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is the Jungle a salad?

Well you’re not eating the jungle. How does it make it a salad? What’s the debate in this? Who is out here being like, walking through the Amazon forest going *makes munching sounds*. Yeah. That’s it. If you’re forging, yeah I get it. There’s items from the jungle that you can make salad with, but like it’s not a salad cause you can’t eat everything in the jungle.

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What’s the most exciting improvement that I’ve been seeing in myself recently?

I think there’s been 3 that I can think of. One has been, even today actually; so I’ve been working in the service design sector for a little bit now cause of IAT 333 [a SFU course about service design] and then my job right now is service design and I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed it. One of the projects that I’m working on is teaching and building design capacity in other services. And so I’ve been teaching people design. I was looking at service design and I stumbled across the winner of the student category of the service design awards, and I was listening to her give her project and explain it. And it was just so exciting listening to her and what she was talking about and all the things she want to do. I just was like really excited. I feel that unsurity that everyone has growing up of “what am I going to do with my life”. I don’t know if I want to do service design for the rest of my life, but this is definitely something that I want to pursue and I’m super excited about. So that’s one improvement.

Another thing that I’ve been proud of myself for self-improvement, quoting Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers’ in Nothing New (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault), [a lyric from the song] “How can someone know everything at 18, but nothing at 22”, that’s been something that I’ve been dealing with.

I was fairly head strong, and I always have been head strong; so I’ve been very self-assured and know what I’m doing. Even when I don’t really know what I’m doing, I’m okay. But I lost that and I didn’t realize that I lost that sense of, I guess security in self; just that self-assurance that everything is going to be okay and I have everything planned out. But yeah, you’re hitting 22 and like everything is falling apart. And it’s really, insanely scary. What’s comforting is that I’ve gotten okay with the knowing nothingness part of it. I’m a total control freak over the littlest things in my life. And just being okay with knowing that I’m still learning and I don’t really know anything is an exciting improvement.

My last one is definitely going to travel. I’ve always wanted to solo travel, do things on my own and be on my own; and I finally have the opportunity. I’m excited to see who I’ll become and that improvement when I do it, obviously I don’t have it right now, but I think there’s a sense of independency that’s already growing and that improvement is really exciting to me.

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

Climate change is real, can we please do something about it cause I want to live past 2030. If I could shout that off the roof tops I would. Please, COP 27 is happening right now and it just feels like false promises again and I just wanna have a future. Not to end it on a sad note, but that’s what I would scream to everyone and like, bang into everyone’s head, cause please climate change is so, so real. We are feeling the affects of it now everywhere around the world. So, can we please do something about it?!

#Spotify

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Meghan

It Starts With Hello

Taylen’s point of view on how she met this person.

It was Fall of 2006 when my family decided to pack up and move to a new town. The change didn’t seem super major in my life at the time as I was still quite young, but I do remember the feeling of being the new kid in school. At the time, it was kind of cool; walking around and being like, “Hey, I’m new here!”, but I remember it also feeling quite lonely. Being an introverted kid, I didn’t like being in the spotlight too much, so having to learn new things was also quite scary. I only went to school a couple of times a week before we finally moved into our new house, but then when we did, things started to feel more normal again. Meghan was one of the very first friends I made in my new class and though I don’t remember much from that exact year, what became after would be a life-long friendship that is now 16 years and counting. Although we don’t talk to each other every day, we’ve always managed to stay connected in each other’s lives all these years. It’s been such an amazing journey so far with the memories we’ve made and I’m super fortunate she’s been in my life with me every step of the way.

This or That

You can only choose one…

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums

Coffee or Tea

Dogs or Cats

Sleeping or Eating // Those are like my two favourite things.

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

I don’t like raw cheese.

My car’s name is Bertha.

I like ramen.

I know how to scuba dive.

I love the hot tub. I am a hot tub connoisseur; 103 degrees (Fahrenheit).

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

You know that song that’s like, *singing* “Everyday is Saturday night, but I can’t wait for Sunday morning”, I like Sunday mornings, so I think we’ll go with that cause it’s my day off. Sunday is like the start of my week. I plan to do nothing and I look super forward to it. Cause every other day I work, go to school; the typical life stuff that takes more time than you think it would.

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is the ocean soup?

No. Because there’s living things in it. I think soup is full of dead things *laughs*.

