 Let's get together and sleep it all. Let's get together and die if there's a room. So 2024, I cannot believe that we are here. I am really excited. I am running late as always. New year, same me, but we are going to get started on our day. I woke up super early this morning. Like at 6.30, I washed my hair, I styled my hair, I did these little twists just because I have yoga tonight and yoga sculpt tomorrow and I just didn't want to straighten my hair. Like I thought about it and I was like I'm gonna straighten my hair just to sweat it out tonight and tomorrow. Plus, my hair is getting long and wearing these protective styles just helps your hair stay long. So I feel really good about that. I am heading up to the Upper West side because I have a little team lunch with my diversity equity inclusion team at Columbia University. I'm really excited because we haven't seen each other in person. Probably, well, definitely not since last year, but even last semester, I think we only all met up once. After that, we're going to go to Strand because I have a bunch of books that I want to donate. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll see I had like two really huge piles of books that I was like, okay, like these have to go. I just don't have the space for them and I'm trying to clean out and decolor my apartment for 2024. I got this really cute sweater yesterday. I went shopping with my friend, Tumaya. She's like TikTok famous. You guys might know her. Oh my god, I feel like I always talk about Tumaya on the vlog and I feel like she's very, very late on the vlog as of late. But anyway, the title of this vlog is doing nothing and gaining everything in 2024. And we're going to get into that a little bit later. But right now, like I said, I'm running late. We have to go to the Upper West Side. And if you're new here, my name is Nika. I am a 29 year old graduate student at Columbia University Teachers College and the clinical psychology program. Make sure you subscribe and I will check in with you guys later. But let's get this party moving because we have a lot to do today. Okay, Hume loves my little bun bun. I just finished our little lunch brunch with my team at Columbia. I'm here, but I'm going to head back downtown because I don't feel like hanging out on campus. I also did not bring my laptop, so I wouldn't have anything to do anyways. But I think I need to start reading newspapers. Like it was kind of crazy the conversations we're having. And like, obviously all the people that I work with are much older because they're like, senior and seasoned professors. But actually, um, first of all, I didn't even know Columbia was like in the news. And that like the president had been subpoenaed or summoned by Congress and just like didn't go. Is that not like insane? So there's this thing called the Columbia like some spectator, which essentially I guess is just gossip girl for Columbia. So I'm going to start reading that scene and just see what's going on. Because I was very shocked. I love my DEI AA team because I feel like it's honestly, I just get so much news and insight about like what it truly means to be a professor at Columbia and like what it truly means to do diversity, equity and inclusion, and like large institutions like this. So I'm talking too much, but let's go downtown to Strand and donate some books. I am so tired. We did so much, you know, we had our little team meeting or team lunch and we made, we sold all of our to Strand. It was like 40 books. That within itself was a workout then because they offered me $16 or like $24 store credit. And I just took the 24 store credit because I was like $16 is just offensive. So I'm really, really happy. If you guys follow me on Instagram, you may have seen, I like offered my friends the forced choice of the books and two of my friends reached out to me. So I gave them like probably 10 books each. So that just makes me feel really good because Strand did not offer me like anything for all the books that I donated to them. I was going to make a little salad, this kale like ultimate winter salad that I absolutely love, but I opened up my bag of kale and all of it was bolted. It was absolutely disgusting, but luckily I actually still have, I'll go ahead and make those instead. I'm also making a little cup of tea because I have a workout class at seven. So I'm trying to eat something like flight and healthy. So I was thinking like a little salad, but yeah, I need to kind of wake up cause I'm really tired. I really want to go to sleep and we made the little shoe rack. So like we did a lot of stuff today and I'm really happy because like I want to put a larger piece of furniture there, like a proper piece of furniture shoe rack there. But before I did that, I was like, let me see how I feel just like having something there in general. Cause obviously before that it was empty and it does feel weird. Like I walked in from like throwing something out and I was like, oh, like what is this? It's kind of big. And plus because I bought that on Amazon and I can see the dimensions of it and Amazon now it also makes it easier to kind of picture what dimensions like a shoe cabinet that goes there would need to be because I don't think I would want anything bigger than that. Okay. So I'm a bit exhausted. It's been a while since I actually vlogged a little bit rusty, but let's get this tea going and get the salad going. It's also an absolute mess. Love you. So I moved everything around again. I feel like I post everything on Instagram because I haven't been posting on YouTube lately. So this is how dark my