Art is everywhere - for a reason. It's one of those things that humans have created that have truly changed the world (for better or worse). In my life, art has given me the solace, inspiration, and escape that I have needed for as long as I can remember. I believe that everyone, including those who have long hated art museums, need to realize how much art has influenced their lives for the better. Enjoy this week's episode - a flashback recording from back in October that is coming out now.
Instagram: @partlysunnylives
@j.ennykim
There are some things I've learned, throughout my couple decades of life, that I was unequivocally wrong about. Chickpeas, putting your air in tires, buying slippers - I was wrong about it all. And a lot of the times, it's helpful to admit you were wrong. This week's episode will dig into that as we kickstart season three of Partly Sunny Lives - welcome back everyone.
Instagram: @partlysunnylives
@j.ennykim
This year has been the craziest, most challenging, most rewarding year of my life so far. Maybe a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome, but I'm also very grateful. This episode I wanted to talk about stuff that I've learned this year, and how I'm gonna choose to maybe switch things up for the next one.
Every perfectionist handbook out there tells you to stop checking the boxes - it won't make you happy. But why do so many of us feel the need to? We understand that checking the boxes won't make us happy, yet we get upset when we don't check them anyway. Being in a field where every aspect of your life is going to be evaluated to some extent as the gateway for you to be "successful" in your career, I find myself checking boxes that I don't even want to check. How does someone be happy with working towards a goal while also feeling like they are already enough? Let's talk about it.
Does anyone have a healthy relationship with food? Food had always been a source of pleasure and anxiety for me, and even now it can still be a struggle to truly define a "healthy" relationship with food. I had always felt like the way I was eating was wrong, something to be fixed. It took a long time for me to get to a place where I am comfortable with how food fits into my life, but life can still get in the way. Food is all around us, yet we rarely stop to think about how it truly affects us. This week we talk about how my relationship with food has changed over the years - and where I'm at now.
For almost all of my life, I have loved shopping. I was always looking for the next best thing, wanting to own things that I thought exhibited taste or style, or buying things to just spend some cash. I never thought of it as a big issue, until it got to the point that I owned too much stuff and wasn't happy with any of it, or with how it made me feel. Especially during the pandemic, when mass consumerism was at an all time high, I realized I was buying stuff just to say I had it or because I felt like I deserved a treat. But in reality, most of the things I bought I ended up never using. I feel like I'm at a place now where I can talk about this because 1) it's healthy to talk about our relationships with money and 2) I no longer want to be in a place where shopping is my main source of pleasure. Today I wanted to dive in to my history with shopping addiction, how I've been working through it, and tips for any other people who think they might have an unhealthy relationship with money and shopping.
podcast insta: @partlysunnylives
personal insta: @j.ennykim
website: jieonkim.com
These days, it's really easy to be cynical of love. Another one of your former high school classmate is engaged, another cheating scandal involving a supposed "wife guy," another situationship had turned bad - love can be messy and complicated. No wonder people are jaded when it comes to love these days. But everyones wants love, whether it's in the form of friendships or familial bonds. I have found a lot of moments of love and celebration the past few weeks. Season three of Ted Lasso, upcoming weddings, the new movie Past Lives, even the utmost superficial show Love Island - love is in the air. This week I wanted to talk about these moments of love and what joy it's brought me the past few weeks. No matter how cynical we may be, we can't help but love a good love story.
Happy birthday to me! 23 years on this planet (and counting), and I am still feeling like a toddler in many ways. Being in your young 20s is difficult and fun, fun and difficult. This birthday for me was a little bit different. I actually took the time to think about what I wanted my day to look like, and with what attitude I wanted to approach this day. It wasn't like the big birthday bash I threw in middle school or the chaotic bar crawl my summer abroad in Copenhagen - it was chill, and most importantly, it brought me happiness with a bittersweet garnish. Birthdays are always bittersweet. Sometimes they just plain suck. But actually enjoying your birthday can be more in your hands than you thought. Enjoy this birthday episode and happy birthday to all the July birthdays out there!
podcast insta: @partlysunnylives
personal insta: @j.ennykim
website: jieonkim.com
The past few weeks I've been listening to and reading a lot of interesting content and thought I'd give my own take on it with you guys. Specifically, with R.F. Kuang's newest book release Yellowface and the podcast episode "Boredom" by Overthink, I've found myself exploring new aspects of racial identity and productivity culture that I hadn't before. How much have I internalized white fragility thinking into my head? Are there inherently good things about boredom? This episode is all discussion, so let's dive in.
podcast insta: @partlysunnylives
personal insta: @j.ennykim
website: jieonkim.com
"You don't know until you try!" We have all heard this phrase before - maybe a parent coaxing us to try a vegetable or a coach teaching us a new skill in a sport. Our childhood was filled with learning and trying things. There was also the phrase, however, that "we would understand when we were older" - that we would know all of life's answers. I think I took this phrase to heart. Graduating college, I thought that then was the time I would understand everything and didn't need to keep learning/trying. How I want to live my life, what I want my days to look like - these I thought I would know because I had a cap and gown to show for my transition into adulthood. But the reality is, we don't know unless we ... try. We hear advice, stories, the dos and don'ts on how to live our lives, but the reality is is that we must experience it to truly understand it, whatever "it" is. Maybe someone has told you all your life to make your clay sculpture a certain way because all the other ways are too risky and make your sculpture more susceptible to breaking. But you don't actually know - you've only ever heard. It's up to us to actual do the thing. We don't know until we try.
"There are too many podcasts out there. Everyone seems to have a blog. Why does everyone have a YouTube channel? I need to write a UNIQUE essay for university applications, something that isn't like everyone else."
In this age of technology, sharing our story has become easier than ever. With a click of a button, we can create a website, post a YouTube video, or record a podcast. But with this feasibility comes a feeling of oversaturation, of things done over and over too many times. How many times have we felt that we heard the same stories time and time again? Sadly, oversaturation comes with the idea that our story isn't worth being told - "it's already been done, no one's gonna listen to it." With college essays, we feel that we need to be creating this unique, marketable story that will capture admissions counselors' attention - promoting the rise of the "trauma essay."
But our stories are much more nuanced than we think. They are unique because they are us, and no one else is like us. Sure, we all have similar themes and motifs because we are human and live in communities built by humans. But our stories must be told without the fear of criticism and being misunderstood because we owe it to ourselves and the people we want to teach or comfort. "Your silence will not protect you," in the words of Audre Lorde.
Let's dive in!
Jealousy is something we have all felt. It's a messy, sticky feeling that can make you think or do things you didn't want to do. I've gone through phases of jealousy throughout my life, whether it's being jealous of how other people look, act, or have, and now I've been learning to come to terms with it. Jealousy doesn't always have to be such a bad thing; rather, we can look at it as a way to learn something more about ourselves and what we think we want or deserve. Accepting yourself 100% can only come with confronting your jealous feelings. Let's dive in this week!
website: jieonkim.com
podcast instagram: @partlysunnylives
personal instagram: @j.ennykim
Some days I love social media. Some days I wish social media was never a part of our lives. It's a tricky relationship, especially with something that is so integral with how we communicate with others, how we fit into society, how we view ourselves. I've gone through multiple stages of interacting with social media ever since starting my first Facebook profile in the early 2010s. These days, I'm trying to keep a certain balance with how much I consume social media content - but even then, social media is a deeper part of our lives than we realize. How will social media affect our lives in the future? Is it going to be even more superficial? Or will there be a shift towards more genuine human connection? Let's dive in this week.
blog: jieonkim.com/blog
podcast instagram: @partlysunnylives
personal instagram: @j.ennykim