The Butterfly Effect

Today, I introduce you to my new co-host for the next three episodes, Sydney! Together, we take you on a journey through some of our most unforgettable travel experiences, where the unexpected becomes the highlights. Like our chance encounter in a café that turned us from strangers to great friends.

We discuss the butterfly effect and how small actions can lead to significant changes. We touch on the relationship between science and magic, emphasizing that both can coexist and enhance our understanding of the world. Join us as we share stories that celebrate the magic of travel and the connections we make along the way.

Highlights:

- A journey of self-discovery and magic. 

- The importance of being open to new experiences. 

- Traveling fosters deep connections with others. 

- Finding balance between travel and home life is essential. 

- Magic can be found in everyday moments. 

- The butterfly effect symbolizes the interconnectedness of experiences. 

- Science and magic can coexist harmoniously. 

- Embracing one's essence is key to happiness. 

- Creating a supportive community enhances personal growth.

This episode was produced by six-two.studio

____

Fairy Tea is a deeply personal podcast where I share the raw, honest messiness of life—exploring how to break free from societal expectations and follow the heart’s calling. Blending storytelling, spirituality, folklore, and self-discovery, Fairy Tea is both magical and real, whimsical yet grounded. It’s a space to embrace uncertainty, face challenges without fear, and stay curious about the possibilities ahead. Through my own experiences, I invite listeners to see that a new way of living is possible—one that is intuitive, soulful, and uniquely their own.

Instagram: @fairytea.podcast or @akayourfairygodmother

Email: akayourfairygodmother@gmail.com

Transcript

Sophie (00:00.364) Welcome to Fairy Tea, where we sip on the thorough wisdom of the fairy realm and uncover its ancient secrets for healing, pleasure and rest. I'm your host Sophie, here to sprinkle a little enchantment into your everyday life. Think of this as one great unfolding experiment. An invitation to dance with magic, trust the unseen and let curiosity lead the way.

Sophie (00:36.238) Hello everybody, welcome back to Fairy Tea. This is already the fifth episode and it feels kind of crazy. I'm still kind of processing that this podcast actually came to life. It was living inside of me for such a long time and now that I'm recording this, the first two episodes have launched and I'm...

I've been getting such sweet and genuine and loving feedback. And I think what's most interesting to me is that when I first envisioned this podcast, I wanted it to be as raw as possible. I wanted it to be as much of a work in progress as it can possibly be. But then again, those things are really hard to like actually translate them in the sense that like,

Yeah, you can say all these things, but does it actually feel like that is a whole other level that you only have limited control over? So I'm actually really happy because I think that genuinely what came through, what came out, also by what I've heard from people mirroring things back to me. And it's this...

I have so much love for this project because it's still so tiny and sweet and vulnerable and it's really a baby podcast, but it's also, I like that it's a baby podcast. So that's where I am right now. I'm currently not in Columbia. I'm actually in the United States, which is a crazy story how I came here that I'm gonna get more into as we go. yeah, right now I'm in...

Pittsburgh with a really good friend of mine. And we actually have like a little shift of like style in terms of this podcast because for the next three episodes, well, this one included, I'm going to have a co-host, my dear friend, Sydney. And I'm so excited to have her here. I'm so excited to like converse with her on, on, on subjects that are

Sophie (02:59.862) so dear to my heart, but I know also dear to her and dear to the both of us and our friendship. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It's also going to be a lot of fun to listen to it, I hope. So as I told you in the previous episodes, I want to play around with this podcast as much as possible. I want this podcast to be a vessel for what's going on, a medium. And I like it so much because it's so open and so versatile.

And I just want to play around with it and have fun with it see what happens. So, hi Sydney.

Sydney hello, am I on now?

Sophie Yeah, you're on now. I'm just going to introduce you real quickly because I mean, it's an honor to have you here. I couldn't be more blessed.

Sydney (03:45.902) You know, we're both excited about this one.

Sophie Yeah. I do. Actually, it's such a nice feeling. Sydney and I met about three months, no, four months ago.

Yeah, end of March for sure. Yeah, we're in early July, mid July.

Now we're in mid July. We met four months ago in Colombia. Sydney was traveling Colombia. As you guys know, I lived in Colombia up until recently. I mean, I still kind of have my place there. Long story short. I lived there. She was traveling through. We met at a cafe. I went to a cafe with two friends of mine and she was sitting at the next table by herself. I noticed her, but I didn't really, you know, didn't think much of it.

I was with my friends, my friends and I tried to take some selfies and then she offered to take the selfies for us. And that's kind of like how we started talking. like, I mean, the story is way longer, but essentially we went for two coffees and one dinner. Then we traveled for like five days to like a town nearby, like a three hour trip away from where I used to live. And that's where we decided we were going to go on a road trip together on a really

Sydney (05:00.078) And it sounds crazy and I get why it a little bit is but especially in the travel mind of it's just very normal when you're hopping from place to place to be like oh well this person is going the same direction as me so I'm going to travel with them. I was going down south at the time anyway and so it just so happened that you were able to join me for part of that.

