I was going to give twenty-four reasons in honor of your twenty-fourth birthday, but decided to stick to the classic SportsCenter top ten countdown.
10. The elements. Likely, the two of you will take your first communion together as part of the ceremony. And when the pastor brings forth the bread and wine, who is going to be there to declare their presence, Neo Cortex style?
Now that I have lost 98% of the readership, I will continue...
9. Why were you able to land a broad? It could be your killer wit, cool cowlick and MC skills. But more than likely, it's because you had to listen to me pontificate over men for so many years as I provided you with invaluable insight into the female psyche. Not to mention, I pushed you out of your seventh grade punk phase. Lord know where you would be if you had lingered there.
8. Where did you get your baseball skills? Possibly father. Possibly practice. Or... hours of playing catch with me and having to field my terrible throws.
7. Who introduced the peanut butter Oreo shake, which became your staple snack for four solid years, into the Navatsyk household? That was me. I took the Oreo shake to a new level. You're welcome.
6. We make a solid team. Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, PacMan. Just a few of our conquered exploits. Countless snow forts. Epic forts in the woodlands. The first of many hip hop jingles, "We Low. On Oil." Honestly, we need a better name for that song. I was trying to think of one and kept coming up dry.
5. Let's be honest, none of your friends is as good looking as I.*
4. We have the same value system. Would you really want Steelers fans on either side of you? Or someone who did not respect Ohio State, Lebron, and the plight of Cleveland?
3. You and I both know I'm a phenomenal speaker. I mean, the only person who could possibly compete is you, and you couldn't give your own best man speech... or could you?
2. I brought country music into your life.
And, the number one reason I should be your best man:
1. You need someone next to you quoting Wedding Crashers and Old School as Courtny walks down the aisle. And Mulan. Maybe Emperor's New Groove. I don't know. I don't know if we'll have enough time...
I recognize there is an insurmountable logistical issue with me being best man, so I will not be offended if I do not win the role. We all know it should be me, and I can be satisfied with that. I will settle for one last single-Navatsyk-sibling hoorah - Euroadtrip. #TheBachelorPartyWillHaveNothingOnThis #ButNotInAWeirdWay #TaylorSwiftAllDay.
*That sentence was grammatically tricky.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
27 Things
For my twenty-seventh birthday.
I waited on a table at Commonwealth the other night, and per usual, I was a hit with the middle-aged men. When asked why I was in Charlottesville, I gave my usual schpeel, "I moved down to Charlottesville for a job in online marketing, quit after two years, worked here full-time, yada yada... I am currently running the marketing department of a tech startup, applying to grad school, and serving you fine people."
He responded, "You have a lot going on up there." It's true. As you read these 27 thoughts, recognize this is how my mind operates most of the time. It's a wild wilderness up there.
1. I read somewhere that you could store red wine in the freezer and it would stay for 3-4 months. I think that's a lie, because the wine freezes. And I just let it thaw and poured myself a glass. Not tasty. Don't worry, though, I had a bottle of Prosecco on deck.
2. I don't understand why people lock their doors when they leave but not when they are home. I would much rather an intruder come when I am gone then when I am home.
3. Sometimes, I wonder if I could pull off an Audrey Hepburn persona. Then I belch.
4. The Prosecco made me burp. Which tasted like whipped cream. Which reminded me of the wonderful breakfast this morning. My dear friend, Jess, made me the most exquisite meal of homemade deliciousness. It was my favorite birthday breakfast, and the company was fabulous.
5. Kirk Herbstreit looks really good in blue. I think a lot about Kirk this time of year.
6. Three years ago, my mother got me a tennis racket necklace that I wore every day. I lost it seven months ago, and have spend many days hoping it would reappear. I didn't want to tell my mother, but my niece decided to tell her for me. Today, a tennis racket necklace was sent to me. I am thankful for my gracious mother. And my sweet niece who is unable to keep a secret.
7. My nails are chipping. Do I remove all the nail polish? Do I continue chipping them? Do I moan about the fact that they are chipping after just three days?
8. You should always write thank you notes. No one gets a thank you note, and says, "Man, if I get another thank you note, I'm going to punch a baby."
9. Along those lines, I also like getting unrelated cards for occasions. For instance, a birthday card for a thank you, a congrats card for a birthday. Probably should never randomly get someone a congrats on your baby card.
10. Another card thing... I bought cards last year that have "H" on the front of them. That way, recipients will wonder, "Wait, is her name really Hannah, and I've had it wrong all this time?" Still cracks me up.
