With finals season coming up for our students, and the “end-of-the-year crunch” happening for everyone else, the culture of achievement commonly found in the Asian-American experience can create a lot of anxiety. Sometimes, the fear of falling short of our own expectations can be even more stressful than actually missing the mark. When we go through an education system, we tend to make meaning of the grades and accolades that we earn, thus internalizing our sense of worth based on meeting certain criteria.

Is being a therapist more meaningful than being a model? Whenever I tell people in the modeling industry that I am also a therapist, they usually do a double-take and express some admiration for my graduate degree. I get comments ranging anywhere from “how did that happen?” to “tell me how you got into therapy.”

A simple way to start practicing gratitude is by writing down 1-3 things that you are grateful for at the end of each day. Quick and easy.

Step one: Choose your medium (notebook, word document, phone app)

Step two: Spend 3-5 minutes reflecting on the day and the things that you are grateful for

Step three: Write down the date and your reflections 

I can still remember blearily stumbling out of bed and crawling into my friend’s brother’s car. It was a random Saturday, and instead of sleeping in like my pounding headache was begging me to, I was headed towards a warehouse that would change the course of my adult life. College sophomores tend to exist between the margins of classes, partying, and figuring life out, but modeling for a t-shirt company in that freezing cold room stoked an ambitious spark that has since fanned into a career flame.

The Asian-American identity is a complex one. Despite the fact that many of us can trace our lineage in the United States back several hundred years, we are still seen as perpetual foreigners, enduring the occasional micro-aggressions of “your English is so good” or “where are you really from?” In honor of Veteran’s Day, we sat down with Asian-American veteran Daniel Lin* to shine a light on mental health after service and give some encouragement to Asian-American military personnel everywhere.

On Monday, September 30, 2019, I attended my first ever rally for Democratic presidential hopeful, Andrew Yang. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before, with blaring hip-hop music, crowds of Asian-Americans intermingled with so many other people of color, and a math-based presentation sprinkled with f-bombs.

Today’s blog is all about the Insight 360 Questionnaire, a wonderfully uncomfortable tool that helped me make the decision to go from Tech to Therapist, while further strengthening some core relationships. Tools like Strengths Finder and Quest are great at offering self-examination, but I particularly appreciate how Insight 360 utilizes a community approach to offer a more well-rounded response.

I never thought I would become a therapist one day. Growing up, I saw myself as entrepreneurial – this meant that I could step outside of the qualifications of “good grades” to create my own success instead. Despite the traditional Kumon drills and Chinese classes, I struggled to fit inside the mold of what a good student should be. With each new chapter in my life, I tried to take on different roles and discover creative solutions to solve the immediate problems.