A Little Hawaii

For this week's post, I decided to learn how to fold an origami heart.

It's one of the more traditional paper foldings in Japan, and when I realized it was one I hadn't learned yet, I had to try it out! While it may look pretty simple at first glance, like a lot of origami, I learned that there is more to this little heart than meets the eye.

Try it out for yourself here:

The Heart

1) As always, find a thin, decorative 4 x 4 sheet of paper. For today's heart, naturally I chose red.

2) Turn the sheet to the white side and fold it horizontally and diagonally. Unfold.

3) Fold both sides in to the center fold, like so:

3) Fold the bottom-most corners up to the center fold so that you form a triangle. Do this to both sides. Unfold.

4) The folds you've made should now make a diamond in the center of your shape. Fold the left and right edges of your shape into the corners of the diamond. Unfold.

5) Fold in all corners of your shape.

6) Now here's where it gets a little tricky. Pinch in your shape on both sides, as shown below.Then, push the bottom of your shape onto a flat surface so that you form a diamond.

7) Flatten the triangles that are against the flat surface horizontally, and you should get a heart-ish shape like this:

8) So now you have a heart that looks a little too pointy. Fold in the corners of those top two points.

9) Finally, do a reverse fold on those points so that the heart is curvier. Conducting a reverse fold means pushing the corners into the shape so that they aren't seen, like so:

10) And voila! You have yourself an origami heart in just ten steps. It wasn't THAT hard, now was it?

Try it today!

As many people may know, I'm half Japanese. Born to an Okinawan mom and a California dad, it was sometimes hard growing up between two vibrant, racial spheres.

Obviously, both had a significant impact on me. Though I grew up in the states, and as Americanized as me and my siblings inevitably became, my mom made it her mission to keep her children as culturally aware as possible.

I was raised with an American education, but also attended Japanese school after-hours. There, I learned how to read and write basic Japanese, and studied the importance of Japanese traditions. Every day my mom spoke to me in her native tongue. I replied mostly in English (mostly out of laziness), but nonetheless - I grew up loving my culture regardless of what anyone else thought, even attending obon dances in the summer.

Since moving to Missouri, I have to say it's been a tad difficult to feel "true" to myself. In a place where few people know the depths of Japanese culture and the only real "ramen" within a 100-mile radius is 10-cents at Walmart, I've realized that my American and Japanese identities go hand in hand - I can't possibly have one without the other, though in the past I've tried to compromise.

That being said, for this post, and hopefully for the duration of this blog, I've decided to get back to my roots in the simplest and most effective way I know how: with origami. I still remember the days sitting in a cramped desk in Japanese school, mindlessly folding sheet after sheet as my classmates and I added to a pile of colorful and quirky creations.

In crude terms, I see origami as an easy way for me to sustain the "Japanese" half of me, even from the Midwest, a thousand miles from home. Perhaps more importantly, the practice offers me a couple minutes of quiet and calm during a semester where I can't seem to stand still long enough to catch my breath. I hope to see my paper foldings get more and more complex as time goes on, and to offer step-by-step instructions to readers who want to try it for themselves!

And what better way to start than with the classic paper crane?

The Crane

1) Find a thin, 4 x 4 paper sheet. The more decorative, the better!

2) Fold the sheet diagonally and horizontally on both sides.

3) Turn the paper over to the white side so you can see the folds you made.

4) Using the folds you made, bring the outer corners of your paper to the center, so that you form a smaller square. Do this to both sides.

5) Fold the outer corners of this smaller square into the center, like so. Do this to both sides.

6) Again, fold the outer corners into the center. Do this to both sides.

7) Fold the down-turned triangles of your paper up to the uppermost corner, like so. Do this to both sides.

8) Flatten your shape horizontally. Then, pull the left-most and right-most triangles out.

9) Finally, fold the tip of one of the standing triangles to make the beak of the crane. And voila!

Your 20's, to me, is a glorious decade of pure creative freedom. It's your time to travel. To pave your own path. To find out who you are (or aren't) in the best way you know how. But like many other 20-something year olds, looking towards my own future is equal parts promising and bright as it is mysterious and daunting. Routinely I will wake up in the middle of the night and ask myself the same questions: What will the future hold? Will I be who I want to be? Will I accomplish all that I wish to accomplish?