Yeah, yeah, it's almost like people that travel have like their own language in a sense or like

Well, it's a subculture for sure. And it's a really weird one and it's one that people don't really know exists until you're in it. But it's things like that that are so, so weird. And like even now I feel like I feel like both of us really cut the small talk with a lot of people. It's not strange for us to get close to people very fast. And that's definitely the traveler in us of if you're in every place for four days, then the people that you're with for those four days are your new best friends for those days.

I agree, it also like to me at least, I don't know how it is about you, but to me at least it has so much to do with how a person feels or how a person's energy feels. It's not so much about what they say or what they do or who they are. It's a lot about how they feel.

Yeah, I'd agree. Well, I think especially when you're traveling on your own and you're meeting people who also travel on their own, everyone's only doing whatever they want to do. Yeah. In order to do something with another person, you both have to want to do the same

Sophie (06:19.138) The same thing. That's touches on such an important subject that I carried with me for such a long time. we've been talking about this, like the thing about the win-wins. I genuinely love a good win-win when people are aligned on something and then their energy merges and something great comes out of it.

Yeah, which is totally what we have here and what we've been doing.

totally what we have here. But like, I think that is something that very naturally happens between people that travel and also because they're like people that travel solo especially, they're like so independent that it only that like the merging only happens when really both parts are aligned, you know? Yeah, and that's I think is a very, it's a very beautiful thing. So Sydney is

for sure.

Sophie (07:11.0) from the United States, that's why we are in the United States.

From Chicago, suburb north of the city. I have to clarify that. People get very particular about Chicago. That's funny. I am 24, just turned 24. I graduated college back in 2023 and then I traveled for about eight months, worked for about a year, knew I just wanted to travel again. And then went to South America for about four months and that's where I met Sophie and that takes us back pretty much to where we are now. Came back home, worked for a month.

And here we are. But I can talk more about the mindset I was in when we met. We can get into that later, whatever you want.

Yeah, I just, the only thing I want to add to that is like Sydney is 100 % one of the coolest people I've ever met in my entire life. For sure. I, like I've been traveling now. We're almost, we're five weeks into a trip. We have one more week left. Yeah, Yeah. But she, Ozmi like very few people do. She has a spark in her eyes and like,

I'll take the compliment.

Sydney (08:09.71) a week really. It's kind of crazy.

Sophie (08:21.198) She's just so fierce and sweet and cool all at the same time. And like, I really like the way you approach life. It's so cool to spend so much time with you and to do this with you. Because honestly, when I met you, this project was so much like it was only living within me. You know, there was nothing that was like solidified in the three years. And

Thank you.

Sydney (08:48.345) yet.

I know you think it's crazy that I give you so much credit, like I really... Yeah, I know it is and it isn't because I feel like you came in at the exact right moment where I needed someone to kind of like be able to share my wild thoughts and not feel too crazy about it. And I think it really like, I feel like your energy at the time kind of like catalyzed a lot of what's going on right now.

It is, first of all.

Sophie (09:20.974) Even though it was already there, but you kind of like, your curiosity, you kind of like also like brought it out of me, out of like, I could actually speak it to life. I think, yeah, I do. I do think that because I was able to like actually speak my mind or speak my heart more so, hearing my own voice kind of like made me understand the project better and made me more confident.

Interesting.

in the preceding steps.

Got it. So where were you when we met? You had all these ideas. You had these plans. You already had this person who's making the podcast. You already had your business ideas, all your projects. Whenever I ask you what you do for work, you're like, it's complicated.

Yeah.

Sophie (10:04.661) Exactly.

Sophie (10:10.875) I still have that. I still get a little nervous when people ask me what I do for a living because it's definitely not very conventional.

This is also part of it. think as somebody who started traveling young and who just loves it with all your heart, whenever I meet someone who's a little bit older than me and does clearly a lot, my first question is, do do for work? Because that sounds like a great life and I to be able to figure out how to pull that in a way that's not just work, quit, travel, work, quit, travel.

And you will, I have no doubt. If anybody will, it's you.

thanks, my answers are not. They've been tough, but that's where I was when we met about when I was really trying to figure out before every trip pretty much I make up something about how it's my last trip. When I was gone the first time in Asia mostly I was like yeah like I have these eight months and then I'll be back and then I'll start my life and then I'll just be working forever and then I got back I was like well that's clearly not the case. And then South America came about it just happened it was like

What else am going to do? Obviously, except for leave for another four months. So I left for that trip and again, I was like, but it's my last trip. I promised like this time it's going to be my last one. And you're there and it's like, it really, to me, it's like the best. It's so addictive in so many ways. And it makes me upset about that in some ways too. It's just the highs are so high and the lows are so low where it's like, you're just doing the coolest things ever with people you just met like all the freaking time. It's great. It's like the most fun ever.