Chris (Meghan’s partner who is also in the room): Well that’s not explicitly true, I’m sure there’s lots of little bacteria and stuff.

Okay… there’s a lot “visibly” living things in the ocean. You don’t like look into your soup and your like “damn, look at that fish swimming around in there, woahhh”. Or a crab or something. I also think that soup is made with intention. There is no recipe for the ocean, not that you need a recipe to make soup, but like you know. You make it with the intent of eating it. Or to enjoy cooking it, you don’t do anything to the ocean other than pollute it so.

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What’s become more important to you than ever before?

Living expenses. I moved out a few months ago, so I need to pay rent and buy all of my goods; which is fine, but you are definitely more money conscious when you have more to spend. That is the current I think, definitely more aware of how much money goes in and out. Even though I don’t see my parents and brother as much anymore, we still maintain good contact a couple times a week. I think it’s better because we have our own space which is nice, so I think it’s a positive thing; not that it was bad before, but it’s better because then the time that we spend together is more intentional.

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

Nobody cares, really. Nobody cares, go do your thing. Don’t take yourself too seriously. You probably care more than everybody else.

#Spotify

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Amanda

It Starts With Hello

Taylen's point of view on how she met this person.

I first met Amanda back in the early years of high school through a mutual friend, but what was funny enough was that our friendship could have started 10 years earlier.

Upon getting to know Amanda further when we met, I learned that we grew up in the same hometown for a few years before moving to the town where we went to high school. We went to the same school for Kindergarten, however as we were in separate classes, we never managed to cross paths. It was the craziest thing when she showed me her yearbook for that year, as I never got one, but there I was listed in my Kindergarten class; a five-year-old girl with my name that was on the page across from where her photo was in the other class. It was even crazier to find out that we had a mutual family friend and that we were able to connect by talking about how we knew the family.

Throughout high school, Amanda and I had a few classes together and we shared the same mutual friend groups. Although after high school, we drifted apart due to our focus on our studies but found a way to rekindle our friendship in the past couple of years after one day finding out that we both had class downtown together once a week. Catching up when we can, it’s been really nice reconnecting with Amanda and nice to reflect on how far we’ve come in growing as people…

This or That

You can only choose one...

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums

Coffee or Tea // Neither, but I guess coffee – otherwise juice!

Dogs or Cats // Probably just cats because I have cats right now, but I love both.

Sleeping or Eating

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

I’m going to be a high-school teacher!

I like cooking, especially veggie meals – I’m a veggie gal.

I’m a Zolas [music artist] super fan. I think you should know that I was in the 0.001% of their top Spotify listeners for last year and I’m trying to out-do myself [for this coming year]. And they know who I am, so…

I think I’m like the happiest I’ve ever been in my life, like everything is going right. Cause I was just reflecting the other day as we do a lot of reflection for PDP (Professional Development Program for Teachers) and I was like, wow like I kind of have everything that I wanted going right now. I have the program and I’m in it and I’m working towards my life-long goal. I’ve always been like, “when I’m in PDP, that’s the last step I need to what I’m going to do forever”. I have a supportive partner and I feel good about that. I have good friendships with people, so I guess I’m really happy and grateful for life right now.

I feel like I’m a city person. I drive being out and about, and I’m happy that life is getting back to normal and I can go to Vancouver whenever. Like I took myself on a Vancouver date the other day – I just went alone and I went to Cartem’s Donuts, went to Starbucks and just sat downtown for a bit.

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

Of course it’s a Zolas song, I literally just went to the Zolas playlist. It’s called “I Feel the Transition”. I think I’m in a really big moment of transition in my life right now. Cause within the program, we are going from being in a student to being the teacher, and that’s a huge change and mindset of how you carry yourself. So, I’m feeling the transition like that; and then now I’m finally going to be out of school and going into a life-long career now, so it’s finally all coming together and my whole life plans. It’s all right there.

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is a hot dog veggie dog a sandwich?

Well… see. I don’t even eat hot dogs so…

Taylen: “Okay, what about a veggie dog”

There we go, so you’re gonna have to write that there. *Laughs*

I think it’s like it’s own category. Cause like for me, a sandwich has to be more than just like the protein and sauce. Like you got to have some veggies in their for it to be a proper sandwich, or like a piece of cheese or something. So no, a veggie dog is not a sandwich.

