ROOM 603

"The true fruit of travel is perhaps the
feeling of being nearly everywhere at home"
- Freya Stark

With the love for travel comes the love for hotel rooms, it's like having cookies with milk, or a burger with coke. The love is intertwined: 'You are the moon to my night, the peanut to my butter, the soy sauce to my Chinese'. Ahem, well that didn't end up being as poetic as I intended it to be.

Waking up in a hotel room, away from home, is a rousing feeling, stirring in the pit of your stomach as the adventure awaits. Away from the mundane of everyday life, you are actually elevated to spring out of bed, not wishing to waste one more second of your time in this undiscovered city.

WHEN IN CHINA

"Cause they say home is where your heart is set in stone.
 As long as we're together, does it matter
 where we go?" - Gabrielle Aplin

It feels good to be finally home, to step foot in my parents' phlegm covered hometown ground once again. Yes, but I've never missed the constant 'head-down, feet-dodging' act required to walk those streets (you will have to visit this country to understand what skill I am referring to, one that you will master if you do indeed visit). But rather I am happy to be rekindled with my family here in Guangzhou, China. This is the city where my beloved aunts, uncles, cousins and many nieces and nephews all reside. 'There's babies everywhere!' as my baby-loving brother puts it. It's been two years since I've been back and I have yet to squish these adorable babies in my loving arms. 

It is a strange feeling, almost unable to be put into words. This feeling of returning to a second home where time jumps. Not many people will understand, but I guess astronauts will. The concept of relativity? Interstellar anyone? Only this isn't physics, it's psychology. My mind is simply stuck in a certain time frame. When I leave I expect nothing to change. And I leave for years.

WILD NIGHTS

"If you don't do wild things while you're young, 

you'll have nothing to smile about when you're old."

Partied my way into 2015 like no other. This is what happens when you're young, wild, and single... and your parents leave the house all to yourself with permission to party. Take this editorial as a personal invite to tour my home, and a post-invite to my wild wild night. Long live this untamed fire within all of us. Let the New Year be filled with stupid memories to laugh about when you're old.

SUMMER ROMANCE

"No one looks back on their life and

remembers the nights they got plenty of sleep"

The pursuit of happiness is often confused and intertwined with materialistic pursuits. It's hard not to get caught up in it all in this present society of ours; where dreams consist of fast cars and big fancy houses. Sure, material things do bring us comfort but priorities must not be corrupted. We have to constantly remind ourselves that at the end of it all, we carry nothing else into our deathbeds except the memories we have made in our lifetime. Will you remember that Chanel bag you bought, or will you remember the holiday you took instead?