 Hey y'all, what's up? Welcome to my channel. My name is Sonali. If you guys are new here, definitely hit that subscribe button. And if you guys are already subscribed, make sure your post notifications are turned on so you never miss a video of mine. Today I'm gonna be filming a Q&A. I just feel like I haven't done it in a while and I wanted to kind of update you guys on some things and answer some of the questions that you guys asked me over on Instagram. So if you guys wanna be a part of the next Q&A, you can go follow me on my Instagram and still underscore gnarly without the G. I always am posting stories. My feed is looking amazing these days. And yeah, Instagram's one of my favorite platforms and also TikTok. I'm pretty active on there as well and it's the same username. So I'd just go in the early without the G. I was just reading through some of the questions and if you guys are a new viewer, I just wanted to give a little bit of background about me so that these questions kind of make a little bit more sense. So I moved to Austin, Texas after graduating from the University of Central Florida in Orlando in 2019. So I've been in Texas for almost three years. I think it's like two and a half right now. So a lot of these are like Austin questions. I also have a boyfriend that I've been dating since sophomore year of high school. So we've been together for nine years. We just had our anniversary last month. I've been doing this whole YouTube thing since 2013. And in December, I actually just quit my corporate job to become a full-time freelancer and do YouTube and Instagram, all that stuff full-time and I'm so freaking excited about it. I'm also Indian, but I was actually born in the United States. I was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Not that I know too much about Jacksonville since we moved to suburbs of Atlanta when I was three. But my mom's side is from Kerala and my dad's side is from Bangalore. I feel like those couple of facts should give you all you need to know about me. So let's actually get into the questions. First question is how did you and your boyfriend meet? And we went to different middle schools but those two middle schools feed it into one high school. He played football on the junior team, junior Hornets and I had just got into cheerleading my last year of middle school. So I was also in the junior Hornets cheerleading squad. So you just kind of hear the names of the football players. Obviously, you know, when they're announcing it during the football game and just like, in general, you hear the names. So I knew of him. I met him for the first time at the homecoming game because he was one of the boys that I escorted down the football field. It's just like a tradition that we've done. I think the other guy was like shorter than me or like my same height. And so like one of my elbows was down here and obviously Ryan was just so tall. So he was like all the way up here. So I was just walking down the field just like with my hands like this. So that was the first time we met. And then, you know, those were like the days of like Uvoo and one of the other chat things called I don't know, like video chats and everything. And then I just like saw him at, you know, parties house parties, all that kind of stuff. And then we really got to know each other bio freshman year. We became such good friends. And then sophomore year is when I figured out I liked him. It was definitely a lengthy process, I will say, but I'm very grateful that we started out being best friends. And it's just so crazy that we've literally known each other for, I mean, we've known each other for longer than nine years, but like we've pretty much grown up with each other. And it not just like blows my mind every day. When I tell you half these questions are asking when I'm going to get married. I swear it's always like the most asked question during a Q and A, but I liked this question like the way they phrased it. She asked, do you have a timeline on getting engaged, wedding, buying a home? So getting engaged, I always said that I wanted to be engaged by like 20, well actually this is not what I always said because I thought I would be married by like 23 when I was a child. But didn't we all like, I don't know, it's just weird but I want to be engaged by like 28, maybe 27 engaged, married by 29 latest. And then buying a home actually could be literally any day. Like I don't even have a timeline for that. I'm actually working on finishing up my taxes so I can get pre-approved for a home because I'm ready, like actually I'm not really ready. There's definitely a lot of pros and cons about buying a house right now. Pro is just having more space. But like here in Austin, let's say my apartment right now is like maybe 1200 square feet or a little less than that. Homes in Austin, like near the city are less than that. And they're like narrow. It blows my mind how they can be smaller than a freaking apartment. It's just so weird. But anyway, so pro is that you might have a little bit more space. You'll have a backyard for your dog. Just like you'll own something because it's just annoying to have to pay rent and just know that you're not getting something out of it. Cons are you can't call maintenance whenever you want. And my dad was actually