I’m A Hustler, Baby

When people ask me how I’ve been these days, I always respond that I’ve been hustlin’.  Then, I realized that I’m not even really aware of what this word hustlin’ means.  So I looked it up. Good old Urban Dictionary got my back, yO

Hustlin: Havin the ambition and drive to do everything and anything to make mad money. See hustler… Also a term used for “tryin to obtain sum booty”.

Err… not quite what I’m doing. How about the next definition?

Hustlin: hustlin’s doin whatever you gotta do to get that paper.

Okay, so I think that these days, the term hustling should be expanded. I think if you replace “money” and “paper” in those definitions with “dream,” it would be a more accurate description of what I see my friends and cousins and sister, even my dad, and I going about doing everyday.  Yes, we are still trying to make a living, but doing it the way we want to live. We’re hustling to make our dreams come true. Working hard 24/7 to do it. We don’t have everything mapped out because in this day and age, there is no clear path to get you to where you want to go. And anyway, where do you want to go?  Best to go with the flow. But keep an itinerary in mind. But stop and smell the roses. You catch my drift? (It doesn’t smell like roses, huh?)

I don’t know how everybody else is going about it, but here are snapshots of my hustle:

I spend a lot of time on my computer. I don’t usually look this clean doing it (this was for a photoshoot) but I do have to stare at my macbook a lot.  I wish I didn’t spend as much time as I do on Facebook or G-chat or Twitter or Google Reader. They give me a headache.

Image courtesy of Karla Ticas

For the past month or so, I’ve been working on Audrey Magazine’s Audrey’s Night Out.  It was a smashing success, which you can read about here, here and here. Check out what other people have been saying about Audrey’s Night Out here, here and here.

During the event, I worked out the mic as red carpet correspondent and also made sure to play the gracious hostess mixing and mingling with celebrities and cohorts.

Life at Audrey Magazine isn’t always this exciting.  Most of my days are spent at this office where overtime is unheard of but always necessary.

When I’m not in the office, I’m off pretending like I am. Here I am with some other models doing a photo shoot.

Image courtesy of Tom

And when I’m not doing the interviewing, sometimes I’m getting interviewed.  Here I am in Hong Kong doing a press run with some girls from the Miss LA Chinatown court.  During this interview, I was desperately trying to land myself a job with Phoenix TV.  It was not a successful attempt.

Image courtesy of Tom

Here we are mingling with the press, talking about how much we loved our China trip.

The court is not always dolled up and going on fancy trips.  Here we are discussing over breakfast a fashion show we’re planning. (Boy, for such an unfashionable girl, I sure plan a lot of fashion shows.)

As a hustler, you do what you gotta do to pay the bills. So I’ve also recently been doing these promotional gigs for JC Penney.  At an Arcadia mall on a Sunday near you!

And this is not a job but it sort of is to keep me going.  I spend many hours talking to friends and family about life.  The meaning of it, what keeps us motivated, what are our hopes and aspirations. Where do our faith and purpose lie.  Sometimes I’m the encouraging one, sometimes it’s my dinner partner. Sometimes we get into heated discussions, sometimes we just listen.  Sometimes it’s over an evening stroll, sometimes it’s over coffee.  A couple of years ago, that Janice would have told me, “what a waste of time. Go do something productive with your life.” The Janice now realizes that we all need accountability in our lives, we all need to think about these deeper thoughts because if we don’t, it’ll creep up on us sooner or later, whether we like it or not.  Better to be dealing with it now then go through a meltdown later.

(PS. I’m not really have a motivational talk with Brian here but this picture seems to illustrate more of what I’m trying to say. Usually when my friends and I have these talks, I just take pictures of the food we’re eating.)

When I’m not doing one of those things above, you can usually catch me on the road.  LA is a friggin’ big place and it is soooo annoying to have to drive so far to go anywhere.  But what can I do? I’m hustlin.

PS. I’ve been having trouble focusing these days. On work, that is. I can focus on what someone has posted on their Facebook album real fine but I can’t seem to be productive during my hours spent on the computer.  Any organized, focus-pro able to help me out here?

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posted by Janice | Comment: 11 | Chinatown, Fashion, Friendlies, Job, Los Angeles, Magazine, Pageant, Public Appearances, Uncategorized, Writing

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