Hi everyone, I’m Kate.
In 2014 I reached an extremely low point in my life where I woke up, looked in the mirror and didn't like what I saw. My life was hectic, I had a stressful job and I weighed about 248lbs. As I stood there, I contemplated three options: accept this as my life and continue living this way, make a change and start to live 'my' life, or commit suicide. Since I'm posting this then you know I was strong enough to forgo the last option. Instead I decided it was time for a change. Getting out from under my stressful job was the first step and it was scary. The feeling of not having a steady paycheck or job security made me question the decision. Then I thought about how crazy that sounded. We aren't born to work in cubicle and then die, that's absurd. I knew I needed to make a change to better myself but didn't know how. So I shared my story with my best friend who gave me the idea of volunteering. Through his network I was introduced to a volunteer group and before I knew it I was headed for Nepal.
Nepalese people are some of the nicest I have ever met and the experience was life changing to say the least. Two people I will never forget are Naoko and Surbhi, who are now like my sisters. Like me, they were also on their own personal self-searching paths. We shared many moments together and enjoyed as much of Nepal as we could. From local festivals to trips to the temple, we became a part of the local culture. One afternoon, after talking about our own cultures with a group of students, we went to a local shop for tea. Reflecting on our class discussion, we realized just how disconnected the connected world is. In each of our countries there are a large number of people who are "always on". They work all day behind screens, carry a smartphone everywhere, and even at night the last thing they see is a TV or phone screen. It's as if people forget how to actually appreciate life or enjoy the moment. In addition they struggle with weight or health issues as a result of stress or poor health habits. We felt fortunate in that moment for being able to change our own lives and do what many wish for almost everyday: to change and be free from a hectic lifestyle.
We thought about what it would be like to share our experiences with friends and family back home. How great it would be to just put all of this into a box and give it to those people that were stressed, too busy missing the present moment and looking for a solution to live healthier. That's when Surbhi took a sip from her cup and joked that people should just drink more tea. Her suggestion resonated with us. We had been in Nepal for five months and almost every day we did two things: drank tea and practiced yoga. So we decided to combine the two to promote a better lifestyle. The idea sounded good but doing it was another thing and we had no experience or knowledge of where to begin. So we decided it was just a great idea in our heads and nothing more. After all, how many people would actually be interested in what we had to offer?
The turning point for us was the Gorkha earthquake, over 2200 lost their homes and thousands more lost their lives. We were lucky not to be near the Kathmandu Valley, which suffered the most damage. Needless to say that moment changed something in everyone there at the time. The three of us found a new reason to push on with our idea.
We decided to just ask everyone else their thoughts about a our big idea. Finally, after weeks of emailing friends and family, we found the responses filled with people who were excited to know more, fully supportive of the concept, and some even challenged us to do it. With nothing but a potentially biased survey (friends & family) we decided to jump in. The first step was connecting with someone with business savvy. Once again we reached out to our personal network and Naoko's mom put us in contact with one of her friends. What happened next was totally awesome - her mom and friend were going to visit us in Nepal. Talk about encouragement. Well to be honest, there was a holiday coming up so they decided to take a few days off and visit. Still awesome nonetheless!
Meeting Naoko's mom and Mrs. Igawa was a lot of fun. Mrs. Igawa helped us immensely with her knowledge and experience in business. She suggested that we try to start with what we knew and had access to and then grow from there. While Nepal certainly had a variety of rare tea leaves to choose from, partnering with locals might be easier if we started in our own countries. This ruled me out completely because America doesn't have any rare teas that I know of. This left Japan and India - two places with a history and culture rooted in tea. In the weeks to come we would receive different packages from Japan and India of various kinds of tea, it was heaven to say the least. We had narrowed it down to four types: Darjeeling white tea, Matcha green tea, organic Deha green tea (don't ask how we got this), and Guricha. If you don't know anything about tea beyond Lipton and Red Rose, just know that these are some of the rarest and seldom exported kinds of tea. Think of them as bottles of fine wine. We chose matcha for its history, culture and health benefits.
Fast-forward to today, and our vision of building a brand may soon become a reality. We plan to launch in a few weeks (in the USA first) and have already begun to receive interest and feedback from many people on our wait list. It's comforting to know that all those eagerly signing up and awaiting our launch are behind us 100% and believe in us. Sure, it's all overwhelming but we're taking our time because there is absolutely no pressure and even if we fail, we will still be able to watch the sunrise and live for another day. That's the beauty of life – everyday is a new day because change happens.
Nepal will always be special to me because the culture and people saved my life and gave me purpose. I ate rich foods, discovered the many varieties of tea and did yoga for the first time. My diet and lifestyle were simple. Just good, wholesome, regular eating. This, along yoga and meditation definitely improved my life and helped me to lose weight (67.3lbs). Who would have thought right? I guess that is to be expected when you live in the birthplace of Guatama Buddha.
