Recently I attended an event hosted by ASU called “A Night with Joanne Chang” and I loved hearing what the speaker had to say. Joanne Chang is a daughter of Taiwanese immigrants and is the founder of our favorite local bakery, Flour. There were a few points that really stuck out to me and were messages that I will continue to think about whenever I feel overly stressed or unmotivated.
- Slow Down: Joanne described how she felt like a lot of her life was done in a rush and she was constantly chasing after the next thing she should be doing to be “successful”. She wishes that she could tell her younger self to slow down and appreciate what she has and enjoy living in the present.
- Immediate Gratification: This idea related more to how she realized she found passion in her job. Before beginning her culinary career, she was actually a consultant! However, a lot of her work involved working on cases and documents for clients for months and then repeating this process for her next case. She never got to see how her work was utilized. Meanwhile, when she began cooking professionally, she could instantly see how well she did and whether her customer was satisfied or not. This point really resonated with me because I also found my co-op to be satisfying in the way that it was client-facing and I could directly interact with people as my work rather than solely filling out laborious excel sheets.
- Blue Dot: You know those moments when you’re staring at a problem on your homework or in your relationships or everything in life just feels like television static? Fuzzy and grey and ambiguous? Blue dot. Joanne reminded us that at the end of the day, we are one human being, in a city, on a continent, on Earth, in the cosmos, just floating along. “Blue Dot” serves as a source of re-centering oneself and putting stressful things into perspective. I loved that sentiment because I often feel overwhelmed by things being demanded by others and sometimes just need to be reminded that these stressful moments will pass.