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What’s become more important to me recently than ever before?

I think now that I’ve had a long term partner and being [in a relationship] with Braeden for over a year now, I think more than ever before, I’ve had to learn how to prioritize someone else in a different way than a family member or a friend because we are in each other’s life in a different capacity than that. So, that’s something that I’ve been having to place more importance on than ever before in my life cause I’ve never had someone in my life like that for that long.

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

Take more time to reflect on what you have going for you. Because, obviously when you make goals for yourself, especially long term goals, it can seem like they’re really far away. But if you narrow it down to where you are now, you can realize how far you’ve come to get to where you are now. I think I felt that way for me because it was such a long time coming for the PDP, and I was just waiting and waiting for that. But now that I’m there, I’m like “wow, I did so much to get here”; and even though it seems like there’s a lot left, it’s not that much in the scheme of things.

#Spotify

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Paola

It Starts With Hello

Taylen's point of view on how she met this person.

When I first began university, I met Paola during the very first couple weeks of school. After attending some first-year social events and noticing that she was also in a couple of my classes, we started talking a little bit here and there when we had the chance to make some small talk. I forgot how, but somehow during this time, I found out that she also liked one of the bands that I liked, Twenty One Pilots.

One day when were sitting next to me in one of our classes, I don’t remember if I purposely pulled it up on my computer that I was listening to them to get a conversation going or if it was just by fluke, but whatever I planned totally worked and then we began chatting more often. I think our friendship really began on the day that we sat in the school hallway patiently waiting on our laptops for the Twenty One Pilot concert tickets to go on sale and then frantically looking to find seats for the show. Funny enough at the time, we didn’t actually go together, but now she is one of my go-to concert buddies to check out indie artists that come to town. During the time of my life when I met Paola, the transition into a new chapter of my life was a bit daunting with having to make new friends again and being courageous enough to put myself out there and introduce myself. But I’m really happy we became friends and I’m looking forward to so many more years of friendship and concerts together.

This or That

You can only choose one...

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums // Due to my recent Guitar Hero obsession. Yes, I still play the game on my PC.

Coffee or Tea // Chai Tea <3

Dogs or Cats

Sleeping or Eating

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

I have an ever-growing vinyl and film camera collection.

I love being in the pit at concerts every chance I get, despite being 5'3.

My latest hobby was ballroom dancing. I loved it, now I’m just waiting for school to calm down so I can get back into it!

Night skiing > Day skiing.

I studied German in high school and did well enough on a test that the government sent me to Germany for a month. My speaking sucked, but who's to pass up a free vacation? :)

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

To me, Summer is just a really lovely and calming time of life before the chaos of work and school. Whenever I'd come home from hanging out with close friends, I swear this song would just always play when I hit shuffle on a specific playlist, and I sort of just got attached to it over time. "Can I stand in your light just for a while?" reminds me of those peaceful Summer evenings and the comfort I found in being with people, so I play the song whenever I feel overwhelmed or stressed.

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is a jungle a salad?

I would define a salad as something that primarily humans eat and that all ingredients within the salad are consumable. I assume humans don't eat everything there is to be found in the jungle, you know, because we can't exactly eat rocks and poisonous plants and animals. So no, the jungle is not a salad (in respect to humans).

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What is the most fun I can remember having recently? What was I doing and who was I with?

Oh I'm so glad I got this question! The most fun I've had recently was actually this past Sunday (October 23rd, 2022). I went to go see Dayglow at the Commodore with none other than the person in charge of this lovely blog (Taylen!) It was honestly one of the best nights/concerts I've had in a while – we got to meet the singer for the opening band, we got super nice spots at the venue near the front of the stage, the singer was AMAZING and the crowd's vibes were insane. PLUS, we went home with a guitar pick and setlist. I couldn't have asked for a better night <3

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

Cherish the smaller moments because they're often the most valuable ones in the end. And always show your love to those you care about, as often as you can.

#Spotify

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Kyle

It Starts With Hello

Taylen's point of view on how she met this person.