Sydney (11:39.414) You're learning so much and it's just so cool. It's just cool. But I left for that trip and I knew that I had pressure from people back home to get a real job and to grow up. And I knew that I wanted to do that too. I wanted just a source of income that I don't have to quit every time I want to leave. So I had that back home. I had a job that I quit to go travel to. It's not in the culture really in America at all to travel for a long period of time like this. And so my parents were faced with

questions, I kind of had a bunch of questions too, like what are you really doing, especially in the town that I grew up in, it like, you should be getting a job, like you shouldn't be able to do this like you are. I had a massive crush on a girl who's now my girlfriend. But I was leaving with that too, and just the knowledge of knowing that if I stayed, then we probably would have started dating a whole lot sooner than we actually did, which it all worked out, it's working out now. But just that was in my head going into it too, and so this whole trip was really me trying to

figure out and basically reckon with like my favorite thing in the world, which is just traveling and like being in every place for a couple of days at a time and just exploring and doing things that I deem to be like actually the most fun thing in the world and what just gives me so much life and so much happiness and just makes me so happy. I do feel like I'm one of the happiest people I know and it's because I do things that make me happy objectively. And then trying to figure out how to take that extreme in which I live with my fun and my happiness and get it into a form that makes sense for life at home.

And travelers are great and I love meeting all of them, including you, but they're not really great at that balance. And you meet a lot of people who just tell you to forget about life at home or they just really undervalue, I think, the necessity that that moderation really takes with it. But I was there and everyone kept telling me, they're like, don't dim your light. Like you just have this like wildness and like you just need to like find a way almost to like get, not wildness, but like they're like, you just have like,

a light obviously that comes from only doing the things that you want to do and give you life all the freaking time, which is all I had done. So of course I have that. But everyone was telling me not to lose that and to just try to find a job that I can have that with. And I was like, yeah, right. Like, easier said than done, first of all. Second of all, how like, that ever going to work? And that was kind of the mentality that I met you in was trying to just...

Sydney (14:03.564) I had these really two big things in my head of life at home that I loved and that I wanted to get back to. And this one thing that I also love so much and trying to figure out how to strike a balance with them or figure out if it's even possible. And I think you said a lot of similar things to other people, but for some reason when you said them, things started to make a little bit more sense and it started to feel like maybe I can not necessarily have my cake and eat it too, but kind of figure out a balance between these two worlds that works for me.

Yeah, I think we or I understood after a long journey of like struggling through and I mean, I talked about this on this podcast before. I really understood that there is no way of like eradicating certain aspects of you. I mean, it sounds so easy, right? To be like, well, there's no point in like trying to get rid of certain aspects that make who you are.

but it's so much easier said than done. And I think I've been on this journey so much and like what I was trying to convey to you was really just try to find the way to make like stay curious and stay flexible and kind of like become creative with your life so you can make seemingly non-matching or non-compatible

Mm-hmm.

Sophie (15:27.7) aspects of you, like try to make a way to make them fit.

But yeah, but that's what drew me to you initially, which is interesting, just because I feel like you were coming in with such a different mindset that also complemented in so much of the same way. But as far as like meeting a random person in a cafe goes and then traveling with them in a different country months later go, like it's just strange. doesn't happen with everyone.

Yeah, no, for sure. I think we met in a very serendipitous... It just made sense. It made sense for the both of us out of completely different reasons. And I was very drawn to your energy and I think vice versa. this is just, yeah, was beautiful. It was fun. was so effortless. It still still is fun, which is also so cool.

way. It just made sense.

Sydney (16:16.376) It was fun.

Sophie (16:22.05) And we were both like, also kind of like found, I think, even though like our age difference is seven years and we're in different phases of our lives. Well, I mean, relatively a little bit. We're in different life phases. We grew up in different on different continents. Like you grew up in the US. I grew up in Europe, but

Are we?

Sydney (16:38.382) Maybe.

Sophie (16:50.154) Throughout our conversations, think over and over again, we discovered that we have so much in common also. We're like very different. think our energies are different. We move different. We have different paces, but we also have so much in common. But almost, and we talked about this, and I, almost like this sense of like being two sides of the same coin.

Yeah, it's really interesting because I do think, I think probably our biggest similarity or where the most similarities lie is the way that we see the world.

Can you elaborate on that?

in a minute. But I think that we arrived there from two completely opposite points of view. And so we've kind of met in this weird little middle ground. then because I've told you and I feel like there's people in the past where it's like, there's definitely people from my childhood, like growing up or just friends that you have where you have a lot of things in common, but like the things that you have in common, like you just have like a little bit in common, you know.

And I feel like we don't have a lot in common, the things that we have in common, we really, really have them in common. Which I just think obviously is if you see the world similar ways, then there's just similarities that come from that that makes sense. And then back to this whole two sides of the same coin, like we really took our own separate walks to get there, which is really interesting to kind of see how we met in the middle.

Sophie (18:06.732) for sure.

