A letter of gratitude and appreciation
Dearest 2020,
What a year it has been, yet I am still here — alive and well. If I look back on all the events that you sent our way — from natural catastrophes to health, social, and political crises happening all over the world — I get a mix of feelings. Sadness, anger, indifference, and helplessness have lingered in my heart. But on the other end of the spectrum, I have also felt hope and gratitude. I simply cannot forget the joy, care, and immeasurable love that I felt and received. …
We are not pawns to our environments and circumstances, but influencers of it.
Since the pandemic has enforced us to be in quarantine, being in solitude for months has allowed me to engage with myself longer and deeper than I’ve ever had in the past years. I had to sit alone with my thoughts and emotions for hours, which I surprisingly didn’t find uncomfortable nor disturbing. There was no one else but my own person, and it gave me peace.
However, this was not the case for others. This sudden shift in daily dynamics has caught some of us off guard, forcing us to accept this reality and swallow the pill. …
Thoughts on graduating in the middle of a pandemic
It was anti-climactic how up to the last moments of my stay in university, I was uncertain whether I was going to leave it or not. There was more anxiety than excitement as I waited for my grade for this one last major to come out.
I wanted to graduate, yes. But as much as I was hopeful and desperate, you can just never be complacent and sure about some things in life. I thought I would have graduated two trimesters ago but that never happened. The world doesn’t stick by our timelines. It has its own. …
A reminder of what you may be forgetting right now
It’s ironic how a lot of us may feel disconnected in this hyperconnected digital age. It doesn’t help that this pandemic has also limited our physical interactions with the people outside of our immediate families. Where some have found healing and solitude, others struggle with the growing loneliness and superficial interactions and relationships. We think there is no choice but to be alone, to do it alone, to carry the weight of our further deepening anxieties by ourselves.
Why do we need other people?
Lessons on overestimating my capacity, and overcoming regrets
May our YESes be full of intent, awareness, and accountability, and serve as leverage to fulfilling our potential.
Behind the lives of people we look up to, I would like to think that they didn’t reach such positions by pure chance but instead, by conscious decisions. Their path was and is not rid of struggle, confusion, and mundanity. It has been well-earned, as they stood by their choices and saw them through. It is a byproduct of earnest work and overcoming the difficulty that was in front of them.
Now, it is not rare for us to underestimate what we…
If you have a dream, be intent, and follow-through.
How many of us achieve what’s on our bucket list?
How many of us take it seriously and not leave it as mere wishful thinking?
How many of us believe that we could make them happen?
It is easy to want things but to make them happen — not so much. As I entered university, I made a bucket list of all the things I wanted to do in the future. One of the items on this list was to study abroad as a teenager. As a teenager — because I figured I wanted to do this not as a…
In movement and stillness, you are growing.
Dear self,
It was no mistake that it takes long.
It takes time to master your craft.
It takes time to finish that piece of art.
It takes time to level up and build confidence in your skills.
And it doesn’t only take long and endless hours of toil and repetition. It also takes hard work, persistence, and resolve. It takes showing up and making that choice over and over again. It takes relentless conviction. It takes focus and deliberate practice.
It takes time to build relationships.
It takes time to mend them too.
It takes time to heal and…
On the journey of accepting kindness from ourselves for ourselves
One night in my sophomore year, I dropped by the university chapel and sat by the empty corner of the room. For many reasons, I was struggling during my 5th trimester of chemical engineering; I always sought comfort in my trips to the chapel at the beginning and end of the day. As I bent my way to the kneeler, I felt my whole weight crash unto my knees. It felt so heavy. I felt so heavy. I bowed my head down, and in the stillness of it all, tears started rolling down my face. I refused to make the…
Somewhere between a friend and a great creator of art
There’s something about the rain — something comforting. A whisper telling you, “I am here for you. The heavens tear up too.” Its harmony envelops you with empathy. And beyond words or any form of communication known, it says “You’re not alone.” It’s speaking in a language you have not learned yet an understanding you have unknowingly earned.
With each drop falling and collapsing into an infinite of their own, your thoughts do the same — flowing and never stopping to the beat of their own making. Somehow and in some way, it dissolves all that is fleeting.
Drop…
An approach to keep ourselves in check
How do we know when to keep going?
How do we know when to stop?
How do we know if this is worth it? Or if it will be worth it?
We have this tendency to romanticise our pursuits. We think that what we are doing is for our own good or for a brighter future — sometimes for the good of others or for the good of the world. But, oftentimes we become blinded by this ideal such that we lose sight and connection to our current state — to our own selves. We get so caught up with…