I’ve pretty much have known Kyle his entire life, haha. As cousins, Kyle and I go all the way back to when we were just babies blabbering with each other at our grandparent’s house, to us now being undergrad students complaining about the school life. We used to see each other quite frequently during family gatherings as kids and since we are similar in age, there was always something to talk about. In 2017, me and Kyle went on a trip to Eastern Canada, where at the time we were touring around and looking at post-secondary schools. We spent a week bouncing around Ontario, not only just looking at schools, but taking the opportunity to be a tourist and check out Niagara Falls and visit the CN Tower. It was a really fun trip and maybe one day we’d hope to do something similar again. Although I don’t talk to Kyle as frequently anymore due to our busy schedules and life, we always seem to pick up where we left off in our conversation.

This or That

You can only choose one...

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums

Coffee or Tea.

Dogs or Cats

Sleeping or Eating

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

I play baseball.

I go hiking a lot and I really enjoy the outdoors.

I like gardening, growing my own vegetables and cooking with them.

I'm currently working on a design team to build a prosthetic arm

I hope to open my own café one day.

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

Mainly because I just saw ODEZSA live. That song every time I hear it, the chorus is like "I wanna dance with you, so take a chance". It's kinda just like about being young and exploring life and just not being afraid to take risks. That's how I feel about it; just trying new things.

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is the ocean soup?

*Laughs*. No. Is it though? I'm going to say no. Would you consider soup a delicacy? Or like an edible product that won't harm you if you consume it? I guess one could argue that, you know it's salty, so it could be a savoury soup. There's things inside the ocean like fish and seaweed, but I wouldn't consider that soup. So yeah, the ocean is not edible... what is the definition of soup?

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What is the most fun I can remember having recently? What was I doing and who was I with?

I guess not being afraid to take risks and going through with things; like commitment I guess. I think when I was younger, I would want to do things but not know how to start; and then not commit to it and give up halfway. But I think now I'm at a point where I'm getting more comfortable with myself and following through with things even though I'm not sure if it'll work out in the end. I'll still do it because I've made a commitment to it. [Overall] just not being afraid to try new things and following through and committing to the end of it.

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

Stop focusing so much on the things that don't matter. Sometimes you need to step out and look at the big picture.

#Spotify

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Bianca

It Starts With Hello

Taylen’s point of view on how she met this person.

I first met Bianca through a mutual friend in high school. I didn’t know her very well for the first few years of school as we didn’t really have any classes that aligned with each other, nor did I get the opportunity to be in a group project with her. It was when I found out that she was in my calculus class that we began talking more as I started sitting next to her in class every week. This strengthened our relationship as I already saw her around school with the friend group that I started hanging out with. Though only lasting for around 3 months, in the end we both decided to drop the course because we realized it was not necessary for us to take it for post-secondary. As we also had chemistry together, we became lab partners. We’ve continued to grow our relationship through our love for music, fashion trends, as well as conveniently finding out that we lived in the same neighborhood. Growing up, I didn’t really have a friend that lived in my neighbourhood, but even though I found out her at a later time, I’m really happy I did.

This or That

You can only choose one…

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums

Coffee or Tea.

Dogs or Cats

Sleeping or Eating

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

I am the first grandchild of my grandma on my dad’s side of the family.

I come from a very big extended family.

I am currently a nursing student.

I love playing games. Whether a video game or a board game, I love games in general.

Death as a concept is scary to me.

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

I want to say I have 2 songs for 2 reasons.

One reason [I chose “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles] is mainly because how maneuver life; everybody knows the song. Personally, I would say as a kid, probably the biggest outcome that I’ve had to overcome was my mom’s depression. She was basically diagnosed with really bad depression and could not be a mother for 3 years. So as I kid, I think I was 10, as soon as we moved here, she got hit really bad. So from [ages] 10-13, I was basically having to be the woman of the house because my dad had to work for the family and it got so bad to the point that in the 7th grade I had to fly back home to the Philippines for 3-4 months and then my mom had to get better. But that was a lot for being firstly, a new immigrant, and secondly, taking care of my brother half the time; having to take him to school and stuff like that and then focusing on school work. And then coming home knowing that my mom is not a mother, basically she’s just in her room and my dad doesn’t come home till about 11:00/12:00pm because he works double shifts to make up for my mom not being able to work. So that was a big overcome, but now thing have gotten so much better. “Here Comes The Sun”, it does happen, but it just sucks when you are still in that storm.