Sophie (18:17.12) Yeah, I agree. I almost look at you. I mean, that also is due to the age gap, but like, I almost look at you and I'm like, if some aspects of my life would have turned out differently, I would be you. But because my life took like its turns, am completely not you. I'm me, right? But like, it's almost this kind of like, okay, so because I think nowadays or

Yeah.

Sophie (18:45.388) what we're talking about is like, we have this like insatiable hunger for not happiness, like wonder.

You think? Yeah. I say I'm a fun, focused girl. That's my like.

You are a fun-focused girl, I feel like you're not like some... I feel like there are people that are like fun-focused, but they bypass a lot of like the heavy stuff and I don't think you do that. I think you're fully aware of the heavy stuff and you incorporate that and you take it as a necessary part of everything because that's what it is. But we both have this insatiable hunger for wonder and I think we're both inherently optimistic people.

For sure. know, we're both like, yeah, life has so much in store for us. we believe that wholeheartedly. Yeah, it's sick. And so from my perspective, and correct me if I'm wrong, right? I'm never going to say what your life is, but that's how I perceive you and I. I really had to fight a nasty fight to get here. Like there were times where... Coming in.

Hehehe.

Sydney (19:52.494) I got your shirt. Sorry, that was a bad time laugh. You had to fight a lot.

No, no, no, worries. It was, it was brutal. It was dire. It was dark at times. Like I feel like I went through hell and back to get here, which is also in part why I appreciate where I am right now so damn freaking much. Like I feel like I'm the luckiest duck in this world. Yeah. Because I've seen so much shit. I've seen so much.

Not even like, you know, in terms of like things that happened, but things that I felt, things that I went through. And like there were times where I, where nothing on this world meant anything, nothing, literally nothing. Like I could talk the sense out of the meaning out of everything. And it took me such a long time to understand if you can talk out the meaning of everything, if that, if you're capable of doing that, you're also capable of doing

The other side, that is talking the sense into everything. And I think that's where I am today very much. But it took me a long time to get here. And when I see you and what I perceive from you and how you tell me how you went through life up until now, I think you had a way of like always protecting this part of you. Like you, I'm not saying it was easy, like not at all. I think you went through and are continuously like we all are on

Like life is inherently, you know, comes with difficulties, comes with challenges and you have them as much as I have them. But I feel like you never abandoned that side of you. I did. I very much abandoned that side of mine.

Sydney (21:38.996) Yeah, and I'd agree with a lot of that to an extent for sure. I do think my life has largely been easy. Like obviously not everything is smooth sailing. Obviously everyone has like struggles and things that happen, but overall vastly. I've been so, so lucky in so many ways, but I think the biggest thing for me at least, and there's been times like it's not that I used to, I've definitely been more

not pragmatic, but more like practical in a lot of ways. And I used to be like, it's a sunset, like it happens every night. Like, why are you even watching it? Like, come on. Which today on the phone, someone sent me a photo of a sunset to try to get me to come to a place. I was like, you know, they happen everywhere, right? The sunsets everywhere you are. But I think the one thing that I never really, or at least haven't yet is just kind of the compromise. Like I was never, I was

blessed or cursed enough to learn from a very young age that the world is so big and so pretty and I just know that I want to be in it and I want to be having fun and I want to be doing things that make me happy and meeting people that make me happy and just doing cool things and it's not I haven't had to like I haven't had a lot of crazy challenges that have come onto my plate but I've tried to broaden my world in a sense of talk to a lot of people and experience a lot of things and just really

I don't know, I feel like I know enough to understand the gravity of certain things and not necessarily even because obviously I didn't experience them, but it's not like, I think with exposing yourself to groups of people that are unlike people that you grew up with, especially for me, I grew up in a very not diverse town. So all my high school friends, pretty much everyone who I was raised around is just like me pretty much in every way down to.

religion, race, socioeconomic status, married parents. I was thinking about this the other day. I'm like, we're all the oldest, like down to that. Like there's not any ounce of diversity among that group of people really anywhere. And obviously like things vary and shift and you know, but let's call a spade a spade. Like, so for me, I had to make a conscious effort really to broaden my world. And I feel like I did to an extent, obviously it could be bigger and broader always. And I'm always looking to kind of do that.

Sydney (24:05.122) But in not going through a lot of personal struggle myself, I feel like I've been able to listen and even just working. I used to work in hospice. I still might. So I have just heard a lot of lives were accounted. And of course, hearing a life recounted makes sense in ways that hearing a life lived can't. It just gives a perspective of talking from the past. Yeah. And so feel like I've talked to enough people to kind of understand how big the world is in terms of

joy and pain and good and bad and just kind of the little pockets that exist that aren't necessarily seen every day. That said, again, I haven't done a lot of it myself, but I've tried to make it broader that way. I lost, I don't even know what I'm trying to say here, but.

No, I think it makes sense. I think you're downplaying yourself heavily, giving yourself way too little credit. It's not just, yeah, you know, I have an easy life and I'm making, I'm having fun. I think what you're doing is inherently courageous. It takes a courageous person to do it. You value and you fight for your happiness in like very subtle ways, but you do.