11. I reminisce about food a lot. A couple weeks ago, I was in Boston, and a local bartender gave me intel on the best bakeries in Little Italy. A true Italian cannoli is really something for the tastebuds to behold.
12. I have a Vanity Fair magazine on my coffee table with Channing Tatum on the cover. I won't read it, but I also can't put it away because I really like looking at him.
13. I have been thinking my new high five is going to be jumping and briefly linking arms at the elbows. I tried to find a picture but couldn't. All the cool college kids have been doing it this football season, though.
14. Sometimes I also think about looking more mysterious. For instance, not smiling in photos but instead staring seductively at the camera. I can't do it. I just smile obnoxiously in every picture. And blog my every thought.
15. My dad sent me a birthday message and called me Cakes, his childhood nickname for me. It made me feel young.
16. My sister sent me a birthday message and called me woman. It made me feel mature.
17. I think I am both. You know that feeling you got in high school when you pictured all the great and scary things your life still had waiting for you? I haven't lost that feeling, and I think that's cool.
18. Why is the hair of UVA guys generally 1/2 inch higher than the collegiate average?
19. I have turned in 3 of the 4 grad school applications. Every time I remember that, I sigh a sigh of relief.
20. Because I have turned in 3 of the 4 grad school applications and dropped roughly a grand, the $20 I am about to spend on Pitch Perfect 2 seems like a drop in the bucket.
21. I was just informed by an anonymous source that my name one letter up in the alphabet is "boob". If you know me, this is appropriate.
22. I've decided to just chip at my nails.
23. Only 50% of the lightbulbs in my apartment work.
24. If the light bulb doesn't work but the light switch is on, am I using electricity? Does the surge reach the light bulb, get rejected, then get super annoyed with me, actually costing me more than if the lightbulb worked?
25. I trapped a stink bug in between my screen and window. How will it die? Not of suffocation. I think it just dies from banging its head against the window and going insane. Seems inhumane.
26. A friend, Ina, gave me such a hearty and warm birthday hug. It made me full of good feelings.
27. I have a good feeling about 27.
I waited on a table at Commonwealth the other night, and per usual, I was a hit with the middle-aged men. When asked why I was in Charlottesville, I gave my usual schpeel, "I moved down to Charlottesville for a job in online marketing, quit after two years, worked here full-time, yada yada... I am currently running the marketing department of a tech startup, applying to grad school, and serving you fine people."
He responded, "You have a lot going on up there." It's true. As you read these 27 thoughts, recognize this is how my mind operates most of the time. It's a wild wilderness up there.
1. I read somewhere that you could store red wine in the freezer and it would stay for 3-4 months. I think that's a lie, because the wine freezes. And I just let it thaw and poured myself a glass. Not tasty. Don't worry, though, I had a bottle of Prosecco on deck.
2. I don't understand why people lock their doors when they leave but not when they are home. I would much rather an intruder come when I am gone then when I am home.
3. Sometimes, I wonder if I could pull off an Audrey Hepburn persona. Then I belch.
4. The Prosecco made me burp. Which tasted like whipped cream. Which reminded me of the wonderful breakfast this morning. My dear friend, Jess, made me the most exquisite meal of homemade deliciousness. It was my favorite birthday breakfast, and the company was fabulous.
5. Kirk Herbstreit looks really good in blue. I think a lot about Kirk this time of year.
6. Three years ago, my mother got me a tennis racket necklace that I wore every day. I lost it seven months ago, and have spend many days hoping it would reappear. I didn't want to tell my mother, but my niece decided to tell her for me. Today, a tennis racket necklace was sent to me. I am thankful for my gracious mother. And my sweet niece who is unable to keep a secret.
7. My nails are chipping. Do I remove all the nail polish? Do I continue chipping them? Do I moan about the fact that they are chipping after just three days?
8. You should always write thank you notes. No one gets a thank you note, and says, "Man, if I get another thank you note, I'm going to punch a baby."
9. Along those lines, I also like getting unrelated cards for occasions. For instance, a birthday card for a thank you, a congrats card for a birthday. Probably should never randomly get someone a congrats on your baby card.
10. Another card thing... I bought cards last year that have "H" on the front of them. That way, recipients will wonder, "Wait, is her name really Hannah, and I've had it wrong all this time?" Still cracks me up.