And then for my second song, “Self Care” by Mac Miller. The whole meaning about that song is that you understand that self-care is a need, but you also realize that sometimes you just can’t do it. So I never talk about my problems, I’m basically someone that if I have a problem, I’ll deal with it and then I’ll handle it and I’ll come back when I’m better. But doing so, I don’t get help enough because, basically, my way of getting better is when I’m good enough to try and get better. So before that comes, sometimes it’s bad because I don’t get it soon enough or I don’t get enough of it, so I don’t really heal or get better fast enough. And then it just takes a toll one way or another. But that’s just who I’ve been born, a lot of it comes to play with how I grew up as a kid. It’s just what I’m used to and I think that works fine. I feel like I’ve gotten better and I would open up a little bit more, but I’m definitely still on that side where I think that basically good with myself.

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is a jungle a salad?

A salad to me doesn’t have to be green. That’s the thing. It could be a pasta salad! The main thing is that it needs to have a dressing, that’s my thing. In the Philippines, our fruit salads have condensed milk, so technically that’s a dressing. I would count the rain in the jungle as dressing. There is a certain type of smell when you go to the forest, it’s a lot. It’s a whole ecosystem that has a bunch of stuff. So technically, if you were to grab a piece of leaves off the ground that might have potential other stuff, like a mushroom and a little bit of rain water, to me I would say that’s a salad.

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What is the most fun I can remember having recently? What was I doing and who was I with?

I think that the most fun that’ve had recently was going against my parents wishes of staying here and instead flying all the way to Orlando, Florida to meet my online friends of almost 8 or 10 years. So that was really good! Basically, my parents have allowed me a good sense of freedom. They don’t really confine me, but I kind of confine myself for them. So I know what makes them upset and stuff like that. So even though they technically won’t stop me, I will stop myself because I know that they don’t want me to do that. The good example was they don’t want me to fly. Because obviously I’m going away and I guess as a parent, they just don’t want to have that feeling of not being able to get their kid fast enough if something were to happen. But then I have to remember, I am 22 when I left. So technically I am an adult and I have a say what I can do, and they aren’t confining me. So I went. I just decided one day and I told them a month before that I was going to go anyway. And that was it; I took my flight and that was that. I finally got to really feel like an individual and I could just do whatever and knowing what I did was on me. It was a deep learning curve and made me a bit more carefree but the reasonable person that I am.

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

Get out of bed. Don’t take it literally, but get out of bed.

#Spotify

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Hannah

It Starts With Hello

Taylen’s point of view on how she met this person.

I first met Hannah in high school and we started off as acquaintances hanging out in same friend group. During high school, we shared a couple of classes together, but there wasn’t really an opportunity to get to know each other further; the chance never arose for us to work on a class project together or anything like that in particular. Towards the end of senior year when I started hanging out with this new friend group, we got to know each other further of sharing cute photos of bunnies with each other over Instagram. After we finished high school, I stayed in touch with her. Hannah also belonged in the same Starbucks study group and this is where I got to know her a bit more. Although we don’t study at Starbucks as much as we used to, we’ve been close friends ever since and continue to share memes and our love for cute animals.

This or That

You can only choose one…

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums

Coffee or Tea // But not Oolong.

Dogs or Cats

Sleeping or Eating // I love my naps.

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

I am currently a Barista at Starbucks.

I like volleyball I used to play it when I was in elementary and high school.

I have a fear of open bodies of water.

I’ve watched the show ‘The Office’ nine times.

I’m really interested in environmentalism and topics around sustainability and protecting wildlife.

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

I don’t know. I think just the first lines, “Did you ever want to cry, but you didn’t know just why?”. It’s just one of those songs that you can turn up really loud and you can feel like you’re in a music video.

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is a hot dog a sandwich?

No. In my opinion a sandwich is kind of like a combination (though it doesn’t have to be) of things in between two slices of bread. Open face sandwiches are like a modified sandwich. A hot dog is it’s own thing, it has it’s own category, so no it is not a sandwich.

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What have I accomplished recently that would have shocked me a year ago?

I know it’s not like recently, but I am now officially in Year 2 with school and I never would have thought that I would have been in second year and that I’ve finished 3 semesters. In the first half of high school, I was doing okay, and then I got diagnosed with depression and anxiety (like the super bad kind) and that made me do really bad in school. After graduation, I went into university for nursing and then it was just super, super hard. I finished my first semester, but it was in my second semester where I had a mental breakdown. I first dropped a course, but after that I just dropped out entirely and then I started working. After being put on medication and around last year around this time, I went back to school and instead of going back into nursing, I picked history because I liked it and I’ve been really enjoying it so far. I’m still struggling but I’m still here!

