YOUR PARENTS LIED: TALK TO STRANGERS

     some of you reading these posts know me personally from school. some of you we met on tinder when i was floating through your town. some we have connected over social media years ago. either way, everybody you meet leaves an imprint on this great thing called life.. 
     when i was young i would make fun of my mom for always talking to the grocery lady behind the register. "mom, she doesnt care what you did today." i was such a bratty middle schooler and cringe looking at old facebook posts. but werent we all? (please say yes so i dont feel worse.) no wonder i got my door taken away for a summer for having a myspace in 6th grade. anywho, my mom always talks to everyone she meets and is so kind to everyone. i dont know what age i changed when i started to do the same as my mother. i love talking to the people at registers. asking them their day, what time they get off what, what they are getting into after work, asking their name. PEOPLE LOVE WHEN ASK THEM THEIR NAME!
     im telling you you are your own favorite character. people love when others show an interest in their life. I KNOW I DO. so because of my mom i love people. (thanks mom!!) i love hearing their stories. i love meeting new people. i love meeting someone so random and having them become a life long friend. my best friends dont even live in the same state as me. i have met them on my internships and from growing up in different states. sometimes its hard because you miss them so much but there are sooo many people, great people out there. 
    talk to everyone. even though we all cant be indy blue, were all trying to live our best lives right? INDY BE MY FRIEND!! but be the person who says hi first, never know how the conversation will end. be the first to let go of a hug, you dont know if they really needed it. make someone feel good about themselves even if you think they dont wanna talk to you. if you think someone is pretty, tell them!! the other night i had the most flawless girl come into my work and told her just that and she became red as a lobster! she was breathtaking and I KNOW she has to get it all the time but it feels good every time to hear it no matter who you are. if you walk by someone who has a sick hat on, compliment them on it. they just might give it to you. (its happened to me before, its my favorite hat) what im trying to say is YOU DONT KNOW WHO YOU ARE GOING TO MEET!!!! remember how i said i got that really good job to the real estate broker? we met at my old job at the tanning salon back in high school. i told her i was interested in real estate and said she was looking for a trainee. literally got the job because we just chit chatted.


by chatting with alot of people you realize how small the world is. below i have thought of the crazy things that has happened because i have a talking problem.

lady from slc airport:
i was in the SLC airport waiting to board my flight back to alaska after surprising my family  last June. i was waiting for my flight to board, eating a parfait, sitting on the ground, charging my phone. there was this older lady sitting right in front of me. i started chatting with because she sounded like she was from South Carolina. she was from charleston like me. she also used to live in long island like my dad and i tell her this and let her know that my family now lives in Utah though. and thats where her daughter lives. thats why she visiting utah, for her daughters wedding. fast forward to last week. i currently work in cariloha in San Francisco. i had a lady and her friend come in that are looking at socks. i start chit chatting with them. small talk kind of stuff. im asking her all the same questions too and the answers were very familiar to the lady from the airport. i tried to be not as creepy as possible asking her the question.. "do you remember meeting a girl in the salt lake city airport that was on the ground?" she says "yes and she was eating something!!" right then we realized we have met before... last year in utah and now in a bambroo retail shop in California. she gave me and a hug and we parted ways til we meet again. 

rico in puerto rico:
when i was living in st thomas, me, the other interns and our managers decided to take a trip to puerto rico the weekend before my 21st birthday because why not? we were walking through the rain forest. i was in the back of the group and kinda dying because i am not a hiker. me and ash are like "if you wait for me, ill wait for you" lol miss you ash. we had a group of guys following behind us and with me being in the back i tried to flirt with them. Rico was the one who first started the conversation with us. asked the basic questions of where are you from? what yall here for? turns out rico from michigan and i have the same birthday, october 10th. we both were in the same little rainforest hiking to the waterfall and we both were celebrating our birthdays. me and rico still keep in touch and hype each other up when are in our new locations. YOU ROCK RICO! 

shark diving instructor:
for sarahs birthday we flew from maui to oahu. we decided our adventure of the day would be swimming with sharks. the guides were awesome and fun!! later that day one of them followed me on instagram and when i read his bio it said something about ketchikan charter fishing co. (for those that dont know, ketchikan is a small small town in southeast alaska) thats where me and sarah were going next on our internship. so of course i decided to message him and ask what his relation is with it. turns out his step father owns the company and he was going up in may. so i just had to let him know that thats where me and sarah were moving in may!!! so for a month sarah, the guy i wont say what his name is, and i roamed all over ketchikan. our shark diving instructor from oahu who we never thought we'd see again was taking us fishing all over alaska. still in awh about this. 

meeting my down the road neighbors in alaska:
i was working in delsol in alaska. it was the day after the utah and byu game. a group of gentlemen come in and they were wearing byu stuff so obviously i go over and say go utes!! all awkwardly laughing and i asked are yall from utah then?? and as we kept narrowing down where we live.. found out they live 1 minute from my house and know "high school lover" and his family. we are freaking neighbors but we met in alaska.. not utah... like what...

