recipe to having a fun time

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, an 18 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

this publication is a place for me to reflect on a new topic daily, and send it to your inbox. if you’re new here, sign up to tune in! you reading this is keeping me accountable, so thank you for that. as a treat, i drop cool resources/opportunities at the end. 💌 

btw, feel free to reply with topic ideas you want me to write about for future posts.

onto today’s topic: flexibility enables joy 💟

i flew over to nyc yesterday for the explore fellowship! we had a day of just hanging out before heading off to our campground, and it was a lot of fun.

it got me thinking “what is the recipe for fun?” the ingredient possibilities are endless, but one in particular sticks out to me: flexibility.

i tend to over-plan what i want to do when i hang out with friends, and just make things harder for myself: stressing over the things we didn’t do and wasted time, when in reality the point is just to have fun with friends.

why slap a productivity game onto having a good time? 🤨

part of flexibility is to not be super attached to plans. things change, the weather fluctuates, and a random concert might just catch your eye.

my plan in nyc was initially to e-bike across the brooklyn bridge, hit up a few art galleries and get some pizza with the rest of the cohort. i ended up doing maybe 20% of that, and it couldn’t have been better. we demolished some shake shack food (which i am now in love with), biked to times square, picked up a new friend along the way and vibed at a small concert.

plans change, and you just need to inject the fun into it. the people are what make it fun, and activities come second. 🥈

this rings true for pretty much every time i make plans with friends. i’ve found that the less and less i micromanage the agenda, the more i enjoy my time, because my expectations aren’t so strict. they are simply, to have fun.

flexibility gives you a wider funnel for what qualifies as fun. 

cool finds of the day 🔍️