room is at night. Luckily on camera it doesn't look that dark, but in person like this portion of my room is like absolutely like pitch black. And the only light I have is this lamp right here. So I do want to get some light fixture of some sort somewhere on this wall. And I moved my desk over here and I think I want to get a bigger desk here as well and get rid of this laundry basket and somehow fit it in one of my closets. So I have a lot of little home projects to do. Oh my god. I'm supposed to be making a salad. I literally get so distracted. All right. Let me have a cup of tea and make a salad and we can catch up a little bit later. Brussels sprouts actually came as like a little salad kit, but obviously I'm having more than just a Brussels sprout salad. So I'm actually going to use the dressing that came with the kit, the cheese and then the nuts is like a little natural crouton. I'm currently warming up some like impossible nuggets to add on for a little bit of extra protein, but I'm really excited about this salad. It has the Brussels sprouts, the orange things really look like sweet potatoes, but they're actually was that called butternut squash. And then you saw I added the bell peppers and cucumbers. And I think it's just gonna be nice healthy early dinner. So I feel properly fulfilled and fueled fueled for my yoga class tonight at seven. So just waiting for the chicken to get done. And while I'm doing that, I'm actually going to pack my yoga bag. I typically go to a Y seven and I was using gym pass before. So like a yoga mat, yoga towel was included. So I only had to bring my water bottle, but I just started with class pass and I'm not sure if a mat and a towel are included. And I'd rather be safe than sorry because I'm trying to be really tight my budget. I have not been good. I went shopping to my yesterday and I got all this really cute stuff. Even though I didn't need to go shopping, like I was not going to go shopping. I was just assisting her and I ended up buying a lot of stuff for my trip coming up in February. And yeah, so that happened. And then also today I actually invested in my YouTube channel. So you guys have probably noticed new branding and stuff. And I just paid for that today. And that was not cheap. I'll tell you that. But I really love it. The person that helped me out with everything. Her name is Tape Haley and I'll leave all of her information in the comment section below in the description box below. And the most chaotic turn of events, I just feel like it's six o'clock now. And if I eat, I'm just gonna be too full. And I'm also not like starving. Like I'm not super hungry. Like I feel like the chicken's done now. And the salad is basically made. But I think I'm just gonna put it in the fridge. And then that way when I come back from class, I can shower really fast and eat. And like my dinner's done. So not too bad. I also realize you know how people are like, what's your favorite color? Like I'm always like, oh, I love like all the colors. I love red. I love blue. I love green. I love purple, bro. I'm literally wearing a purple sweater. My yoga mat is purple. It's also purple. And it's like, I don't do these things like intentionally. Like I'm not like, oh, I want like an entire purple like yoga fit. No, I just buy so many things on sale that are all purple that I come home and I'm like, oh, everything is purple. Like it's a surprise to me. So I think I need to stop telling people that my favorite color is like the rainbow because clearly it's purple. I have you and we have like a little hour or so before we have to leave. We'll night in an hour. We have like 20 minutes before we need to leave for yoga. I do want to talk to you guys a little bit just about like my plans for this year. So the title of this video like doing nothing and getting everything is kind of my vibes right now. I'm at a point in my life and in my journey. If you guys watch my kind of my PhD journal, maybe that's why I should actually call the series. I was really stressed last semester applying to all my PhD programs and I did it. And now it's done. And honestly, all I can do at this point is just wait and see what happens. Hi, cutie. Hello. Yeah, so all I can really do is just wait and see what happens. And in the meantime, worst case scenario, if I don't get in anywhere, I want to take some time to really strategically pivot into user experience research so I can still conduct research and work in tech companies and get paid more than a typical research job, as in one that's kind of in my field that I want to specialize in. I think psychology, like clinical psychology in general, is notorious for being very underpaying essentially until you have your license or your doctorate or like whatever your end goal is. So I just, I live in New York City. My rent is expensive. Like I cannot afford to work a $25 an hour research job because literally at $25 an hour, even if it was $30 an hour full time, it just wouldn't be enough to cover my lifestyle. Before I went to Columbia, I was making $100,000 a year and I can't leave grad school and make less than that. Like I absolutely refuse. So I'm not taking any classes this semester. That's my huge like do nothing. I'm really taking my last semester of graduate school just to transition back into adulthood because these last two years, I have just been chilling. Like I started my YouTube channel and I'm really proud about how much it's grown and how I've gotten so much better at video editing. And I really want to focus on that and see where it goes. I want to start my podcast. That's actually a part