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

Stop waiting on other people to do it, when you can start doing it yourself. I’m thinking more about the environment; don’t wait for other people to do it cause if everyone thinks like that, then nothing is going to get done. That reminds me of The Lorax quote. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

#Spotify

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Alexis

It Starts With Hello

Taylen’s point of view on how she met this person.

I first met Alexis in high school when we were in the same homeroom class together. We first bonded over our love for sports, for at the time she was playing hockey competitively and I was playing water polo; we discussed about our busy schedules with practices and how we frequently we left on trips to play at tournaments. I would talk to her every now and then, but I didn’t really get to know her until about 4 years later when we were in the school’s yearbook class together. We shared our love for graphic design and our annoyance with typography as our friendship grew. After we graduated from high school, for a couple months we kept in touch with having a small study group where we had weekly sessions at Starbucks. Although we are no longer studying at Starbucks on frequent occasions, 4 years later today, we continue to keep in touch every week (if not on the daily) and share our love for Marvel, Lord of the Rings and other various shows on Netflix.

This or That

You can only choose one…

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums

Coffee or Tea

Dogs or Cats

Sleeping or Eating // How do I choose?! They’re very close.

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

My favourite hobby is reading.

Working with kids is a big part of my life and my career goal is to be a primary school teacher.

I played a lot of hockey when I was younger and I’ve coached the sport as well.

I have a fear of heights.

I am the eldest of 4 siblings and because of that, it has shaped a lot of my personality.

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

Because "teenagers [do] scare the living [fuck] out of me”. And that's why I want to be an elementary school teacher and not high school kids. I kind of like how it's comical, the way they’re talking about in the song like they were teenagers saying like "you're gonna clean up your looks, with all of your lives in the books, to make a citizen out of you". Because teenagers are such a feared group of people by older people, they took that and were like "yeah... we are scary". While teenagers scare me, I don't think people make enough effort to understand them enough. I just don't want to be the one to do that because they still scare me and I'm worried about it; and I don't think I’m good at it, but they deserve to be treated more like adults.

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is the ocean soup?

If you throw a bunch of things into a pot with liquid and you don’t cook it, do you consider that soup? Cause that’s basically my deciding factor. If soup has to be hot… well cause you can have cold soup that started hot and at some point you had to cook it. But yup, I’d say it’s soup.

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What was something mean that was said to me in my childhood that I carry with me to this day? What would I say to my younger self now?

[At the time when I was younger and playing hockey], it was probably some of the various stuff that got said to me in the dressing room... and so I'd probably tell myself well what I’d always used to say to my younger self, which sounds cliche, but “it's going to be fine, it's going to be okay". I think my biggest thing as a teenager was that I was constantly worried and anxious about everything, so I used to always say that to myself to help reassure me.

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

Please, just be kinder to people.

#Spotify

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Taylen

It Starts With Hello

Taylen’s point of view on how she met this person.

Normally here in the interviews I will conduct, I would begin by saying how I met this person. Although I feel that “of course I’ve known myself for my entire life”, I feel as though I still have some growing to do with learning different parts about myself and hobbies that I still have yet to discover. Instead, I want to share an excerpt from my diary in 2019, where I visualized different aspects of myself in the form of various ghost-like figures.

Taylen that Everyone Knows: Wants to be everyone’s friend, gives you the biggest smile.

Coach Taylen: The cool coach on the pool deck that can’t be bothered when wearing sunglasses.

Studious Taylen: Always in the zone and pushes up her imaginary glasses (cause she doesn’t have any glasses).

Hipster Taylen: Really loves music and has an interesting sense of style.

Friendly Taylen: Kind of rare, but if you break her shell then she shines.

Taylen that Only Taylen Knows: Quiet, shy and quite introverted actually.

This or That

You can only choose one…

Salty or Sweet

Winter or Summer

Air Guitar or Air Drums

Coffee or Tea

Dogs or Cats // I love dogs, but cats have been pretty special to me lately

Sleeping or Eating

Five Facts of Fun

What are 5 facts about yourself?