telling me the other day maybe like the apartment living is like good for you right now. I do have Ryan to maybe do like handyman things but I'm just like a convenience girl and I love just being able to put in a maintenance request and then coming the next day. Another con is that the housing market is just so crazy right now that like you're gonna settle and you're not gonna get like, well, obviously I wouldn't get my dream house maybe the first house. I mean, I'm hoping I will, but you know, maybe that's not as realistic as I think it would be. I don't wanna like just settle on like the shittiest house and the prices are so high right now. It's just insane. And then the biggest con for me is that if I do want like a lot more space and a lot more bang for my buck, I will have to move out of the city and that's not something I really wanna do right now. I'm 25 years old and at this point in my life, I just wanna move closer and closer to the city. I maybe live eight minutes away right now. You would only just drive down my street and you hit the city, but I just like want that experience to like live in the city so that it could be like walkable and I just have always craved that experience even though New York maybe is a little too much for me, but anyway, so I just don't really wanna move out of the city and also a lot of the photo sessions that I schedule are in the city or at UT and I hate driving. We used to live on Riverside, so whenever I would schedule a shoot at UT, I think it was about like a 17 to 20 minute car ride, especially if there's like traffic and stuff, so it's definitely like cut it down and you guys probably think I'm crazy for saying 20 minutes is a long time, but I've just gotten so used to that like short drive to get anywhere and so I kinda wanna keep it like that. I'm not trying to drive 30 minutes to every shoot. Next question is Dream YouTube collab. I feel like if you get PR from Revolve, like you've made it and I'm just manifesting that for this year and also I don't have anywhere specific in mind, but I would love to start working with travel companies or like hotels and be hosted by them for a free stay in return for, you know, social media exposure because I feel like, you know, I am a photographer so I have the nice cameras and I love videography so I feel like I can really just like provide them with really good deliverables, like really high quality stuff and obviously I would love to travel more so I wanna start getting into that. I don't really know how, but in the past I have worked with a couple of like hotels, like Hotel Proper here in Austin. I just did a staycation at the downtown Austin Marriott and a couple of others, but my dream would be to do it like outside of the country even if it's to like, you know, an island near Mexico, not too far away, but just to like start doing that. So I definitely wanna work on that this year. This person asked, how do you define your style? What comes to my head when you ask this question is just neutral style, but that could be really anything and I would have said like Boho, maybe like a year and a half ago, but I feel like now I'm trying to shift towards like just more chic. So I mean, I don't really know if those are words that truly like define the style. I feel like it definitely switches up with the trends. The next question is, what are your thoughts on Netflix's show, 20 somethings in Austin? I actually had a lot of thoughts about this show, what I was watching it. I like binged it in two days. It was like one of the most cringy shows I've watched, but I literally could not take my eyes off the screen. Like it's just that cringy. And it was obviously really interesting because I live in Austin and it took place in Austin. So I would see some spots that I regularly go to or just like places that I am familiar with and that was cool. I follow Isha on Instagram and there was this dress on Hub mentality, which is like her clothing brand. It's very like they see inspired and I love it because when I was a child, I thought I would be a fashion designer and designing like these, you know, American outfits, but just like with an Indian twist, I always thought I would do that. So to see like that vision on her page, I just am in love with it. So one day I'm gonna purchase something. I think everything's out of stock cause it's like all handmade in India. But I feel like that was a random tangent that I went on. I don't know why I already forgot her name, but the blonde short hair girl, she made the show almost unbearable with how like annoying she was. I feel like she was just like claiming every man that she saw so that no one else could happen. But other than that, I thought it was really cute how they're all friends and they all got along so well. I did think the show was a good show overall, even though it was very, very cringy. Next question is, what are your tips for moving to a new city and making new friends? So for moving to a new city, I would highly recommend to like spread out, exploring your new city because sometimes it's just so overwhelming if you jam-pack one weekend of exploring the whole city. And it's kind of like more relaxing and more enjoyable if you plan to go on self-congress on Saturday and then maybe the Farmers Market on Sunday and then the