We always have one book that inspires us to achieve our dreams. Well, this book did the trick for me. In the book Life by the Cup by Zhena Muzyka, she talks about her personal life as a business women. Her journey inspired me to achieve and live my dreams. So why not read this wonderful book? On my free time I went to the beach where everything was peaceful and read the book. I made sure I had my sticky notes and my highlighter to mark any quote that I liked. I usually do not high light anything when I read, but I had to in this book. Even though I’m not a reader I enjoyed reading the book. Not only does she tells us about her journey in becoming successful, but shows the reader how to live a better life. I thought this book was great due to the advice it gives the readers to move forward, how women are viewed in society and the ability how I relate to the text
In my phone’s gallery I have more than one hundred screen shots of quotes. Those quote motivate me through a tough day. Muzyka provides many quotes to the readers such as “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly-Buddha” (15). Buddha is one of the many leaders Muzyka’s book contains. Other than those quotes, she has many quotes of her own that I found interesting. Muzyka writes, “Those who can see the invisible can do the impossible” (140). I loved this quote, because it motivates me to look at my dreams and if I can see myself in the future I can accomplish it, because I will through any obstacle to obtain my dream. This is why this book is great because by reading it makes people think about their own life’s and how they can better it. The fact that it was based on true events of her life shocked me. It was amazing how from being on the border of being homeless she became successful in her business.
Think about it, have women have gotten to the full capacity to our rights? Many people have said yes, but people like myself say we have not. Being a woman can get tough throughout life. We have consistently, so much against society impulsively, politics, economy and many other things we have not yet gotten the full capacity of our rights. There are many obstacles we women still go through that men don’t. I found that society has still put women through many discrimination’s in this life time.
Society sets a great example of how women should be. Therefore, I thought the topic of how society shows how women are being treated would be relevant to this book. In Muzyka remarks, “People don’t hire pregnant ladies, you know, I told him, squinting my tears” (2). She shows how women getting pregnant can be a total set back in success. I am not saying that getting pregnant is a wrong thing to do, yet I am saying that men don’t have this problem to deal with. Being a single mother can impact you to become independent such as in Muzyka’s words, “I was going to do it on my own. I was girl and knew where my bootstraps were located” (19). Matter a fact being a single mom I believe can be a great struggle in life now these days. In contrast we see how many women now in days are succeeding in their education. With their success in education they are now able to obtain a career.
Being a woman may also affect how we get paid. I have heard of many cases where women are being discriminated at work by getting paid less than men do. We struggle through higher education to get paid less than a man. Do we think this is right? I think not because we are all human and we all have a brain, which makes us all different. What makes us different would be body parts and the culture we were raised in. Culture has much to do in how we see the world due to how we were raised. We were raised knowing our father was the strongest of all. Whether we are Asian, African American, White or Mexican, we all see the men as being the strongest due to their physical stance. Muzyka’s writes, “Shame returned to mind with a lot of other baggage. Back in our Ukrainian village, one of my great –great uncles was the village strong man. And during my childhood in California, my fire fighter was a role model of toughness” (22). This shows how many other cultures has shown the uncle or father to be the strongest. We still have discrimination’s against women due to many factors.
While reading the book I sometimes related to her life experiences with her father. Muzyka writes, “He was . . . excited. Now! I screamed inside my head. Now you’re impressed? A million dollars puts you to sleep, but a forklift get you going? (184). In the book her father sounded uninterested when she told him about her business. After a month or more she gets a call again and finally is impressed. I feel like I relate with her in this matter due to always having to do much more to impress my father.
What raised my question while reading was how was she able to do everything on her own? It is unbelievable how she was a single mother with a baby who got sick. While having her baby sick she was building up her own tea shop. Many people would drown themselves in their self-pity and do nothing. In the other hand, she did not. What needs to be known to better understand the text is explaining more about her tea shop turning into a company. Also, how she was able to make her own brand to sell in stores. It would have been better if she talked more about her Gypsy heritage and explain how it contributed to her teas. Regardless of that, I loved how she provided her tea recipes in the beginning of each chapters. Also, I loved how she provided exercises at the end of the book. Not physical exercises, but exercises for the soul and mind. Muzyka expresses, “Exercise: Promise Power, 1.Make a list of ten promises you have made and have been highly motivated to keep. 2 Look for three or more promises in life that mean the world for you to keep . . .” (214). These are the type of exercises she provides as well as some breathing ones as well. The one I loved was the meditation exercise. I caught myself doing the exercises she mentions when I get stressed in the immense amount of work I get assigned by my college professors.
As I stated in the introduction, this a great book to read. Even if the person is not a reader like I am they will get lost in the book. She does not really mention about how women have yet to get full rights in this world, but I made a connection with the book. It is a great topic because women need equality. Not being bias about men, but I have shown some examples of how we have not yet reached success in women rights. At times, culture many be the major reason why there’s still discrimination.
Vocabulary: Consistently means -the adverb consistently describes something that’s done the same way for a long time. “If your mom consistently forgets to add sugar when she’s baking cookies, it means you can count on inedible cookies”. “When something happens again and again, it happens consistently”. Impulsively means: acting or done without forethought.
Works Cited:
Muzyka, Zhena. Life by the Cup: Inspiration for a Purpose-filled Life. New York: Atria, 2015. Print.