11. I reminisce about food a lot. A couple weeks ago, I was in Boston, and a local bartender gave me intel on the best bakeries in Little Italy. A true Italian cannoli is really something for the tastebuds to behold.
12. I have a Vanity Fair magazine on my coffee table with Channing Tatum on the cover. I won't read it, but I also can't put it away because I really like looking at him.
13. I have been thinking my new high five is going to be jumping and briefly linking arms at the elbows. I tried to find a picture but couldn't. All the cool college kids have been doing it this football season, though.
14. Sometimes I also think about looking more mysterious. For instance, not smiling in photos but instead staring seductively at the camera. I can't do it. I just smile obnoxiously in every picture. And blog my every thought.
15. My dad sent me a birthday message and called me Cakes, his childhood nickname for me. It made me feel young.
16. My sister sent me a birthday message and called me woman. It made me feel mature.
17. I think I am both. You know that feeling you got in high school when you pictured all the great and scary things your life still had waiting for you? I haven't lost that feeling, and I think that's cool.
18. Why is the hair of UVA guys generally 1/2 inch higher than the collegiate average?
19. I have turned in 3 of the 4 grad school applications. Every time I remember that, I sigh a sigh of relief.
20. Because I have turned in 3 of the 4 grad school applications and dropped roughly a grand, the $20 I am about to spend on Pitch Perfect 2 seems like a drop in the bucket.
21. I was just informed by an anonymous source that my name one letter up in the alphabet is "boob". If you know me, this is appropriate.
22. I've decided to just chip at my nails.
23. Only 50% of the lightbulbs in my apartment work.
24. If the light bulb doesn't work but the light switch is on, am I using electricity? Does the surge reach the light bulb, get rejected, then get super annoyed with me, actually costing me more than if the lightbulb worked?
25. I trapped a stink bug in between my screen and window. How will it die? Not of suffocation. I think it just dies from banging its head against the window and going insane. Seems inhumane.
26. A friend, Ina, gave me such a hearty and warm birthday hug. It made me full of good feelings.
27. I have a good feeling about 27.
Friday, September 11, 2015
How Should the Privileged Address Racism?
First, stop using the term privileged.
This post began as a rant. I then erased the rant, let my thoughts marinate, and prayed that from them, something constructive would come. So here goes.
I was reading the book Quiet the other week. And by reading, I mean listening to the audio version. The author delves into the merits of being introverted, and to a certain audience, these points could be convicting, invigorating, or validating. It certainly contains truths. But it bothered me - and not because I am an extrovert. It bothered me because the purpose of the book was to remove the stigma associated with being introverted, but in the process, it stigmatized extroverts.
It used to be that I was a white female relating to a black male. And that could be hard. Now, I'm a privileged, extroverted, white female relating to an underprivileged, introverted, black male. I'm single. He's married. I'm Christian. He's atheist. I'm a Cleveland* fan. He's a Boston fan. The list goes on... Not only is that harder - it seems like a giant step backwards.
It's not courageous to say, "I’m privileged, I can’t relate, but man, someone else needs to do something about it." And, quite often, when we say someone else, we mean institutions. We mean the government.
But discrimination is institutionalized. Forget the matter of responsibility. How ignorant are we to assume the institution is capable of solving discrimination when that's where it was created?
So who solves it? I've spent the last year at a tech startup, and the idea of DevOps is permeating the community. Essentially, DevOps is implemented through removing silos and having the various IT segments communicate with one another,* often beginning as a grass roots movement. The macro-level change begins with micro-level change.
Grass roots is not a foreign concept, but if the change is supposed to start at the bottom - with us - how does that look?
First, we remove the stigmas in our own lives. We can not control how others perceive us, but we completely control how we perceive ourselves. We will be able to help others so much more if we know who we are - our strengths, weaknesses, insecurities, motivators, desires.
Then, we shift our focus. The problem with statements such as, "I am privileged," is that they keep the focus on ourselves. Instead of settling for statements that are ultimately divisive, we need to work to understand and love others. Not the easy love, but the love that invests. The love that encourages, supports and empathizes, but also recognizes right and wrong, and pushes others to own their future.
Throughout building these relationships, it is important to recognize commonalities. There are so many people in my life of all races who have fought battles that I pray I never face. But we are not competing to determine who has the hardest life. We are fighting together to live this life the best way we can, striving to make an impact in some way. At times, that gets really messy, but we are fighting. And that's worth something.