Thanks.

Sophie (25:17.966) every day. And it's a beautiful thing. And I think it's very inspiring. It's very inspiring to live next to you and to see you grow about life.

Thank you.

Sydney (25:32.216) Feelings mutual. But yeah, so one thing that you said that did, that has kind of stuck in my mind, is that what we were talking about, how I don't want to should be a good enough reason for anything. And I was like, yeah, you're right. But I think, because I always say I don't have choices and I mean that to an extent. And I really do feel that in a lot of ways. I feel like things just kind of happen and I just kind of do them. But I also firmly think that we don't necessarily, what I mean by that and what

I believe in terms of that is that we just don't have a choice in what we want. And you've said this and I agree wholeheartedly is like, you can't really choose what you want, but you can choose if you're going to pursue what you want or find a way at least to implement it into a life that involves a lot of different things than that you want. And so I think the one thing that I've always been able to do for better or worse has been know what's going to make me happy.

Yeah.

Sydney (26:30.222) and then take the steps to do so. So I think a lot of people know and not a lot of people necessarily take those steps. I agree. And then I think not everyone knows also. Some people need to do a little bit of exploring before they can actually find things that fill them with life and make them as happy as we are driving down the road.

Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. And I think that, you know, then that way we kind of circle back to to the name of this this episode also, the butterfly effect. It's like finding meaning also in in the smallest things. think you and I both have a way of doing that very naturally, very effortlessly, very like.

English professors out here, where we're little things into the main idea.

Yeah. And I think you and I both have like an approach to life that's kind of like least resistance oriented in the sense that like I have this vision or this picture of me and you have it completely different one, which I want you to explain. But like mine is I always think of myself or that's something that always helps me. I think of myself as sitting in a little boat on a river and

I want to hear yours.

Sophie (27:48.8) The river is kind of for me the metaphor for life. And the river just flows. The river flows. There's no, cannot, like, I cannot do anything that changes the river. Like I can't change the course of the river. I can't change the velocity of the river. Sometimes it's slow. Sometimes it's fast. Sometimes it's curvy. Sometimes it's straight. Like I can't do anything. If I try to make the river go a different way, I'm going to inevitably... can't go up the river. I can't go up the river.

Like I'm gonna inevitably suffer. I'm gonna suffer because I'm gonna hit resistance, I'm gonna get all like, you know, curled up, I'm gonna... I'm just gonna hit a lot of difficulties. By doing that, it's not gonna get me anywhere. If I try to control the river, the river is gonna humble me, you know? But what I

You just want to tip your boat over.

Yeah.

Sophie (28:47.144) very much think I can do is like be where I am in my boat and try to like ride my boat as smoothly as I can. I can, I have like, I have control and I have impact on how my like where on the river my boat is, how I like, how do you say that? Like how I maneuver, how I steer my boat. I have an influence on where I look.

Like, do I look where I'm going or do I look where I came from? If I look where I came from, I'm gonna, I'm, the river is gonna do like all kinds of things to me. But if I look where I'm going without having to be there before I'm actually there, which is a lot like, it's a lot of like mindfulness practice. it's, sure. It's not easy, but like if I just see, like if I have a vision of where I'm going, I can make it as smooth.

as I can possibly do, which is not to say that it's never going to be hard. It is not to say that the waters are going to be, you know, crazy or like there's going to be a waterfall. All kinds of things can happen still, but I can make the ride a whole lot more enjoyable. And that kind of like for me is the metaphor that I always try to come back to when I, when I freak out, when I, when I have like this feeling of loss of control and

Yeah.

Sophie (30:13.642) I know if I embody this wholeheartedly, like it also feels the best. And I have a lot of like little things that help me doing this, right? It's like the butterfly thing is one thing. So I have this butterfly thing where I notice butterflies everywhere. Like I see them all the time, always on people and in tattoos or on clothes or in pictures or in walls, on cars, like they're.

Everywhere.

They are. and they always like, I give the meaning in the sense that whenever I see a butterfly, I immediately feel like I'm on the right path. And I don't care whether that's a higher truth or not. I don't need anybody to come in and be like, but that is just, you know, in your brain. Yeah, it might be. It doesn't matter. just it makes me happy.

Yeah, well as far as that goes, as far as a higher truth is like being in your brain, I just think that we all, you live in the world that you see. Yeah. And if you see magic everywhere, the world that you live in all of a sudden is a magical world. And this, the same thing goes for religion. I think if you live with the fear of God, then the fear of God is like real in your world. Yeah. This goes for like people who are just so hard on science. Like this goes for anything. It's like you act and you behave in terms of your...

Exactly.

Sydney (31:36.946) environment and if you perceive in an environment that's full of magic and you act as though you're in a magical world and then you kind of make that world happen just by what your focus goes on and what you see and what just becomes real because if you're looking for signs everywhere, signs are going to come up everywhere and that's not that they're not real. That's just what you see because that's the world that you live in and that's no more or any that's not any more real or any less real than somebody who lives life with God taking those roles you give to magic or that's not any more less real.

than anyone who gives that to science or anything like that.