next weekend you do one thing. Making friends post-grad is extremely difficult because you have to put in so much more effort than you did in college because you're seeing these people every single day in your sorority house or classes. But in post-grad, you're only seeing these people maybe every other week or once a weekend. So the bonds are just like not as strong as the friendships you make in college. The best tip I always give people when making new friends is to join a bunch of Facebook groups and Instagram DM people and just put yourself out there like message random people to see if they wanna like hang out. Obviously like try to, you know, do a little bit of stalking and see if you guys are actually going to click because if you guys don't have things in common, then it's just not gonna go well. Sometimes you'll make a friend and then they already have a couple of other friends in that city and that's a really good way to make more friends. So you don't always have to say yes to every social thing but I will say the more social things you go to, the more people you're gonna meet and you never know when you can meet your best friend. This person asks, what are the best and worst things about living in Austin? I do have an in-depth video about the pros and the cons of living in Austin so I will link it down below or on the screen if you guys are wanting to check that out if you guys are planning to move here. But things that come to my mind that are the best things about living in Austin are the water which is just like so random because it's not even like a beach town or anything but I just love being close to a river and in the summertime you're able to swim in it. You're not really supposed to but like near party cove, like near a zilker, you can like tube in the water and there's also so many like, what are they called watering holes, swimming holes? I don't even know that you can actually swim in like so many parks and I'm not very outdoorsy but I just appreciate that there is so much stuff to do other than drinking and eating which that is another pro of living here in Austin. The food here is insanely good but then that brings up a con that the food here is also really expensive because everything, pretty much everything is like a local mom and pop restaurant so it's not gonna be like a chain restaurant that's more affordable. So we do spend a lot of money on food but I don't regret it because eating is one of my favorite things to do. I don't wanna be that bitch but another con is just that so many people are moving here every single day like I did three years ago so I really can't hate on them because obviously Austin is amazing and I encourage everyone to move here because I love it so much but also like, I don't want everyone to move here because it's just gotten so busy and so crowded and I mean, like I said, the housing market is going insane because everyone from California is coming over here and taking all the houses and just like driving up the prices so you know that obviously sucks and also back to the food thing and how it's getting just so crowded here you literally have to make reservations like weeks out if you wanna eat dinner on a Saturday or a Sunday night or Friday night and honestly even weekdays especially for the more popular restaurants because like I said, everything's like so local I personally feel like there are so many restaurants here that I have not even eaten at but all of them are always so busy and it's just so hard to get in without a reservation and sometimes you don't wanna plan out your whole entire weekend but in Austin you kind of have to another bad thing about living here is obviously that it just gets so hot here in the summer I mean, I think I've got used to it slash last summer wasn't that bad but it is still really freaking hot at least it's dry heat though because I lived in Orlando for college it was so humid there and then Georgia is also humid at least it's a little bit less hot I think overall I definitely do prefer the dryer heat this person said I'm trying to build my personal brand do you suggest getting a manager to grow slash more labs and I definitely don't think it hurts to get a manager even if it's like hiring an intern or someone part time to just pitch you to companies like it's gonna save you so much time and obviously you could possibly get some brand deals in return and then obviously they would take a cut out of it so my manager, if she gets me a brand deal she takes 20% but I'm also able to get brand deals on my own or if a brand contacts me directly I usually negotiate it myself so I don't go through my manager for those but I feel like getting a manager is also really helpful especially if they are already established because they may have all the contacts that you don't have access to so they may be able to get you some of your dream collabs this person is asking for a breast reduction update slash scar update and I definitely want to film a whole video like I don't know how many months are we out from the surgery it was in September, so September, November, December like about five months out I think so I wanna film one maybe at six months mark and just kinda update you guys on everything that I've been experiencing I'll definitely try to show you guys the scars in