Catalyst sixty-four is: Create art about a time when something that then seemed small happened but then it ended up changing your life.



Here’s my text:



Years ago, I was sitting at school with a friend who told me that a friend of hers (someone I only knew as an acquaintance) had had a really bad day. I am not sure what prompted me, but I emailed her friend that day and asked him if he was ok. Next thing I know, we were hanging out, becoming friends. And then dating. And then we got married. And now we have two kids. It all started with one single email. Amazing what can change in a moment.

Catalyst Sixty-Two is: What’s a personality trait you admire/seek in others? Why?.



Here are my words:

The trait I admire most in others is what I call “being comfortable in your skin.” I have a few friends who are just like that. They know who they are and they are comfortable with themselves. It’s not confidence as much as just a level of self-comfort. When I hang out with them, I always find myself wishing I were like that too. It’s something I am working on: loving myself the way I am.

Catalyst sixty is: What’s the best vacation you ever had? Where was is to and why is it the best?

Here’s my text:



I thought about this one for a long time. Honestly, I’ve had two “best vacation” experiences. The one I decided to highlight here is our honeymoon to the Seychelles islands.



Coincidentally, this was the number one choice for both of us and while the trip was obscenely long and they lost our luggage when we got there, it was worth every single minute. The beaches, the nature and the wildlife at the Seychelles is absolutely breathtaking. We were relaxed, happy, and loved everything about this paradise on earth. I will never, ever forget this trip.



The one I didn’t highlight here was our cross-country trip. In 2003, we both quit our jobs and decided to move across the county. We bought a car and visited 40 states. We camped, we visited all the national parks, we ate both good and really bad food. We spent the whole summer in our little Civic and had a total blast. Another vacation I will never, ever forget.

Catalyst 58 is: What’s your favorite word? Why?



Here are my words:


I was going to pick Family or Love. Honestly, those words are what make me coziest and warmest inside but I wanted to pick something different from last week so I decided to go with Euphoria. I hadn’t heard of that word until college (Just to be fair, English is my second language.) and as soon as I heard it, I felt happy. To me, it is one of those words that suits its meaning so well. So I love that word.

This week’s catalyst is: Create art around a mistake. The bigger the more therapeutic.



My journaling is:
Since I am the kind of person to harp on little things for hours, days, sometimes months, I try to think hard before I make decisions to minimize the possibility of making a mistake. I am happy to say I have relatively few regrets in my life. One of the very few happened a couple of years ago. I quit my job on Wall Street to join Teach For America which is a nonprofit program where you teach at under-resourced schools. I taught fifth grade at a school in the South Bronx in New York. My regret is not quitting my job but it’s quitting Teach For America before fulfilling my two-year commitment. When I quit my job, I firmly believed that TFA was my path in life. I wanted to do it for two years and then move on to starting my own nonprofit and making the world a better place. So much so that at some point, I even felt the importance of improving education in the United States so strongly that I was surprised more people weren’t prioritizing their life accordingly. After several months of struggling, failing, crying, trying more and failing more, I finally gave up and quit. To this day, it’s something I regret. I know that it was the right decision on many levels but it’s still something I regret and consider a mistake.



Technique Highlight
Since reading Kelly Rae Roberts’ book Taking Flight, I’ve been meaning to try my hand at polymer clay. I took this week’s catalyst as the opportunity to do so. I created a door to represent the new stage of my life TFA was at the time and wrote the words “believe” on the bottom since that was the strongest emotion I felt at the time: a solid sense of belief that this was the right next step for me in life. I then painted the clay and put it in the oven to bake. As it turned out, I overestimated the amount of time it needed to cook, so I burned it and a part of it got distorted. Right before I was going to throw it out, I decided it was an even better fit for my catalyst. As I started teaching, my belief and faith in this opportunity and what it represented got all bent out of shape and distorted so I decided this burned clay only reinforced my theme.

This week’s catalyst is: What’s something you wish you could do? (Something you know how but are too afraid to try.)



Here are my words:



This one was easy for me. I’ve always always always wanted to be a published author. Fiction. Reading has always been and will always be my number one passion in the world and I’ve always dreamt of being one of those authors on people’s shelves. I have started several novels and have done a lot of writing over the years but I have never taken it all the way. Never fully finished, edited, and sent out a book to a publisher. In the last six years, I have mostly stopped writing altogether but I still think of it from time to time and the desire to become a published writer has not subsided one little bit.