Some reading this may understandably assume: this is easy for you to say - you’re privileged, extroverted, and white. You've always been confident and smart, and if there was a competition for hardest life, you would definitely be losing. It's exactly because of that this is hard to say. And it's scary. It's scary because people will judge it. And some may agree, but it will suck when others don't. Most of all, it's scary because I care so much about this, I may some day be called to do something scarier than write a blog post that twenty people will read.
Speaking of quiet, it is times like this, at four o'clock in the morning when I can't sleep and my heart is pounding, that I wish I would just shut up. Instead, here I am, speaking.
What am I saying? Stop creating stigmas. Remove them instead. Actively fight the tendency to judge others, but also, don't assume they are judging you. Be open to the possibility that people you would never expect are able to relate to you.
Engage in a meaningful way. It is good to want change and engage, but if the extent of that engagement is throwing around buzz words and jumping on the latest hashtag bandwagon, you are not part of the solution. Because as powerful as social mediums are, change still happens on a personal level. So this is me, making it personal.
* Admittedly, there are times I believe no one understands the plight of the Cleveland sports fan.
* I know - shocking that software engineers took so long to see the value in communication.
This post began as a rant. I then erased the rant, let my thoughts marinate, and prayed that from them, something constructive would come. So here goes.
I was reading the book Quiet the other week. And by reading, I mean listening to the audio version. The author delves into the merits of being introverted, and to a certain audience, these points could be convicting, invigorating, or validating. It certainly contains truths. But it bothered me - and not because I am an extrovert. It bothered me because the purpose of the book was to remove the stigma associated with being introverted, but in the process, it stigmatized extroverts.
It used to be that I was a white female relating to a black male. And that could be hard. Now, I'm a privileged, extroverted, white female relating to an underprivileged, introverted, black male. I'm single. He's married. I'm Christian. He's atheist. I'm a Cleveland* fan. He's a Boston fan. The list goes on... Not only is that harder - it seems like a giant step backwards.
It's not courageous to say, "I’m privileged, I can’t relate, but man, someone else needs to do something about it." And, quite often, when we say someone else, we mean institutions. We mean the government.
But discrimination is institutionalized. Forget the matter of responsibility. How ignorant are we to assume the institution is capable of solving discrimination when that's where it was created?
So who solves it? I've spent the last year at a tech startup, and the idea of DevOps is permeating the community. Essentially, DevOps is implemented through removing silos and having the various IT segments communicate with one another,* often beginning as a grass roots movement. The macro-level change begins with micro-level change.
Grass roots is not a foreign concept, but if the change is supposed to start at the bottom - with us - how does that look?
First, we remove the stigmas in our own lives. We can not control how others perceive us, but we completely control how we perceive ourselves. We will be able to help others so much more if we know who we are - our strengths, weaknesses, insecurities, motivators, desires.
Then, we shift our focus. The problem with statements such as, "I am privileged," is that they keep the focus on ourselves. Instead of settling for statements that are ultimately divisive, we need to work to understand and love others. Not the easy love, but the love that invests. The love that encourages, supports and empathizes, but also recognizes right and wrong, and pushes others to own their future.
Throughout building these relationships, it is important to recognize commonalities. There are so many people in my life of all races who have fought battles that I pray I never face. But we are not competing to determine who has the hardest life. We are fighting together to live this life the best way we can, striving to make an impact in some way. At times, that gets really messy, but we are fighting. And that's worth something.
Some reading this may understandably assume: this is easy for you to say - you’re privileged, extroverted, and white. You've always been confident and smart, and if there was a competition for hardest life, you would definitely be losing. It's exactly because of that this is hard to say. And it's scary. It's scary because people will judge it. And some may agree, but it will suck when others don't. Most of all, it's scary because I care so much about this, I may some day be called to do something scarier than write a blog post that twenty people will read.
Speaking of quiet, it is times like this, at four o'clock in the morning when I can't sleep and my heart is pounding, that I wish I would just shut up. Instead, here I am, speaking.
What am I saying? Stop creating stigmas. Remove them instead. Actively fight the tendency to judge others, but also, don't assume they are judging you. Be open to the possibility that people you would never expect are able to relate to you.
Engage in a meaningful way. It is good to want change and engage, but if the extent of that engagement is throwing around buzz words and jumping on the latest hashtag bandwagon, you are not part of the solution. Because as powerful as social mediums are, change still happens on a personal level. So this is me, making it personal.
* Admittedly, there are times I believe no one understands the plight of the Cleveland sports fan.
* I know - shocking that software engineers took so long to see the value in communication.
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