I am a former competitive swimmer and water polo player. This past summer I won a gold medal at our regional championship! I also coach and teach younger swimmers about the sport!

I know how to play about 7 different instruments and I’ve played piano for 12 years before I stopped to pursue other passions. Slowly I am trying to get back into music with posting more covers on social media.

Crocs are my go-to shoes for the past few years and I highly recommend on the pool deck. I’ve slipped and had some pretty bad falls from other shoes, but I have not slipped once with crocs #sportsmode

If there’s a hobby has any creative elements, I’m willing to try it!

In my opinion, pineapple does belong on pizza.

Drop a Bop

Pick a song that is the theme song to your life and discuss why.

I think I found this song on the radio and I was like, “Yes. This is it. This is my theme song.” This song is always my pick-me-up when I need a mood booster and I think it’s also quite catchy. With the lyrics, I like to interpret it as that sometimes people always see what you are capable of until you shine in that spotlight. It’s then people can see how much skill or “power” you hold and that yeah… maybe you are dangerous…

Debate Time

What is your perspective on the following question: Is the ocean soup?

Yes the ocean is soup. It’s got the veggies of seaweed, it’s got the protein of the fish and other species. It’s in a body of water. Mmmm, soup.

Some Deeper Small Talk

Chosen from a group of questions, the person answered the following question: What have I accomplished recently that would have shocked me a year ago?

I’m going to change this question to “What would have shocked me 5 years ago?”. 5 years ago, I was wrapping up high school and getting ready to start university. At the time, I quit my coaching job with competitive swimming and thought that I would just think about finding my way with pursuing something within my career after that and I would not really return back to sports again after quitting my personal journey a couple years prior. It wasn’t really until my time with reconnections with people I knew within the sports I played that they talked me back into coaching with teams based in other cities from my hometown. At the time I was hesitant, but I knew that with the qualifications that I already had from the past that I knew I was already more than capable to take on the job. Flash forward to 5 years later, I’m still coaching and just wrapped up a busy competitive summer season. Though in taking these jobs and switching to a couple of new teams, these experiences helped me grow as a person and as a coach; largely from the people I’ve met and the opportunities that I’ve now experienced. Sometimes it’s worth taking the chance and I think if I told myself in the past where I am now, she would be incredibly shocked at how far we have come so far.

The Final Spotlight

If you had the final opportunity to say anything to the world, what would you say?

Things can change very quickly and can happen unexpectedly, so live in the moment, appreciate what you currently have and enjoy it while you can.

#Spotify

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Introductions

It is estimated that there will be about 8 billion people in the world in November of 2022… and if not every day, we are continuously and constantly meeting new people.

The feelings of isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic made me realize that this was the opportunity for me to have a lot of personal growth with myself. Starting a project in 2018 where I did a self-interview at the end of the year to reflect on how the year went, continuing this project each proceeding year, I created and posted the video “a four year interview: reflecting on life throughout the pandemic“. This project was a big eye-opener to me on how some of my views have changed throughout the years and how I’ve grown as a person from 2018-2021. Completing this (on going) project provided me with a different perspective of the various relationships I have with the people in my life and the kind of impact they have on me to grow as a person. This makes me think about the kind of person I want to be and also help others reflect on who they are. I want people to reflect on what aspects set apart from how others see them, or how they portray themselves to the world.

I want this project to dig deeper into the idea that we have “multiple faces” or “personalities” that we have to portray ourselves; how the way my mother knows me is not the same as how my father knows me and that the person who my friends know is not the same as the person that I am to my coworkers. I think we tend to highlight different aspects of ourselves when we are around different people and sometimes it can hide some interesting fun facts about ourselves.

Currently, what drives my passion for portrait photography and the work that I share on my social media is capturing the emotions of the people surrounding my life. I want this blog to add another level to the work that I already create and using this the medium to showcase who these people are. Though I might already have a sense of who they are, that is really only person I know and who they have decided to reveal to me. Over the next couple of months, posts about these people will be conducted as an in-person interview (when possible) or formatted online in a way that they can go through an online questionnaire that I’ve created. My goal for this project is to highlight the things about people that do not get showcased online from social media feeds that highlight the perfect life. What are their goals? What are their passions? What makes you, you?

It’s time to disconnect online and reconnect offline…