i took myself on a date in nyc | met museum, central park, book stores

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

so i decided i'm going to take myself on a date today the way to show myself love first thing in the morning is i'm going to grab myself coffee flowers before i get ready for the day is stage one got my flowers got my coffee from boris and horton i realized recently i never get myself flowers i figured a fit this is my coffee run outfit of the day so i figured i would do some of my favorite things today i'm gonna go to the net museum i'm gonna hit up a bookstore bike and read in the park i'm liking this though this feels very me i think i'll throw a sweater over top just for what i'm out and about so it'll get cold and a little necklace of course of it all right almost ready to head out as you know by the title of this video and as i previously mentioned i've decided i'm going to take myself on a date today i enjoy spending time by myself and doing my own thing but i feel like i've kind of lost that as of late and i've started like dating around in new york for the first time ever since moving here and let me tell you the stereotypes are true you know while there have been some nice individuals out there most of my experiences have ranged from like meh to downright like awful i've been catfish ghosted breadcrumb to the whole deal it's rough out there and i'm not gonna get too much into it it definitely has left me disillusioned and more so just excited to get back in touch with my like fully independent self instead of just waiting around like i want to take myself on a great date and basically just show myself a little bit of love there's a big difference between being alone and feeling lonely and you know i love to bask in moments of blissful solitude i think those are the most beautiful moments to get to know yourself better i feel like i used to be really good at like taking myself on exciting adventures around new york when i first moved here but then i got into a long-term relationship and since being here thankfully i've made some really beautiful friendships so so much of my free time and my social calendar is just like fully booked out and i rarely make time for myself the people we spend our time with obviously are going to drastically shape the way we interact with the world the things that we are interested in and i think it takes setting aside time to just do some self-exploration to experiencing things completely on your own to figure out what really resonates and sticks with you so in order to like gauge your own interests and passions it's really important to spend time by yourself i'm going to hit up a few spots that i love in new york today i'm going to just bring a book i'm going to attempt to not really be on my phone too much because that can kind of be a crutch to not have to like feel like you're actually alone also we have an exciting sponsor for today so today's video is sponsored by xiaomi kind of highlighting their new redmi highlighting their new redmi note series 11 phone and they kind of challenged me essentially to you know step outside my comfort zone set a new goal for myself so i feel like this was like the perfect thing being a little uncomfortable taking myself on a date and kind of embracing that alone time and exploring new york city so i'm super excited i'm going to be taking some photos and videos on this phone and kind of trying it out for myself so it's really great if you're looking for an affordable phone i think the design of it is really lovely i love like this large screen display as you can see it is this trendy flat edge design which i think is really cool and a really incredible camera it's a 108 megapixel bro grade main camera um i love the way it like kind of just fits in my hand it's really nice so i'm excited i'm going to be using this out on the streets of new york so on that note let's get out there kids hello hello i made it uptown i just stopped by the cutest little bookstore that was like one of the things i really wanted to do on my list it's called the corner bookstore i was just searching for ones in the area and i picked up a little alan watts book which i'm excited about wisdom and security i really enjoy his talks and i haven't bought any of his books yet so i figured it was time and now i'm headed to the net wait until they fall asleep two having the best time i highly recommend if you come to a museum by yourself set up an incredible playlist you feel like the main character for the art obviously the met is just absolutely stunning and it's really calming and grounding to just be able to go completely at my own pace to kind of sit with what i want to sit with move past rooms that maybe aren't interesting me and allow myself to just be drawn and attracted to different things and like following that yeah i just feel like i'm in taking art in such a different way and like i'm just enjoying it so much i keep trying to i'm having the best time it is how are you doing just been out here sitting enjoying my own presence it's really peaceful and grounding being here which is so nice i think in this like chapter of life it's like hit mid-20s i'm kind of exploring what my own like journey of self-expansion looks like i think finding a home within myself which i feel like i've really been doing in the past couple months i did this solo trip to catalina if you haven't seen it on my channel which was definitely very challenging and like really helped me grow i've always like found a lot of contentment and joy in my own like sense of independence or like being good doing my own thing i feel like that time allows you to kind of re-evaluate you know what does success and happiness look like to you like what do you want in the long term show yourself compassion learn to like enjoy all the little like corks and the little parts about you that make you you and to celebrate them i also think about the fact a lot that let's say in theory a significant portion of us out there do settle down with a long-term partner that means this season of life in between is so incredibly special to figure out the things that you're passionate about figure out what you want and what you don't want about the things that make you tick and make you excited and to be able to explore and do that in a way completely on your own i think is incredibly empowering of course you can do that with somebody else but i just feel like from my own experiences and from what i've seen around me like it's such a unique season of life that i just want to fully embrace i'm just saying this for my single gals out there like to any of you gals who are in relationships or married or whatever the case is like that's incredible and it will obviously grow and learn so much from that but i just feel like this chapter of life it's a lot of people rushing to get out of it have a hard time finding the joy and like the excitement in the in between and like the things it allows you to do ultimately the only person you're with your entire life is you like it's me in my little head and so it's like i want to be good with me i want to be super confident and sure and secure and like ideally be the best version of myself whatever it looks like moving forward because i'm like and then today it's me and it's you i mean you're technically on this maybe this is a virtual day i guess you're on this date with me i don't know i guess i don't have like a super definitive message here i guess just like get out there and do the things you want to do and like don't wait around don't let having to do it alone stop you so carve out that time i think it's so powerful i'm working on doing that okay on that note it's actually getting pretty late so i think i'm gonna get like a late lunch early dinner as my last little event of the day so let's go my i don't know what to do