that video too but overall I'm very, very happy that I got the surgery and I strongly encourage if you are experiencing back pains or just like need the surgery like I swear it's life changing and you will not regret it the one thing I do regret though and I will definitely go more in depth in that video is that I wish I did get them smaller and I hate that I'm saying that because obviously it was very expensive surgery I did not go through insurance so yeah I feel like they've definitely gotten a little bit bigger and I don't know if that's because I'm gained a little bit of like holiday weight or what I was a triple D, I went to a C cup and I just feel like I could have gone down to a B cup actually I don't even know what cup I am right now because I've never gotten myself measured maybe that's something I could do this weekend is go to a brush up and get measured because that will be really interesting to see what cup I'm actually at but I really wish I went down to a B cup which I don't even know if that would have been possible because my doctor suggested that I went down to a C cup and I was like yep that's perfect that's what I wanted so I didn't even try to ask him if I would have been able to go down to a B but I just feel like I wanted them a little bit smaller since I was getting a whole damn surgery for it you know but I do like the lift part of it I did get a breast reduction and a lift and so that was definitely worth it in itself the next question is what's your dream place to live in and if money was no object, 100% California in the past two months I feel like my 4U page on TikTok has been flooded with girls in California just like living the best life, living next to the beach and enjoying the most perfect weather year round and I have always loved California because my mom's whole side of the family lives in Irvine so I grew up going to California every single summer me and my sister would go see my grandma out there and we would do the whole like Disneyland, LA like very basic stuff but everything about it I just loved being there and then this past time we went to California I think it was August, I took Ryan with me and he loved it, like loved it the weather was perfect, we went to like all the little beach towns, Newport, Laguna Beach I'm missing one, I feel like we went to another one but we loved Laguna and again, if money was no object we would definitely be in Laguna but I've never been in Malibu so I could like that better but anyways, yeah, so California 100% if you guys are watching this video and you live in California and you wanna switch places with me in Austin because apparently everyone in California is moving to Austin let me freaking know I would be happy to switch places with you ending on the second most asked question and that is do you see yourself living in Austin forever? You guys know that I love Austin with my whole freaking heart and I built a business here, I have clients here so it definitely makes it a lot harder to leave because also my brand is kind of here because I do a lot of Austin content but I'm not saying I'm never going to leave Austin because I just don't know what's going to happen can I see myself raising a family here? Yes, absolutely, I think it would be amazing to maybe not live in the city with a family I mean, if I find a house close to the city that would be amazing but I'm not so sure I could afford that but even in Westlake I would absolutely love that we always drive around and look at these beautiful homes and I just always picture myself here raising a family because it is the city but the suburbs are so beautiful too and it's not far from the city but the whole reason we moved to Austin was for Ryan's job and I really encouraged him to apply to jobs outside of Georgia where we're both from the original plan was to move just back home into Atlanta after college I went to UCF, he went to UGA and he got the job in Austin so that's why we moved out here and I was just so happy to get that new start I love that feeling of just exploring a new city like a local because you live there and we didn't even visit Austin before we moved so I think that made it just so much more special I actually had Florida prepaid college fund because I was born in Jacksonville so my mom told me like you have to go to a college in Florida and I was just so sad and mad at the same time because I wanted to stay in Georgia so badly I was always really dependent on my family and just like friends and I would attach to like whoever was there for me at the moment but when I moved to Florida that changed a lot for me and it just like made me realize wow there's like much more to the whole world than just living in Georgia and I didn't even like live in a small town I lived in Roswell but it's just crazy what you experience like when you move out of your hometown so that wraps up this Q&A I hope you guys learned a little bit more about me and if you guys wanna see more daily content you can follow me on Instagram and TikTok at so underscore gnarly without the G and don't forget to subscribe to my channel I'm posting three times a week right now including one very long aesthetic weekly vlog which are my favorites to film right now so definitely hit that subscribe button and I will see y'all in my next video bye