In 2014 I reached an extremely low point in my life where I woke up, looked in the mirror and didn't like what I saw. My life was hectic, I had a stressful job and I weighed about 248lbs. As I stood there, I contemplated three options: accept this as my life and continue living this way, make a change and start to live 'my' life, or commit suicide. Since I'm posting this then you know I was strong enough to forgo the last option. Instead I decided it was time for a change. Getting out from under my stressful job was the first step and it was scary. The feeling of not having a steady paycheck or job security made me question the decision. Then I thought about how crazy that sounded. We aren't born to work in cubicle and then die, that's absurd. I knew I needed to make a change to better myself but didn't know how. So I shared my story with my best friend who gave me the idea of volunteering. Through his network I was introduced to a volunteer group and before I knew it I was headed for Nepal.
Nepalese people are some of the nicest I have ever met and the experience was life changing to say the least. Two people I will never forget are Naoko and Surbhi, who are now like my sisters. Like me, they were also on their own personal self-searching paths. We shared many moments together and enjoyed as much of Nepal as we could. From local festivals to trips to the temple, we became a part of the local culture. One afternoon, after talking about our own cultures with a group of students, we went to a local shop for tea. Reflecting on our class discussion, we realized just how disconnected the connected world is. In each of our countries there are a large number of people who are "always on". They work all day behind screens, carry a smartphone everywhere, and even at night the last thing they see is a TV or phone screen. It's as if people forget how to actually appreciate life or enjoy the moment. In addition they struggle with weight or health issues as a result of stress or poor health habits. We felt fortunate in that moment for being able to change our own lives and do what many wish for almost everyday: to change and be free from a hectic lifestyle.
We thought about what it would be like to share our experiences with friends and family back home. How great it would be to just put all of this into a box and give it to those people that were stressed, too busy missing the present moment and looking for a solution to live healthier. That's when Surbhi took a sip from her cup and joked that people should just drink more tea. Her suggestion resonated with us. We had been in Nepal for five months and almost every day we did two things: drank tea and practiced yoga. So we decided to combine the two to promote a better lifestyle. The idea sounded good but doing it was another thing and we had no experience or knowledge of where to begin. So we decided it was just a great idea in our heads and nothing more. After all, how many people would actually be interested in what we had to offer?
The turning point for us was the Gorkha earthquake, over 2200 lost their homes and thousands more lost their lives. We were lucky not to be near the Kathmandu Valley, which suffered the most damage. Needless to say that moment changed something in everyone there at the time. The three of us found a new reason to push on with our idea.
We decided to just ask everyone else their thoughts about a our big idea. Finally, after weeks of emailing friends and family, we found the responses filled with people who were excited to know more, fully supportive of the concept, and some even challenged us to do it. With nothing but a potentially biased survey (friends & family) we decided to jump in. The first step was connecting with someone with business savvy. Once again we reached out to our personal network and Naoko's mom put us in contact with one of her friends. What happened next was totally awesome - her mom and friend were going to visit us in Nepal. Talk about encouragement. Well to be honest, there was a holiday coming up so they decided to take a few days off and visit. Still awesome nonetheless!
Meeting Naoko's mom and Mrs. Igawa was a lot of fun. Mrs. Igawa helped us immensely with her knowledge and experience in business. She suggested that we try to start with what we knew and had access to and then grow from there. While Nepal certainly had a variety of rare tea leaves to choose from, partnering with locals might be easier if we started in our own countries. This ruled me out completely because America doesn't have any rare teas that I know of. This left Japan and India - two places with a history and culture rooted in tea. In the weeks to come we would receive different packages from Japan and India of various kinds of tea, it was heaven to say the least. We had narrowed it down to four types: Darjeeling white tea, Matcha green tea, organic Deha green tea (don't ask how we got this), and Guricha. If you don't know anything about tea beyond Lipton and Red Rose, just know that these are some of the rarest and seldom exported kinds of tea. Think of them as bottles of fine wine. We chose matcha for its history, culture and health benefits.
Fast-forward to today, and our vision of building a brand may soon become a reality. We plan to launch in a few weeks (in the USA first) and have already begun to receive interest and feedback from many people on our wait list. It's comforting to know that all those eagerly signing up and awaiting our launch are behind us 100% and believe in us. Sure, it's all overwhelming but we're taking our time because there is absolutely no pressure and even if we fail, we will still be able to watch the sunrise and live for another day. That's the beauty of life – everyday is a new day because change happens.
Nepal will always be special to me because the culture and people saved my life and gave me purpose. I ate rich foods, discovered the many varieties of tea and did yoga for the first time. My diet and lifestyle were simple. Just good, wholesome, regular eating. This, along yoga and meditation definitely improved my life and helped me to lose weight (67.3lbs). Who would have thought right? I guess that is to be expected when you live in the birthplace of Guatama Buddha.