of my IP for graduate school and the last little paper that I have to write in order to kind of get my degree and get out of here. But yeah, so 2024 you're actually not going to see a lot of Day in the Life of Columbia student vlogs because at most I'll be going up to Columbia once a week on Tuesday evenings, maybe twice a week because I do kind of want to audit a coaching class that takes place on the weekends. But other than that, I am not taking any classes. I'm fully focusing on relaxing, manifesting, attracting and hopefully pivoting into user experience and user research. So this is going to be a very interesting year. I'm so nervous. And I got dinner with my friend last night who graduated last spring and she was telling me like in the grand scheme of things, it's going to work out. You're going to get a job, like whatever you do, you're going to be great. And this last semester is just going to be a blip in the grand scheme of life. And it's so true. But when you're in it, like we're in it right now, I'm just so filled with anxiety and fear. And it's just like doing nothing and attracting everything. That is just my theme of 2024 because I've planted all the seeds. And when you plant the seeds, you water the seeds, the sun is on the seeds, you have to just sit back and let the seeds grow because if you try to keep watering them, trying to keep flowering them, keep like hoeing them or raking them, the seeds mess up. Like, you know, you got to let the seeds just kind of do what they do. And so I feel like that's where I'm at right now in life. Like I've planted all the seeds, I've done all the watering, all the sunlight, all the nurturing and I just have to sit back and watch the seeds grow and just see where I end up. So this is kind of a huge transition, especially a weird year because I also turned 30 in November at the end of the year. So I'm really excited to see where life goes. But I am also really nervous at this time because I could either get into a PhD program and start really my journey to becoming a doctor, a PhD, like a clinical psychologist. It's so crazy to say. Or I could be going back to corporate America. Or, you know, maybe my YouTube channel takes off and I'm just a content creator full time. There's so many possibilities. So I don't even know which one I want to come through the most. I just know that I feel very anxious right now. And I just know that this is the perfect opportunity to practice surrendering to the universe. So with all that being said, wow, I've really been preaching at you guys, I am going to drink my tea, which I think I left over there and head to yoga. Anybody else's face? Just give me eyes too in particular. I think it's like the heat heating system and stuff. Anyways, this Javi coffee and it's actually really, really good. I've been using it instead of Starbucks because I am now boycotting Starbucks. One of you guys left a comment on one of my videos and I had no idea that Starbucks was on like the support Israel list. Like you should ban if you're protesting Ghana. So now I'm protesting Starbucks. I'm kind of annoyed because I still have like $5 on my Starbucks card, but maybe it's like not enough to really get a coffee. But I guess maybe I can get a little snack with it. But I'm also trying not to spend money, but the money's already spent. I don't know. We'll see. But anyway, this Javi coffee is a really good replacement for Starbucks. It tastes delicious and that little container that you guys saw contains like a million cups of coffee. I'll probably look it up and give you the exact number on the screen. Anyway, today is Friday and a lot of people get like the Sunday scaries, but I get the Thursday scaries because I really don't be doing anything. And I feel like on Friday I'm like always scrambling to be like, okay, let me at least be like a little productive in the week. Reflect, like set my motion, do like make a to-do list. Do the to-do list and then we'll get our day started. We do have a workout later today around two o'clock. And then my friend asked me to sub her 5 p.m. yoga class, but like 5 p.m. on a Friday. I don't know if I really want to do that. I also realized I have my like little music playing in the background. I hope that's not terrible for you guys. All right. I also have a thing of laundry going and that just ended. So I'm going to go pick up my laundry, hang it up to dry, and then do a little bit of work. And yeah, I am really excited for this year on YouTube honestly and like when I say doing nothing, I also mean like not doing stuff for other people. Like I've spent a lot of my life working diligently to make other people's dreams come true, to work in other professors labs, just really using all of my skills, energy, and effort to help elevate either a corporation or an academic institution. And so I really want to dedicate a lot more of my energy and to doing stuff for me. And that means really showing up for you guys on YouTube. I want to start like a meditation challenge on my TikTok and just like posting more mindfully on Instagram. If you guys follow me on Instagram, I post a lot of like what I'm eating on my stories and like random things on my feed, but I want to get back into consistently posting on my feed. And if you're a really OG subscriber, then you know I used to do a lot of budgeting and financial content, but when I started graduate school, I just felt so insecure about my finances because I went from making $100,000 to making like negative $80,000 because I was taking out a lot of student loans. So this is my year to transition back into making