In our 46th conversation, we’re speaking with Erin. She’s from Brooklyn, NY and currently lives there. She spends her days, “right now…cooking, cleaning, getting ready to go back to work, living life, loving life, and spending time with family.”
Erin’s Most Likely To Is: Most Likely to Stop Procrastinating, Take Responsibility for My Actions, Live Life, and Make My Parents Proud
Listen to “Conversation 46 (Erin)” on Spreaker.
Erin explained how she learned to cook:
“I started cooking when I was eight/nine…and I would always want to eat like every 30 minutes. And one day my mom was like, ‘Erin if you’re going to eat that much, you gotta teach yourself.’ So, the first meal that I ever taught myself was the grilled cheese [sandwich]. Like yesterday I just made cheddar mashed potatoes and Cajun shrimp with gravy…so you know, I taught myself.”
She described the period in her life that motivated her to stop procrastinating:
“Honestly it happened in February [2016]. I stopped working. I stopped going to school. I was losing a lot of people in my life, and I just really hit rock bottom. And I used to brush it off like, ‘things will get good.’ I used to be spoon-fed my whole life…but my parents put me in a situation where I had to grow up, you know?
I would ask them for advice, and they wouldn’t tell me anything. They just told me, ‘figure it out for yourself.’ So, I’ve taken some time off from reality, which is bananas…I’m blessed that I could do that…and I really got to know myself. I really got to know myself in a matter of a few months.”
We talked about the how her social circle changed during the time when she was getting to know herself:
“Before…this is funny…people liked calling me the party girl. I didn’t think it was that deep, but okay. I used to have house parties…I was that girl. I really was that girl. I used to party…party with any and everybody. Everybody would be like, ‘Erin come here, come here.’ And [I’d be] like ‘yeah!’
But when I went through my situation, I cut everybody off. Cut everybody off. Not being mean or anything, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. This is funny…when it came to my social life, I sat down and said to myself, ‘Erin you have all of these friends, supposedly. You go out, you’re partying, you’re celebrating…what are you celebrating? ‘Cuz you’re not where you need to be in life right now. You have all these people entering your house and your life…but for what? Do they even call you and check up on you and ask you if you’re okay?’
…and I deleted my social media. I did all of that. And I went from having like tons of friends – I can still say I have a good amount of friends – but I went from having tons of friends to honestly, I can count down my close friends on one hand. People who actually checked up on me because they knew something was wrong.”
Erin gave her new definition of the word ‘friend’:
“Well I’ll say this, the four friends that I have now…I don’t even call them my friends, to be honest. I call them cousins. That’s my definition of a friend, a cousin. I don’t know where I get that from. Every time someone is like, ‘is that your friend?’ I’m like, ‘no, that’s my cousin.’ Because at the end of the day, they’re like my backbone, I can say.
When I’m going through something…whether it’s like a little thing with a boy, or if it’s anything…school…situation with my mom…I know I can go to them. We have this term that we use: a judge-free zone. They’re my judge-free zone…regardless of the topic.”
We talked about her grandmother, and the words of wisdom she gave to Erin:
“You know before my grandmother died…every time I would tell her, since I was little…and I’m blessed to have had her in my life…I’d be like, ‘I love you grandma!’ [For] as long as I can remember, when I told her that I loved her she would be like, ‘Love Yourself.’
And I used to take it as a joke! I used to be offended like, ‘Gram-Gram you don’t love me?!’ But she used to look at me and be like, ‘Love Yourself.’ And it took me a minute to be like okay, I see what she’s doing…I see what she’s doing.”