ignite 'n inspire

Every Thanksgiving, I try my best to utilize this time to count my blessings...because it is so obvious, I am a blessed (maybe spoiled) 21-year old who is living her dream. I am breathing, living without pain and living with my healthy family. I am studying in my dream program and en route to becoming the educator that I have always wanted to be. I am able to spend money on the occasion food court meal and afford a slice of Whole Foods cake. I do not need to worry about my finances because my parents have helped me with university costs and given me a roof over my head. There is an endless list of thanksgiving items, but today, I would like to highlight something that I've often overlooked. I am thankful for my fellow soldiers, who fight the battle with me in the forefront of ministry everyday. The brother and sisters-in-Christ who attend countless meeting and have impromptu discussions about how to make our ministries more effective and fruitful. Often times, we are all working

It all started with Jason Chen and Arden Cho’s cover of “Everytime” from “Descendants of the Sun”and now I’ve been drowning in something that I thought was too foreign and bizarre to me. I never thought I would be that Kpop fan girl, who spends money to buy tickets for their concert and wants to collect their CDs. Here are some reason why I fell in love with this world of entertainment: -           Power of music → Korean singers have showed me that music transcends language. Through their love for the art of creating/composing/producing/performing music, you don’t necessarily need to understand the language to enjoy it. Somehow, they are capable of showing their audience the emotions and present social issues through their artistic performances. -           The full package → undeniably, the entertainment industry has created people that are the perfect package. People can sing/dance/speak eloquently/be entertaining/relatable/border-line unreal! -           Live! → Listenin

what are 7 essential lessons that month-of coordinators should learn before helping their friend/family tie the knot? In early July, I got the honour to help my friend coordinate her wedding. Inviting approximately 300 guests, she gave me the responsibility to be her right hand man. With my type of "alpha"-personality, it was definitely my type of job...but it was also a daunting task to ensure that my close sister's fairy tale wedding unfolded according to her vision. Here are 7 essential things that I learned from my experience: 1) stay organized using schedules and templates you are comfortable with. As a month-of coordinator, you are coming into the brides' pictures in the latter part of her planning process. Instead of adapting to her organizational style, modify her documents and charts in a way that makes sense to you. When the big day comes, you need to be able to read schedules and demanding quickly. Create your own templates and fill it in according to h

Inspired by Chantel’s story on a recent Ladylike video, I decided to record my story about how I overcame what some would say as a young girl’s worst mare. The story starts in grade 7, when puberty hit. Along with my friends, we went through a stage of bad fashion choices (graphic tees and ugly sweaters). Just like everybody else, I also had the persistent acne on the side of my temples and on my forehead. It would happen because I decided to eat two bowls of French fries and a couple bags of chips. However, the real problem began in grade 11, when I started having really persistent acne. Although I tried cutting back on dairy products/seafood/fried foods, acne just kept growing and growing. Here are some of my craziest acne-moments that are engrained into my head: -           As a member of the church drama club, we toured around several churches to give presentations. Before one particular church performance, the make-up artist refused to give me any makeup because it was going t

Continuing from my previous blog post: 6) Be ready for a dinner night-in. After an exhausting day of driving or exploring, your family may not want to take out their GPS and search for somewhere to eat. As long as you are prepared, that's okay. Make sure that you pack at least one meal-to-go (which may include instant noodles and bread w jam and canned food that can be heated with a microwave). That way, everyone can enjoy a simple meal and rest up for the next day. 7) Try to plan early. In my family, we start sharing trip ideas once March Break begins...we pool together possible city options and major attractions we want to visit. By starting to plan early, you give yourself time to research about unique attractions, compare prices, wait for special hotel deals and ask for everyone's opinion. During our road trip to New York City, my aunt (my partner in crime) and I were super glad we started planning early because in order to enter the 9/11 museum for free, we had to bo

For the past six years, I've had the privilege to plan vacations around Canada and the United States. As my siblings and cousins have been growing up, I've had the constant challenge of creating itineraries that is entertaining and accommodates to everybody's likes/dislikes! Here are some tips I've accumulated over the years: 1) Fun doesn't necessarily require A LOT of money! After deciding on which city your family wants to visit, start searching for the FREE activities at that city. Sometimes, museums may operate for free during certain hours. For example, in Washington D.C, the only thing we spent money was our subway pass! We literally spent all day hopping around free museums. In other cities, just roaming around the street, taking instagram pictures around the city can take up your entire day. During our visit to Boston, my family followed Boston's "Freedom Trail" and got to roam around most of the city without wasting a single cent! We got a u

a letter to all the teenagers (who I call my kids) who gather in room 12 every Sunday, little do you know that things weren't always like this... 1) little do you know...worship used to be in a tiny room with 10 people, bad audio and untrained music team members. we would sing the same few songs and shine the spotlight on the same cajon, piano and guitar players. there was never any legitimate rotation because there just wasn't enough to make two teams. 2) little do you know... my friends and i got so fed up with the fellowship, we opened a word document and started a list of things that was wrong about the fellowship...but our voices were never strong enough, powerful enough to initiate any sort of change 3) little do you know... fellowship time was never true fellowship. we laughed and ate...but we never got sufficient opportunities to engage in spiritual conversations with one another. we would always serve, serve and serve, but not everyone got sufficient support to k