5 Fun Facts About Me

  1. Stars

    • I love stars! I hope you can tell from the logo and from this graphic header. I had to include something related to stars in my blog.
    • My love for stars started back in middle school when I created an alias for myself. My name was WishUponaStar. Later, I became Reach4theStars, which has stuck ever since then.
    • When I tell my friends or family that I love stars, they look for all things star related while shopping and even buy me things with stars. My biggest star collection is my ornament collection. A  few years, I started a tradition of hanging only stars on my Christmas tree, so everywhere I go, I would look for a star shaped ornament. My favorite is a sea-star because I love beaches and stars.
  2. Jobs

    • In my career path, I switched from being an engineer to an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, which surprises people because they believe it’s on opposite sides of the job spectrum.
    • I merged my two career paths of engineering and teaching together by creating an elective class called Introduction to Engineering course that prepares ESL college students for their majors. I enjoy sharing my love of both worlds with my students.
    • Engineering and teaching aren’t too far apart. I tell them, “Teaching is the engineering of people. The main difference is that there’s no one formula or way to teach as engineering is usually straight forward.”
    • Once again, I switched my career again to become an instructional designer. It was an easier change from teaching to designing curriculum, as compared to engineering.
  3. Coffee

    • A good cup of dark roasted coffee makes me smile. I like to drink my coffee black so I can taste all flavors of the beans. I think milk, cream, or sugar ruin the taste of coffee.
    • When I had my first sip of coffee as a teenager, I didn’t like it at first. One day, my uncle ordered a cup of coffee with his breakfast, so I copied him. When the cup of coffee came, I gulped my coffee and said, “This is so gross.” He said, “You’re silly; you need to add some cream and sugar to it.” The coffee tasted a lot better with cream and sugar. My taste pallet has changed since then; now, I’ve gone back to my roots and drink it black.
    • When I’m not drinking dark roasted coffee, I’m drinking pumpkin spice latte. And…yes, I can drink it all year round because I’m a pumpkin lover at heart. Last year, I finally perfected my pumpkin spice latte recipe, which came with much trial and error. You can find this recipe here.
    • Not only did I share my love for pumpkin spice latte online, I also shared it with my church when we had an event called Cafe Quench where we turned the church into a cafe. With the help of some awesome friends, I spear-headed an assembly line and turned my friends into baristas, so that the whole church could enjoy pumpkin spice latte. 
  4. Gardening

    • I like to get my hands dirty in my vegetable garden.
    • When I first started gardening, I planted flowers, but unfortunately, I couldn’t keep them alive earning me a “black” thumb. Then, I planted succulents because I heard that they are resilient. Luckily, my succulents thrived and my thumb was no longer black. Next, I tried vegetable gardening. My biggest enemies in the garden are the bugs, so I’m plotting to outsmart the bugs, but they usually win. Watching my vegetables grow and harvesting them bring me much happiness.
    • About a year ago, I started a closed Facebook group about vegetable gardening among friends. It’s a group where we can share tips, stories, and photos. I’ve learned a lot from my fellow gardeners. I enjoy seeing what others are doing in their garden and their successes.
    • My friends always ask me about my garden and tell me they like seeing my vegetable garden photos on Facebook. I make fun photos with my vegetables and post them on Facebook. I tag it #veggieart.
  5. Mentors

    • I’ve had a few influential mentors in my life who played important roles in shaping my identity. They showed me how to live an abundant life by example.
    • I’m thankful that my mentors poured so much time and energy. Because of them, I am able to encourage and motivate others.
    • Jinnia was my mentor in college and to this day, we still keep in touch. When I was in college,  I wished to reach out to other college ladies by starting a women’s Bible study in my fellowship, but I had never led a Bible study before. Without any hesitation, she helped me to fulfill my dreams by teaching me how to do it and holding my hands as  we co-lead the Bible study together. What I love most about her is her perseverance and courage especially through her newest projects, Lighter Everyday Journal and 7-day Bootcamp. I highly recommend both as I’ve tried both of them and they’ve both helped me in becoming emotionally and physically fit. If you click on the 7-day Bootcamp link, you can find my testimonial at the bottom of the page. And…yes, I am her biggest fan behind her family!

6 Comments

  1. This is a cool way to get to know you even more. I know you like pumpkin spice latte, but didn’t know you like your coffee black. Love how you included some of your hobbies, jobs and mentors. Thanks for mentioning me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you have a way with having good ideas and taking action with them.

    1. I started writing this for my About Me page on my menu bar and then I decided that I’m going to make it as part of my blog post to go into more details. Now you know that I like my coffee black and I cannot stand black Starbucks coffee. I tried to include a variety of things into my fun facts. I think I’ve earn Jinnia fan status now! Right? Haha!