Learn About Money

In pondering life and working on growing up, I have been learning a lot about money. My parents raised me well in this area. When I was a little kid I used to love selling things out in front of my house. I especially loved making lemonade stands. Sometimes I would get ambitious- I remember one time I wanted to go sell hot dogs at a baseball game. My dad though, did not simply indulge me in these desires. He sparked the entrepreneurial spirit in me, by having me pitch my plan to him before he would go and buy supplies at the store with me. Questions such as: where would I sell, what would I sell, what is the cost to buy the products, how much would I sell the products for, would all need to be addressed by my 9 year old self. I loved that my dad did this! Sometimes, I'd get so involved making my plans that I never ended up actually doing my stand. But other times too, I would tire of this and just take some of my toys outside to sell instead.
Anyways, thanks in great part to my money education from my parents while growing up, I was able to graduate with my Bachelor's Degree without ever getting into debt once. This was done with minimal help from my parents- unless you count the wisdom they gave me of course. But, now I really want to get more money smart. I'm pretty good at saving money (though I'm good at "Investing" this money into traveling so... I don't know if that really counts haha).I want to be able to always travel when I want to travel. I want to be able to help people out that really need it. It would be awesome to have all the money I needed to accomplish all of my dreams.
Now granted, I know that it is easy to not dream and not do the things you want to do because you are waiting on money. You can't let that stop you. If you want something bad enough, money won't stand in your way. But, I believe an education about money is also valuable, and I can already see the benefits in my life as I try to apply simple principles I learn about money based upon my experience, what I see in the lives of others, and the advice of people I trust.
Money education comes a lot by experience, but you can get it other places too. I am reading a book right now that I am learning tons from about money! It's called: "The Richest Man In Babylon"by George S. Clason. It's super good and not very long! I've been going through and highlighting things that I am learning, and then I'm applying it to my life. It's been great! I like making my own education, especially when it's about something as important as making money so I can follow all of my dreams. I recommend it!    

Develop Skills

So I really like traveling and helping people. But that's kind of a hard life style to maintain, especially financially. Or, it can be. A couple months ago I got my online TEFL certification to teach English as a foreign language! This makes it fairly easy to go almost anywhere in the world to teach English. There are very few countries who want a more formal training for their teachers, and these usually require past experience too. I'm not looking to be an English teacher for the rest of my life, but I did think it would be a helpful tool to have so that I can get jobs easier where ever I want to go. (Or in case I feel the need to just jump up and leave the country one day- I'll have a marketable skill in pretty much any non-English speaking country!)And even if I never actually end up teaching anywhere, I still learned a lot about my own language and how to work with different cultures! I've been able to develop skills which not only took up time (better spent on this than watching TV or something!), but it can help me get jobs, etc. in the future. Developing skills beyond knowing how to post things on social media can be very rewarding.

If you are interested in getting certified to teach English, you can check out the online programs here:

teflonline.com

I got the Master Diploma. It was a 120 hour course and I learned a lot. It makes me feel good to look at my certificate, and it has already helped me to open some doors (stay tuned for details on that later on!)

Learn a new language

Ok so traveling the world to exotic places is like the thing to do today if you are single and in your 20 ' s am I right? And I'm going to be honest, I am definitely on that band wagon. I traveled to South America and the Middle East last year, and I am definitely planning some more trips for next year. I love it! But like, there is waiting time between each trip which can be super long and boring. So....why not learn a new language? Yes I know this is a long and hard process. I dedicated a ton of time to be fluent in Spanish. But you know what? It was totally worth it. I love love love being able to communicate with people! But there are still so many people I can't meet because I don't speak their languages. After visiting Dubai last year I decided I super want to learn how to speak Arabic. Well it took me a year to learn Spanish, and that was with dedication to learning it all day every day while living in a Spanish speaking country. I do not have that luxury now living in the states again. So I've tried to find the best way to learn a language while not being in that ideal environment. I started following this instagram that gives me an Arabic word a day. But it just wasn't sticking. I have some friends both here in the states and some in the middle east who give me some phrases. But I like really want to learn it. So, I finally decided to get Rosetta Stone, to see if it works. Because it took me 1 year to learn Spanish while living in a Spanish speaking country, I figured I needed (at least!!) double that if I want to learn Arabic. So I  signed up for their biggest package which is 3 years for $209. That might sound like a lot of money to you if you have never learned a language. But just think of how much it costs to take a single language class in college! You also might be thinking, "but that's a really long time!" Just wait. In 3 years, I am going to be speaking a new language. And I only do it for a couple of minutes a day, and I can take a day off every once and a while without feeling guilty or getting a bad grade. What are you going to have to show for your life in 3 years? I'm totally going to win unless you do something that is worthy of 3 years. Which learning a new language is totally worth! I started in June and I try to get in just 10-15 minutes a day of Arabic. At first I was like, this isnt working. I am just playing little games. But then one day someone asked me to say a sentence in Arabic and I totally could! I am now 4 months in. I'm not as far as I should be...I got lazy when I went to Chile and just focused on my Spanish.... so I guess I kinda wasted a month... I'm not perfect, but I bet I can speak more Arabic than you! So give it a try. Pick a language you are super passionate about learning- in a place you want to visit one day. It's fun and easy and before you know it you will have a new skill!

Get Healthy!

     There is no better time to work on taking care of your body than now. Don't be too busy for this! Later in life you will have a family, a consuming job, or a million other things. If you can't get yourself healthy now, what makes you think you will ever get there? And I know we in our 20s get bored probably more often than we like to admit. So why not cook up a nice homemade healthy meal? We often feel restless too. I have found that even just going on a walk can help a ton with this! So move your body and eat stuff that is good for you.
     My friend and I are trying to improve our eating habbits. Based upon things we've read and what we think we are able to do, the following pictures show our new meal habbits we've started. The three circles represent breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We've been going strong for a month now, and it's been great! We aren't perfect but this "diet" is easy enough that we rarely want to cheat. Make up your own diet! It's much more fun than following someone else's. You're probably more likely to do it too!

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

What to do with your 20's

Hello. My name is Elisa. I sometimes get impatient with life, because my adventurous spirit wants to do so much, but life isn't as fast paced as I would like it to be. And after spending too much time on social media, I think there are a lot of people like me. People in their 20's who aren't sure what to do with themselves because they are waiting. Waiting for a boyfriend. or marriage. Their degree. or degrees. To get a job. To get a job they like. To have money to buy a car. or house. or trips around the world. For something,ANYTHING to make their life meaningful and fulfilling. And people tell you to be patient. You tell yourself to be patient. like all the time. BUT you just aren't patient! So.... you settle for the next best thing. Or what I'm calling the next best thing. and that thing is: Patiently Awaiting Patience. Yup. I'm going to try to be patient as I let patience develop. So, I'm making a blog about all the things I am doing as I am waiting for patience to get here. If you think of anything else you think I should try, I would love to hear about it! Or better yet, break up with Netflix and try it yourself.