Exactly, exactly. And I think that's where when I told you this, when I told you about the butterflies, like I was not yet that like sure of what I was doing as I am today. So I was kind of like, my God, is she going to think I'm a freak? And I think I was so

I I

Which I am, but I was so happy that we could bond over this. That you perfectly understood without me having to explain really what my approach to it was. I think that's our only goal. And this probably sounds crazy to so many people, but our only goal for this road trip was to encounter magic. We had no...

Sophie (33:03.362) We had no specific place that we wanted to visit. We were not like, we have to see this, this, and this. We had nothing. We were just like, we want to see magic. And ideally, we would find some people that share their magic with us. my God, we found so much magic everywhere because we are 100 % sure that it exists. So we see it everywhere.

And have we found magic?

everywhere.

Sydney (33:29.294) Mm-hmm. It is fun to think about it that way and back to your little river thing because I think I think about things in a very similar way but I always look for the feeling of being both exactly where I meant to be and exactly where I want to be and when those two places I guess like states of mind exists in lineup at the same time that's when I just feel like I'm the most in alignment and it's not more abstract it's more just like I don't know it's almost like when you're tuning a

and it's written, it's like right on the line, like it's just in tune, it's in line. Like it's in, I think that so many energies are just in harmony with one another and that there's not a lot of necessarily like spiritual significance behind any of like what's where or that there's not a lot of like thought involved. But more in the terms of the fact like evolution doesn't care if you're comfortable, it just cares if you're alive. I think energy just like vibrates and the frequencies are where they are. I agree.

and certain things just match and certain things just feel right. And no one really has put me onto this higher path or this other path necessarily. when I'm in a place where I feel right, that's just where the energy's concentrated and meant to be. And I really do feel like I'm just kind of along for the ride because I've unfortunately or fortunately, sometimes it feels unfortunate, made a choice to follow that feeling and that craving to just be all the time where I want to be and where I'm meant to be.

And I think it's beautiful and I think brave. It's so brave and it's so cool. it's, can you, do you want to elaborate on how like the little story behind it, like when the things like align with your grandpa? Cause I love that story so much.

It makes me

Sydney (35:08.696) Hehehe.

There's a little story that I use that I feel like kind of works in here. And it really is just like a literal way to kind of describe the abstract of how I feel like things happen in my brain. But me and my brother would play Connect Forward with my grandpa so much growing up. Like so much. He really taught us well. To this day, we're both really good. Even though I beat my brother on our last time that we played. But I'm not supposed to bring that up because he thinks that he won. I definitely won. He won't it. Anyway.

I digress. My grandpa, one tip to both of us would always be when your pieces are close together and towards the middle, he'd say opportunities just have like a funny way of coming up. For me, like, and in general, like that can mean so many things. So just like keeping your pieces kind of close together and towards the middle. Cause when you're just putting all your energy and all your focus towards something and all your actions towards something that they're going to overlap and they're going to interconnect and they're going to really build in a way that's way cooler than anything that you could have thought of to start.

And I thought about that and then I looked at my life at that time when I first like put the two and two with one another. And I was like, wow, my pieces are all over the goddamn place. Like I have too many broad career interests to ever focus on like one precise path that's out the window. I'm like even geographically I'm from Chicago. I went to school in California and I've traveled God knows where like all these places I have friends everywhere. Like there was not even like a geographical keep your pieces close together and towards the middle.

I was like friend wise, like they're so different. I've just met like a huge variety of people. Like everywhere I looked, was like, my pieces are not close to one another and they're certainly not towards any sort of a middle in any way. But then I kind of reframed it and I was like, yeah, we need a reframe. Because it's not that this ideology doesn't work. It's just that the world that I was seeing and living in wasn't really working with that one. But I am the only

Sophie (36:54.926) Need a reframe. Yeah.

Sydney (37:08.482) consistency really in my life thus far with just all the random things that I've done which isn't really that much but it's just a random combo of things and people that I've met and things that I've done. I used to when I travel every night ends I would say with a giggle with myself because only I understand how funny everything is because only I understand the context of everything that's happening and like random shit happens I'm like well you can only laugh about that with yourself really.

And Sydney has like a very contagious giggle. I even feel like I'm starting to imitate it because it's just so, it's like her giggle genuinely just makes me happy. that's so sweet. Thank you.

I'm a giggler sometimes. Things are so funny, how can you not be?

They are. Sometimes she just giggles out of nothing. Nothing obvious is happening and she just starts giggling and it genuinely makes your day better. Just listening to her giggle.

I like zoom out. I like zoom out and like look at us. what the? I'm with some random Swiss girl. in Pittsburgh right now.

Sophie (38:06.158) We're not doing anything by the way, we're just in his Airbnb for four days to Yeah, it's beautiful

We're the couch with some Arabian.