dakota on the plane with dad:
i was at little beach in maui. a kid named dakota came over and started to talking to us. turns out hes from cottonwood heights and his cousin was one of my good friends sophomore year. so we were from the same area and living in maui. we hung out a few times and so on. my family came to visit in may and on their flight back my dad is telling me how he was talking to this guy next to him from cottonwood heights and hes a painter. i ask was his name dakota? he doesnt recall, so i show him a photo. turns out it was the same damn guy! 

alex from maui to sf:
i was on bumble and saw this scotty mccurry look alike, alex. total cutie. (told you you would be in it) we had a blast together while we both were living in maui temporarily. he left to go back to home aka san francisco in april. kinda thought that would be that last of it because i never saw myself in that neck of the woods. but cariloha offered sf to me and i couldnt turn it down.. we kinda have kept in touch over the past year, so last week me and alex met for drinks and met up again.  

joe and the boys from st thommy:
on christmas in st thomas we made friends with two boys at the beach, cool guys! hung out with them the last two weeks i was there. i snap them and whatnot still. but yeah.. never thought id see them again either. but since utah is a highly popular skiing and snowboarding location. one the guys got a job in park city, 30 minutes from my house and then the other came to visit in december. since i was home then we got to meet up. small freaking world!!!! 

SO MORAL OF THE STORY I NEED TO TALK TO MORE GIRLS!!! LOL LOL LOL after typing all of those i realize this. but anyway..

if you read all the way through i am proud of you and appreciate you. talk to strangers and think everyone is kind as shit. youre life will go alot better and so many more memories to fill it. if you have weird stories like mine above, I WANNA HEAR THEM!! send them my way :) 

How come you're moving all over the place?

in the spring of 2016 i went through an ugly break up. lets call him “high school lover” because that’s what it was. so young and so in love and sooo much heartbreak. (story for another time) so with him and i being neighbors, lol yeah that was convenient at the time... it was hard to be around the same -smaller than i thought- town. 

i had just got accepted to go to the University of Utah to finish my bachelors and i was looking to move up to salt lake. signed up for classes. ready for the summer semester to get a head start on my degree. i got a new job as an assistant to an awesome realtor broker of her own brokerage, my (at the time) dream job. i had a good plan set out for me. with or without the break up, that was the plan. i was so excited for all this too. 

i saw some friends from high school living the life in key west, OAKLEY, JORDYN, AND AVREE!!!! forever grateful for yall introducing me to this. i asked them a billion and one questions about what they were doing out there and how they were doing it, like the questions i get now. (btw i love getting questions about it and sharing this amazing company with others) (( dm for any questions always)) i had sent in my resume to Delsol for a fall internship (August- January). just so you know, Delsol is a coloring changing retail store with a sister store called Cariloha. (that's who im working for in SF.) corporate sent an email the following day asking for a 2 minute video of me selling something. i recorded me "selling" my hairbrush in my bedroom totally winging the video with no script. and if you find the video on the web, yes thats how i really am sadly. self love though, right? i was in south carolina mid june visiting friends on a family vacation when I read the email that said they loved the video and wanted to do a first interview!!!!!! my family didnt appreciate that i woke them up at 8am screaming "I GOT IT I GOT IT I GO IT" even though i didnt even have it yet. typical me. Alyssa interviewed me. i was ideally hoping for key west at first but we got to talking about the sunburn on my nose i got on vacation... back home... aka South Carolina. She then mentioned they needed to send someone to south carolina asap rocky, to the myrtle beach location because a girl left suddenly. “I LOVE SOUTH CAROLINA”  not actually thinking she’d send me out. Because what? im applying for the fall semester. also im in school and had a new job. i really cant/shouldnt leave. its also my first interview after my horribly produced video. Alyssa says “would you being willing to go to myrtle beach?” “When ya thinking?” “what do you think about monday?” “It’s thursday”... thinks about it for almost a minute... “I wanna do it” 

next day got an email with my flight information and i moved 3 days later. 

i broke the news to my family. i went to the funnest jason aldean concert. i quit my dream job. i withdrew from my classes. said bye to my boys aka my dogs. hopped on a plane out of utah. did i think at the time 2 years later id still be doing it? no mam. i was suppose to be done and go back to school. be a grown up. lol im only 22 years old though, i dont need to be a grown up yet. some people think im insane for still doing it  (those are not my kind of people) and some think "thats so cool" (those are my kind of people). the questions i get now about my life are not "how are you and "high school lover" doing?" or "how much longer til you graduate?" its more of questions of "what is the favorite place you've lived?" or "where are you gonna go next?" 