money, hopefully. And I wanted to just get a better handle on my finances and maybe we'll have some like mindful money content soon. Anyway, once again, I am rambling. I'm going to go get my laundry and then do some work and I'll check them with you guys in a bit. Transition. My camera has to Jenny. She literally how pretty these are. My kale was like wilted and I used all the greens in that salad. So I got another one of those. The camera's going to die again. So I might have to say good. It's really sad because I actually was charging that battery for the entire time I was at YogaSculpt and Trader Joe's. So probably like two, three hours and I put in my camera. It was only at 6%, which is weird. I probably just need to get a new like camera charging station, which is annoying. But anyway, I got this cold press organic green juice from Trader Joe's. I'm really interested to see this because I just felt like I should be having more veggies and hopefully this can help me get there. Also, it's better to eat whole veggies and like juice veggies, but this is better than nothing. So not going to get ourselves up about it. And then last thing I got was just some hash browns because some of my girlfriends are coming over tomorrow and we're going to have like a little brunch at home, which is really sweet because my friend was like, do you want to hang out? And I was like, oh, I just paid my graphic designer for my YouTube channel and like, I'm tapped out. Let's do something affordable. And she was like, let's just do brunch at your place. So that's why I got the eggs and the hash browns just so we have something. I feel like those are breakfast staples and I literally have one left egg left in my refrigerator. So that's that. And then I am currently making a little bubble bath. I'm going to take a bath. And then after my bath, probably edit this YouTube video, see where we're at because honestly, if I have to do this all day tomorrow, I don't know if we're going to film. So I'm going to let my camera battery charge, edit these videos, take a bath, and then I'll probably check in with you guys tomorrow morning. Guys, I was literally freaking out for like no reason. My charger is fine. Everything that's fine. We have a new battery now. I'm taking out these like little ear beads. I got like these little ear bead acupuncture things. They're real cool. I highly recommend if you are able to, oh my God, I literally have like craters in my ear. Okay, that is kind of crazy. Honestly, this is why I really just need to take a bath. You know, like I was tripping. The bath calmed me down and now we feel good. I'm going to do this aloe mask by Innisfree. I haven't done this one before, but I've done a lot of their masks and I really like them. It's Friday and I really have no plans. As you can see, I've already put my pajamas on. So we're just gonna have a nice like little self-care evening because why not, you know? I think this is what being in 29 is like. Like if I was 22, I'd be like hitting people up, like trying to find something to do tonight, but now I'm 29 and I'm like, ooh, thank God, I don't have to leave my apartment. Love that for me. Oh my God, this feels so good. Again, it's just to decrease my caffeine intake. We had such a productive morning today, like we journal, productivity train going. So I didn't have time to do my financial planner or my content planning for February last night. So I want to take some time to do that this morning. Then my friends are actually at SoulCycle right now. I was invited, but I wanted my hair to be cute for you guys. So I didn't want to go. But yeah, after SoulCycle, they should be coming over here. We're going to do a little brunch. I feel bad because I accidentally double booked myself. Don't you guys hate when that happens? So I need to send a fine text and ask if we can like reschedule our plans. So I need to do that as well. And the weather has taken a turn. Like it was very rainy and gloomy and cloudy this morning. But now the sun is out, the clouds have dispersed and it looks like a really good day. So hopefully we can go on a walk or something later. I'm trying to be a little bit financially conscious because I've spent a lot of money so far and I need to pay some bills. So yeah, let's get this day started. Oh, also subscribe if you haven't already. Guys, because I'm starting to get hungry, but they said they're on their way. I'm quite sure knowing Tina, she's probably like grocery shopping for soft breast to cook and eat. But like at this point, eggs and toast will be fine for me because I'm starving. I'm going to try this green juice from Trader Joe's. I've never tried it before. I usually get like their better one, but I don't like that one that much because it's super grainy. So this one looked a little bit more fresh and definitely not grainy. Let's do a little taste test. Vegetable green juice. So the other juice, it is more grainy, but it definitely tastes like sugar. So I actually kind of like this one. I think I want to be a little bit more healthier because I'm trying to slim down honestly for my trip coming up soon. This might be my new green juice. Super healthy. Love this for me. All right. In the meantime, I might make myself a little something to eat. Actually, I'm just, I'm going to have a banana. And if I'm still hungry after the banana slash, if they're still not here after I get hungry again, then I'm just going to make my little brunch and help them. So I will check in with you guys once Tina and Ellie and I get here. Culture. The girls are going to bed you scramble. We got fruit. We have bobca.