And what if I don't?

While I feel like I have done a pretty good job at living and working outside of my comfort zone in recent years, routinely I have found myself plagued with self doubt. I'm sure many other people can relate, but this overwhelming feeling has stopped me from doing many of the things I have wanted to do, both in my personal and professional worlds.

Recognizing this, I made it a goal to throw myself into many creative endeavors this year, regardless of how scared I might be of the aftermaths. Consequently enough, Fall 2016 will be a semester of firsts.

I'm excited. So excited. But also ridiculously terrified.

Among many of the firsts this semester, one of the ones I am anticipating the most is the opportunity I've accepted to work as an anchor at KBIA. This is a position I have never filled before but am extremely excited to try.
The things is, if I could somehow travel back in time and tell 15-year-old me that I would one day be an anchor at a real radio station, broadcasting for the world to hear, she would have completely flipped.

This might come as a surprise to some people, but I grew up the shyest person in school. While I was always one to pave my own path regardless of what everyone else thought - adding a bit of flare to my bland school uniforms with handmade bows and filling my crazy, unkempt hair with chunks of rainbow ties - as a child, I was incredibly shy. I loathed class presentations and sometimes I would be SO quiet I'd keep count of how many words I spoke in one day. While I feel like I have grown way past that stage in my life today, the shyness in me still comes to the forefront sometimes. I can be selective with the situations and people I invite into my life and I still find it difficult to speak in front of a group.

That being said, I'd like to see my new position at KBIA as a milestone of how much I've grown in the last 6 or 7 years. Perhaps more importantly, I see it as evidence of how much I've managed to stay true to my creative endeavors. As shy as I have been in the past, I have always found solace in creative outlets, letting my interest in them guide me in life and ultimately, across the country. Recently I feel like it's been paying off and showing through.

Not to say that being shy has always been a disadvantage - it hasn't. Being introverted in some situations is not a crime. If anything, it has given me the intuition I need to bring my chosen career to brand new heights. Sometimes it takes intuition and a deep understanding of individuals to get that soundbite. To conduct that interview. And I credit the introverted part of me for that.

So what's the point of this word vomit of a post?
I guess it's to say, recognize that life is a constant progression. Don't be afraid of change. Don't let the fear of failure or the how the future will pan out get in the way of anything and everything you want to accomplish.

One day, your future self will thank you for it.

Oh yeah, and I'm really, REALLY excited for this semester.

Now that the semester has come to a close, it is finally time for my last blog post.

Looking back, J4804 really pushed me to limits I didn't even know I had. Through six team stories, I learned so much about myself as a journalist and a professional looking to work in quite possibly one of the most stressful industries to date.

I've laughed. I've cried (probably the most out of every other student this semester - but that's okay!). I've been screamed at by sources who just weren't having it. I walked into an Orscheln's to find farmers to talk to. I traveled to The Middle of Nowhere, Missouri, to find sources to talk to. I attended a pancake breakfast full of residents I didn't know to find people to talk to. And I put together some damn decent stories.

And despite it all, I loved every second of it. This class was brutal. At times, it broke me. I was a mess. But there was never a point in the semester when I questioned whether or not this was meant for me.

If anything, 4804 has shown me that this was meant for me. And I'm so fortunate to the people who gave me this opportunity to grow and learn as a person and a professional and live out my dream at the best journalism school in the country.

If anything, this class showed me how to find balance. To find peace. And most importantly, strength. I learned to truly turn lemons into lemonade. I learned to transform periods of struggle into periods of growth. It took tears...and more tears. But ultimately, with a background like mine, this is a habit I know will bring more opportunity and positivity to everything I work towards in the future. And to me, that's important.

Mental health is important.

Self-care is important.

You are important.

And for the first time in my life, I feel like I've grown beyond that token hawaiian girl into someone DEMANDING respect and looking to work to be the best person I can be regardless of my "exotic" background or history. And it's mostly thanks to this crazy class.

In Missouri I always felt like an outsider. Maybe that's just the path I chose. But in the end, 4804 showed me what kind of community you can build with like-minded people working toward the same goal.

I'm happy. I learned SO much. I made some great friends and worked with the best professors I could have asked for.

Now bring on 4806!