Ultimate Road Trip Song

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

When you talk about a road trip, it's the journey and not the destination that matters the most. And to make each moment of that journey as memorable as possible, you need the best set of friends, a loaded backseat pantry and lastly, a super chill playlist that makes you bob your head and snap your fingers while singing along.

And nothing gets me through a long-stretch of highway or late-night driving like Uncle Kracker's "Follow Me" and LFO's "Summer Girls". These songs may have lyrics that vacillate between silly and slimy, but, man, they're catchy as hell.

What about you? What's your ultimate road trip song?

The Perfect Day

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

HAPPY EARTH DAY, y'all! 

I don't know about you guys, but a perfect day to me consists of life's simple pleasures like seeing birds play hide and seek on tree branches, taking a whiff of fresh-smelling leaves, listening to the wind rustling through trees, bending the leaves back so you can see the pale green undersides, watching the sun go up and down, witnessing the way it colours the sky in soft dreamy pinks and oranges and yellows and for a short while the world seems safe and quiet, and tracing out constellations in the night sky. It's the little things nature bring that totally make my entire day.

What does a perfect day look like to you?

Globetrotting in My Dreams

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

Go around the world. Hit all continents. Pack light. One pair of really comfortable walking shoes. Wanna come with?

Life's Many Colours

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

Life is anything but boring.

Make sure that you allow yourself 

to enjoy all of its 

colours and distinctions.

Stars and Magic

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

Do you believe in magic? I do. And every time I gaze at the stars, the feeling of magic runs through me. The longer I stare, the more captivated I become.

I remember the first time I saw the night sky encrusted with stars in depth. It was seven years ago and I was tightly gripping a rope along a steep, rocky trail 3,500m high on Mount Fuji. It was 3am, a chilly time, and our surroundings were pitch black. I looked up at the sky and my jaw dropped. I had never before seen the sky so crowded with stars. I was drawn in and magic seemed to be all around me, one shooting star, two shooting stars. It took my breath away and, along with it, my exhaustion.

As my tight grip on the rope loosened, I realised how stargazing could be so therapeutic. Just like painting or playing the drums, I discovered that I could lose myself in it. 

Stargazing just creates another world around you. And I suggest you try it, too.

Dear Me

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

Dear Me,

You're sixteen and a bit dorky and would rather play soccer than experiment with your mum's makeup kit. That's fine, sweetie. You have plenty of years ahead of you with black eyeliner drawn around your eyes and you'll be amazed by how much a sport can turn you into a badass.

That cute Latino sales guy at your fave ghetto boutique in downtown LA? Shhh. He's not really flirting with you. He just wants you to get that pink cropped bomber jacket.

Don't overestimate your eyes and read in the dark until they become sore and droopy. Trust me, you don't want to have to wear super thick eyeglasses. And contacts are a little annoying.

You got an A-? Screw that. You'll realise later in life that grades don't fully reflect your genuine learning and real marketable skills. Go out, meet new people, try new things. Nothing beats the School of Life.

Don't be scared of tiny struggles and failures, my dear. They make you stronger and wiser. Embrace your flaws and weaknesses for what they are and focus on your strengths. Quit running away. Nothing good ever comes out of it.

They tell you, "You can't"? Show them YOU CAN. Some people are always looking for something to try and lambast others. Let them, and prove them wrong.

With shaky legs, you face the waves of Huntington Beach. Chin up, love. Soon enough, you'll get to stand on a surfboard and ride the hell out of them.

You're confused about what you want to become? That's okay. You'll encounter the same conundrum a decade after and probably face it again.

You wake up one day and suddenly want to become a pop star? Sure. But until you believe in yourself and put yourself out there, you'll never set a stage on fire.

Life is a giant cloud of possibilities especially when you're young, yes, but you can only achieve your dreams when you take action and work toward them.

Best of luck, you little fighter,

DANA (about a decade later)

Dulcet Lullabies

Tuneful orange skies

Resonating in your soul

Dulcet lullabies

© Dana Eve Valencia

Try Anything. Do Something.

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

When you take action and start doing things, you begin to feel better almost immediately, because instead of thinking about some far off place in your head full of uncertainty, you will be working on something that is really certain: your actions.

While it's true that you cannot control what will happen tomorrow, you can control the actions you take every single day.

And that, my friends, is the real beauty of life.

The Perks of Being a Fervently Curious Little Girl

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

When I was a little girl, field trips were my favourite time of the school year because they would take us to art museums.

During the tour, I would ask my teachers how the art pieces were made, but none of them could really give a clear answer which only further piqued my interest and curiosity. I would always mechanically clasp my hands behind my back, fighting the forbidden urge to rest my palms flat on the cool marble of the statues, to run my fingers along the rutted surfaces of the paintings. There was something maddening about being in the presence of such beautiful things, yet not being allowed to experience them with all my senses.

And I decided, then, a bit smugly, “If they won’t let me touch those things, I’m just going to make one myself.” 

Needless to say, that fervent curiosity I felt was the driving force that got me into painting.

And that fervently curious little girl? She now has one of her paintings displayed in a museum that she had the liberty of enjoying the whole journey of creating with her own tiny hands. 

Life has a funny way of working out, innit?​

Forward

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

"If you are facing in the right direction,

all you need to do is keep walking." ​

Although for some, just like me, finding the right direction might require the journey of a freaking lifetime, I do believe that there is one direction that we are all meant to go:

FORWARD. ​

By taking tiny steps each and every day, putting aside over-thinking, and realising that you have everything you need deep within, you can find the right direction in your life. And while it may not be the direction you expected, it will work out just fine.

Happy Easter and have an amazing new week!

My Happy Place

2015 © Dana Eve Valencia

Something happens to time when you're in your happy place. One minute you're sitting on the dock, chatting away and it's only ten in the morning and the next time you look at your watch, it's nearly four in the afternoon and you find yourself sipping your sixth fresh coconut juice, strumming random TV tunes on your ukulele whilst your friend head-bobs to it with a panda hand puppet like a proper weirdo. And you just laugh and laugh and laugh, and there's this lingering thought in your mind: Wherever everyone else is, I am where I want to be.

What about you? What's your #happyplace like?