I often get told by my mother that I may be book-smart and educated, but in terms of wisdom, I will never surpass her. I suppose that’s a fair statement for a mother to make to her child, but how do we define “wisdom,” and who do we consider “wise” from whom we’d take advice? Oxford Dictionary defines wisdom as “the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment.” I agree, but I’d also add that a wise person is someone who is fulfilled with the life she has had and continues to have, and is genuinely happy, otherwise, why would I take advice from this person?

Today, we visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL. One of the most striking parts of the exhibit is this hallway you walk through where all you can see are mocking caricatures that hypercritical journalists/cartoonists have done of Lincoln, expressing their great disapproval for pretty much every little thing he and Mary Todd did. This is then followed by faces speaking to you about why they disapproved of him in all directions you could turn. The exhibit notes that all criticism abruptly halted once Lincoln was assassinated. I thought about this. If we spend time criticizing those in our lives to an excessive degree, would we all stop if we knew that their lives would be cut short?

Being Asian and always having lived on one of the two coasts in the U.S., I’ve definitely been sheltered in a lot of ways that most do not consciously think about. Sometimes, I forget that only 4 percent of the U.S. is Asian (not 30 percent like it may seen in California or New York), and that most people in this country not on one of these coasts don’t get to see people like me with my “exotic” features that regularly. So when traveling away from the coasts, I become the minority, the one who doesn’t blend in, and definitely the one who gets stared at more.

I recently finished an intro week at a Bikram yoga studio in Manhattan, and though I loved the entire experience each time I went, it’s hard to justify spending over $200 a month on yoga on top of my gym membership. That Buzzfeed article holds many truths – we’ve been brainwashed here to think that $20 for a yoga class is “normal.” So when a free yoga opportunity pops up in the middle of Times Square on the Summer Solstice, you jump at the opportunity and sign up… Until you realize that the entire concept of “yoga in Times Square” is an oxymoron. How do you connect with your inner self and concentrate on posing when you have an entire city’s noise and pollution enveloping you from all around?

You know you can call a place home when you can feel your blood pressure slowly but surely go up while listening to someone criticize your city. Apparently, that city for me now is New York. New York, while it has many faults, is unlike any city in the world. Its energy is just one reason that millions of people visit every year, and even more potentially want the chance to live here, if just temporarily. Sure, it’s dirty and people can sometimes be rude, but that all adds to the city’s character and what makes it the Big Apple. Don’t compare it to your green grass in Jersey or your clean air in Connecticut (how are you so sure it’s clean there, anyway?). There’s a reason you want to either work, live, or visit New York, so stop bantering and love it for what it is.

I just read a New York Times article today that made me think about our perceptions of people as they relate to ourselves. Here in New York, you certainly meet a number of people who are extremely confident. But where do we draw the line between someone who is really confident and someone who thinks she’s a know-it-all? I realized during my contemplation that perhaps it’s all in the eye of the beholder; because she speaks so confidently and assertively and stands behind her opinion 100 percent, she comes off to me as cocky because I am insecure about my own opinions.

As the world has evolved over the generations, things that are far away are even closer to us. We used to just make friends with those who grew up in our neighborhood or hometown, and now we can make friends with people from all over the world of different cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences. It’s easier to learn about what may have been foreign to us once upon a time right here at home, yet at the same time, when one of us leaves, it becomes more difficult to sustain our once intimate relationships with each other. The challenge then becomes – how do we balance all of these rich yet distant relationships with the fast pace of our own lives and our own personal changes?

Today, we went to Governor’s Island for the Eighth Annual Jazz Age Lawn Party. It was a lot of fun to be able to dress up in 20s clothes and accessories, see others dressed up in their glittery flapper frocks, and listen to and watch music and dance of that era. The dance instructor and his wife are masters of moves from that period, and they emphasized how important it was to continue teaching and learning these dances to be able to pass them down to future generations. It’s an important thing to think about for anything, whether it’s dance moves from the 20s, our grandmothers’ cherished recipes, or just family memories. A little work needs to be done on our parts to make sure that we have an awareness of the past to be able to more fully appreciate the present and the future.

In about two months of intense workouts (90-minute workouts four times a week) early in the morning, I’ve managed to lose eight pounds without fully being aware of it. I stepped on a scale two days ago and realized I lost weight; my lower back has lost fat, my arms, legs, and stomach are more tone, and my pants are looser at the waist. I’m not quite at my goal because I am working on body sculpting (that’s my vain side), but knowing that I am 90% there after just two months makes me have faith that waking up before 6am and doing morning workouts really does work; you never have an excuse to make about not going, and your metabolism has sped up after working your body hard so early in the day, so you burn even more calories. I’m a complete advocate for morning workouts now and would recommend this to anyone. Haul yourself out of bed in the morning, stop whining, and just run with it. 🙂

In my five years in New York, I’ve eaten at Shake Shack quite a number of times not necessarily because I had a craving for these burgers, but rather because it’s something that visiting friends want to do, plus I have a number of native East Coast colleagues who think that there is no greater burger than Shake Shack. So let’s all be honest with ourselves about our preferences – when we grow up knowing particular flavors and smells, over time, we consider them our comforts, stay devoted to them, and every time we have them again, a warming sensation comes over us that is so satisfying. This applies to everything, from the smell of the laundry detergent your mother used, to the Americanized General Tso’s chicken that you grew up eating, and though you know it’s not “authentic,” you love it anyway.

This same thing applies to the In-N-Out vs. Shake Shack burger. If you are used to one and love it, once you have the second one, you probably aren’t going to like it as much because of your (perhaps subconscious) loyalty to the first – this is your own bias. I can’t genuinely say which one I prefer because the last time I had an In-N-Out burger was 15 years ago (a bit shameful since I am a San Francisco native), but what I can say is that the Shake Shack burger, while tasty, is nothing remarkable. It’s not particularly juicy, doesn’t have any real meaty complexity, and will never be what I imagine first when I think of the “ideal burger.”