I'm freaking pretty, in Pittsburgh. Anyway, Pittsburgh's fine. But then I realized the one consistency really is myself and what feels right for me. And so for me, keeping my pieces close together and towards the middle is much more dynamic, it's much more loose. And it really just follows where I feel like I am at a certain time. And so when I just stay so true to what I want, how I feel like I'm going to thrive the most, if that makes sense.

and is really where my energy's at, then that is when things have a funny opportunity of coming up. And that was all the trips I've done. That is this trip that was meeting you, that's meeting anyone who's become really important in my life. And then just keeping those people and those things that you care about around and putting energy towards what really makes you happy.

sure. And I think, yeah, I love that story. And I can relate to this so much. And I think it also like, like I said, we both have like very different metaphors to like, but I think they're, they're essentially they're, they're equaling up to, to the same thing. Yeah, they just keep going. And sometimes it's a rough patch, but then you like, you center yourself again, and you find it again. And I think

Sydney (39:11.18) Yeah, feel like that might make more sense.

Sophie (39:27.726) We probably have to wrap this up at some point because we've been talking for a while now, but let's just talk a little bit more about what magic means to us. Like we said, we wanted to set out on this trip. The only goal was to find magic.

I got a text from a friend the other day. That was, one of my friend's name is Betsy and my one friend, another friend texted me and said, Betsy said, when you say you're looking for magic, you mean it in more of a metaphorical way. I was like, what do you think? You think we were walking around here with a little magnifying glass and shovel digging up fairies? I was like, yeah, I thought we were all on that same page. But magic to you, you start, Mrs. Godmother.

Magic to me is, I don't even have like a concrete definition of what magic is. think I sometimes struggle to like put into words what I feel because I feel so much. And I think it's more of a feeling. I think magic to me is when I feel most alive and that can be anything. That can be a conversation, that can be strange synchronicities.

like I find meaning in the most mundane things, a beautiful sunrise, beautiful sunset, more sunset than sunrise, I'm usually asleep for sunrise. But beauty in general, like flowers, animals, like whenever I notice beauty for me, that is magic. And I think, I mean, I could elaborate so much on this because this is like an ongoing.

You might as well just keep turning on.

Sophie (41:08.236) Yeah, I think this is such an important topic for me because you guys know I say about myself that I'm a fairy and I obviously don't mean I have like actual fairy wings because clearly I don't have them yet. But like there is an essence within me that is magical and that wants to come out and I want to be here and that wants to be acknowledged. And I think we all have that essence. And I think and we've talked about this, you and I like this

crazy idea that once something can be scientifically explained, it just automatically ceases to be magical. That to me is the wildest thought and the weirdest propaganda I've ever heard because, and I'd like to think that all my nerdiest scientists would agree with me. By the way, I love

was going to say.

Sophie (42:05.388) nerdy scientists, like this is the coolest thing ever. If you're so like immersed and in love with what you're studying and then like go so deep into it, I think it's the coolest thing ever. And I think you guys probably like, I mean, I'm...

Well, we were talking about this the other day that, well, first of all, like she was saying, like once anything can be explained with science, it's no longer seen as magical. Which is to me crazy and to you also crazy. And then you zoom out of that a little bit and you think about just the science that really like governs the world that we live in and just the way that math works, the way that like science works, the way that one plus one is always two, like the way that that

has kind of been like a benchmark for the creation of pretty much everything down to life, down to cells, down to mountains, like physics, chemistry, like that can all be explained in math and science. And even just the harmony of how that works with one another is crazy. Like that is magic. That's harmony. And yes, it's science, but science is magic. Yeah. It's not that they're like two completely separate entities. then we've even zoomed farther out and we've been like, which is where you are going now is like.

When you get to a certain level of science, when you get to like metaphysics and after that, the science that neither of us could ever do to save our lives. Science starts to take on much more of a almost like otherworldly, dimensional kind of realm where it is much more focused on just raw energy and like, what is that and how does that work? And so there's like kind of energy is seen as so like woo woo. And so.

No.

Sophie (43:30.712) mystical

Sydney (43:44.802) spiritual and not real and all this stuff and to people who know like baseline, base point science and then once you get really past that you're like well it all just kind of goes full circle and when you come back to it like what is this energy that has created physics and has made everything kind of work in such a harmonious way that has created the universe around us and has kind of made everything work in a way that can be explained by science or by like systems that we've broken down and just

kind of used to explain the phenomenons that happen to us every day. Like that is crazy. And that is to me, like magic. Science is magic in that way, purely.

I want to percent agree. I think, and I, I, I, talked about this, like I told you this the other day, I was like, okay, as a thought experiment, we all of a sudden had like aliens raining from, from the sky. And I'm not saying aliens do exist. not saying aliens, it doesn't matter. I am not, I don't want to get into that argument. I don't care about that argument. But what I'm trying to say is like, all of a sudden we had little gremlins.

If we had aliens...