my favorite one though i get too much “how much money do you make?” (Imagine me doing the biggest eye roll and giving you the most discreet answer) BECAUSE ITS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. i could work at a call center or be the CEO of a new start up company, it’s plain rude to ask someone how much they make at any job. it might be the way i was raised or at least never seeing my parents ask that or its a southern thing. who freaking knows. i get there are times where yes you have to ask.. if youre going to marry that person or the person trying to approve you for a loan. but bottom line dont ask me or anyone how much they make. dont be rude. 
now let me get off my high horse and continue...

so to answer the question how am i doing what im doing? im just doing it. 
i know it’s scary to quit everything right now in your life, to just literally leave. i understand it’s difficult especially if you have ties at home. a rent, a boyfriend, want a "good" education, a job that pays well, etc. all those are AWESOME things but not what i wanted. so because i really wanted to leave and go somewhere exciting, i did. i said yes. not because of "high school lover" but for me. even though it was the best way to get over the breakup lol. i had life advantages for sure. i got lucky with this gig. Alyssa took a chance on me and im forever grateful she did. i did have people in my corner helping. but anybody honestly does if they wanna actually set sail. i wasnt even suppose to leave yet or even thought id live in the caribbean or hawaii, hell even alaska. like what!!! am i kinda bragging? very much so. this was not part of my plan and it just happened to me. I AM SO HAPPY IT DID!! i found an opportunity. wasnt scared to say yes and left all the responsibilities behind.. so if you say you can’t leave, “I have school and work.” i’m not saying you really don’t wanna go, but why aren’t you doing what you WANT to do? you’re being bamboozled by yourself my friend. we only get one life and we are not guaranteed tomorrow. 


the "final" breakup was the best thing to happen to me even if it didn’t feel like it at the time. oh boy did it not. now nobody asks me if i’m dating anyone as an opener question about myself. maybe because im ugly now or maybe its maybelline. but you get the point. 

ps.
my youtube channel for people that asked :)

always late to the party

HI YALL, im gabriella grossi, but call me gabby or gab to get on my good side. if you already know me, then this post might/will bore you. if you dont, lucky me. i get to talk about myself. one of my favorite sayings is that we are our favorite characters in our story. we see from our own perspective and literally everything we do effects our own selves. so of course we are our favorite. nothing wrong with it. the past three years i have been writing in my private journals. i try to document the days and weeks that make my life so great and not so great. wondering if i have mentioned you in my journal? if we had a face to face , then yes, youre in there. you will probably be brought up in this blog.

 i dedicate this blog to every lost, confused, sad, happy, married, single, determined, lazy, etc. person who is winging it and thinks they are the only one. i dont know what im doing in life but i know im loving whatever im doing. life man, im incredibly grateful for it and hate hate hate suicide/death/idratherdie jokes. that really needs to stop. 

background on my 22 year old self:
born in georgia, go dawgs!!! love love football and volleyball 
moved to a bougie ass area in texas when i was in 4th grade 
back to the east coast to south carolina for middle school, repped the "new girl" title for awhile
yes i do occasionally have a southern accent
sophomore year in high school moved to utah with the "mormons" and mountains (no religions will be mentioned in this blog other than right now and when i feel it needs to be addressed) 
im blessed for my parents relationship with me and my younger sister, bella, being my best friend
i have two doggos, buddy the boxer and cooper the yellow lab.. obessed
a bunch of cats but i only adore one, rascal
my dream job would be to pick music for movies/shows/theme songs/previews/anything that makes you feel something. wanna help make that happen? let me know
favorite music? country, old or pop
my smile is annoyingly always there and giving me wrinkles 
my tounge is too long, i talk really fast, im blind in my left eye
very passionate about life, pizza and dogs
i have fallen in love three times with three "boys" that will be brought up through out this with the nicknames i call them lol
i currently live in san francisco, california and love it 


there ya have it, im not a private person. i feel i should be, but i tend to tell everything im thinking and feel... lucky you or unlucky you for this blog

im starting this blog because i already write every day in my journal. i want everyone to know my story and follow this journey of mine. favorite character, remember? i title this post always late because i know this blog trend started a couple years ago and im just starting now. truly dont know why i didnt start this when i started to travel for my "job". im always late to trends. i am not trendy. oh well, do things at your own pace. i posted a poll on instagram to know if people thought itd be too cliche to start a blog or if they even read blogs.. then as i was checking the poll.. i thought to myself.. WHY DO I CARE WHAT THESE PEOPLE THINK!!!! adore alot of yall, but the rest, who are you? why do i care so much about my internet friends. if they will like my photo. how many views my youtube videos get.. (lol btw you really should watch my videos on my youtube channel.)  97 people voted the blog was too cliche.. here i am. being cliche.  If you’re one of those people who voted too cliche and you read this.. shame on you 

stay tuned for more illiterate posts my darlings