After dating around for a while following my big breakup, in 2020 I began a relationship with someone (let’s call him The Spaniard) who helped me learn further about how to be in a healthy relationship.
In the early stage of our relationship, amidst a raging pandemic, he had to move to another country for work. As he flew to this new chapter of his life, so began an intense week of anxiety on my end.
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When was the last time you did something that truly scares you? Mine was last year: I jumped off a plane over the scenic Great Ocean Road, just two hours from Melbourne, Australia.
I wish I could say that I am this daredevil who lives life untethered and gets off on the adrenaline. I am not, but every year, I made it a point to do at least one thing that terrifies me.
Back in January, I started taking classes at STEPS Dance Academy. I had only one goal: to get fit. I ended up learning so much more this past one month and a half about myself and living life. Here are five lessons that keep me coming back to the dance floor:
I woke up finding multiple reasons to be annoyed on the very last day of 2017. My mom left her alarm on and disturbed my sleep; when I gave up sleeping and checked my phone instead, I did not see a message I was expecting… just to name a couple. These triggered an onslaught of negative thoughts, more reasons to feel discontent.
I was ready to have a bad end to this year, but then I surprised myself.
A photographer friend of mine once wrote on his Facebook status. “To produce great pictures is to see the world in more interesting ways.”
He argued that gadgets and filters can only take you so far, but whether or not your pictures speak to the beholders, it all depends on how interesting you are. It is a sum of the books you’ve read, the movies you’ve seen, the music you’ve listened to, the people you’ve met, and the paths you’ve trodden.
I penned my 2017 Resolutions during an 11-hour transit in Hong Kong back in January. I didn’t have any notebook with me, so I had to write them down on a scrap paper.
Sitting by a glass wall that overlooks the tarmac, illuminated by the setting sun, it was one of those light bulb moments when words just flow. I was hopeful. Not unlike the sun that set shortly after, however, my resolutions that it fueled soon died out.
Here’s how it happened and how I restarted my resolutions back to life in three essential steps.
Like I said, 2016 was the most confusing period of my life so far.
I got tattoos — three of them. I developed an unlikely obsession with a Korean boy group, Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS). I questioned my faith. I started thinking that maybe… I didn’t want kids. I suffered from anxiety, especially at work. I was lonely, but wouldn’t reach out to anyone. I thought I wasn’t good enough. I felt like on the brink of depression.
I didn’t know they were signs of what most likely was a quarter-life crisis. This was how the year went by:
IntotheMarsh 