Sophie (44:52.938) raining from the sky. And like in the beginning, we're all going to freak out because we're like, my God, aliens, aliens. But then after a while, we're going to be like, OK, that's just another natural phenomenon. Right. It's just it's almost going to like like it's this dichotomy, this weird dichotomy of of of being like, as long as it doesn't exist, it's magic. And as soon as it actually does exist, it's not anymore. And that's inherently not the way. Yeah, I live in a world

that I live in.

where beauty is absolutely magical. Like I get awed, like my heart starts aching. Something in my brain chemistry changes when I look at a beautiful flower and that to me is magic. And the essence that I carry within me is magic. And the essence that I connect to you is magical. And that kind of like translates to everything that I do in my life and everywhere I go, I carry this with me.

I think that's also a level where you and I very much connect on.

Yeah, well, mean, the difference between a unicorn and a narwhal in terms of magic is that one's real and one's not. So unicorn's magical and narwhal's an animal. Literally, the definition of magic in a lot of ways is something that does not exist, which is not how I choose to live my life because what's the fun there? Exactly. And so I like to look for the moments of serendipity and things where everything just kind of lines up. And it just kind of shows me that I am, again, where I'm meant to be and where I'm

Sydney (46:27.724) want to be and when I keep my pieces close together and towards the middle and then because my energy is so focused in one spot, things have a funny way of being noticed or the focus is placed on them or they become more relevant or they just kind of manifest themselves into my life more. And that can be explained with science and that can be explained with psychology and that can be explained with so many concepts that have been so accepted and are seen as so real in so many ways. And then to me, that's also just so explained by

a word called magic.

I agree. This episode is about the butterfly effect. I think I just want to say that like on this trip, we, you and I both kind of like also let ourselves be guided by the butterflies. And I love that we share this. I love that like we're so on the same page in this, in this like, and it means something different to you than it means to me. because

You live in your magic and I live in mine, but still that we can connect on this and be like, yeah, we were like, the butterflies guided us through this trip and they inherent magic everywhere.

We find magic everywhere. find magic everywhere. Have you found magic? Yeah. Shut up.

Sophie (47:38.584) The other day we arrived to our last big stop was New York and we arrived in New York and we were in the subway. And it was so funny because we had to like go through this hallway in the subway and there were like three big advertising. And do you remember what the three were?

It was A, a girl with butterfly on her teeth. I was like, Sophie, look at that. It was B, her little fairy book that she's reading right now. was like, okay, number two. Two strikes. I don't know what the third was, but it was also something so just like.

I have butterflies on my teeth.

Sophie (48:15.818) Yeah, so up my alley and was just and we were we both like, like giggled at each other and we're like, I'm so meant to be here right now. And yeah.

I was like, thank fucking God. I had kind of dragged her there.

No,

Mm-hmm. I had a ball there. You had a ball.

That's just a good example of how this magic thing connects us because it like, we level on a level that we kind of like made up together.

Sydney (48:55.118) And again, it goes back to living in the world that you see because after you saw those signs too, you're like, I'm meant to be here, I'm meant to have a good time here, I'm going to make myself have a good time here. And you did. And it's not that you wouldn't have done that otherwise, but I think it's not, you can say that that's not real, sure. It just so happened that those three things were on the wall. But if you seeing those three things on the wall is going to influence your actions, that's then going to influence how you feel and the time that you have and the experience that you have, then that is real. Then you just made that real.

And so in your world, that is real and to somebody else who does not believe in that, it's not real. it like, it all goes back to if you believe in magic, then magic's real. If you don't, then it's not real. Luckily we believe in magic.

Absolutely. Luckily we believe in magic and that's why our lives are so cool. I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad I'm here. This is the beginning of a fairy universe and Sydney is kind of like fairy zero. can't... Sydney's also... we're also working together on the newsletter which is coming out super soon.

Happy to be here.

Sydney (49:50.946) Yeah, I'll fairy zero.

Sydney (49:58.958) If you read that newsletter, it's for sure going to... What do you mean it has to?

Yeah, no, it has to.

So those updates I've written in my voice, they might make more sense now that you've heard my voice. And the stories hopefully will have various authors at some point. But I also like sharing my little stories of magic that I find and that I see. So a lot of those are in my voice too.

Essentially Sydney's going to be like, or I'd like for her to be the written voice of the fair universe.

She's so fun. And the postcards come from a little postcard project that I've been doing a long way. Sending little postcards.

Sophie (50:29.742) Sydney May postcard. Yeah, she's like, she's a gem. I mean, you guys can tell by now for sure. Sure, for sure. So yeah, we're gonna, we're definitely gonna stay connected one way or another. We're connected through the fair universe and we just have our projects and I'm just beyond excited to just, you know, to be by your side and to see where all of this is.

For sure.

Sydney (50:55.128) going. Again, feeling certainly mutual excited to be here. Thanks for having me on the pod.

Sophie (51:09.068) If this episode stirred something in you, I'd love to hear about it. Send me a little whisper on Instagram @fairytea.podcast or just write the words fairy wings in my DMs. That's how I'll know you were here.