Jun 11Member-onlyI love you the way you are.When I was young, I liked stuffed animals very much, including teddy bears. But I often had issues with their imperfections. I remember holding a beloved stuffed animal in my hands and pushing it away, the moment I realised it had flaws — one ear higher than the other, one…Love3 min readLove3 min read
Dec 6, 2020Member-onlyA Tribute to Útila IslandA Selection of Memories — When I was told that Útila is a small island popular with backpackers and scuba divers, I thought that perhaps this island is not for me. I never identified myself with backpackers, and I did not particularly enjoy scuba diving. But one fine January afternoon in 2020, I found myself…Travel11 min readTravel11 min read
Jun 9, 2020Member-onlyRemaining Employable when UnemployedI recently got to know Chris, who told me that he had never had to write a single resume or cover letter of all the years he has been working. The jobs were always offered to him. …Unemployment5 min readUnemployment5 min read
May 11, 2020Member-onlyWriting an Article Worth ReadingAn excerpt from The Graduate Student as Writer: Encouragement for the Budding Scholar — ‘’The writer’s object is — or should be — to hold the reader’s attention. I want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning to the end. …Writing2 min readWriting2 min read
May 9, 2020Member-onlyDealing with Expectations and Being Too Hard on MyselfS: I’m not handling things as well as I wish to. S: I’ve been hard on myself. Demanding and with many expectations. 😦 I: I wonder how are your expectations for yourself too? I: Is it useful to write down all these expectations and see whether they’re realistic? …Expectations8 min readExpectations8 min read
Apr 5, 2020Member-onlyStaying Calm in the Midst of the PandemicI did not know I was susceptible to panic buying just like any other. After all, few of us (lucky as we are) might have faced a crisis of this scale before. Naturally, behaviors we did not know we might have, might surface. The day when my neighbor came to…Panic4 min readPanic4 min read
Dec 11, 2019Member-onlyWhat Stalls the Pen?Addressing the misconceptions that hinder us from writing — There are two types of writers in this world. One imagines in his mind from the beginning to the end what he is going to say before he types a single word out. …Writing7 min readWriting7 min read
Nov 30, 2019Member-onlyLiving the DreamFarm Life in Colombia! — While I was working in Singapore, every few months, a strong desire to work on a farm or do manual labor would arise. For some reason, I always felt that the kind of intellectual work I did as a research associate in a university was not real work. I felt…Travel6 min readTravel6 min read
Nov 27, 2019Member-onlyTo the Awkward WomanAn Encouragement to Love All of You — I remember bumping into many of my high school friends as an adult and noticing the transformation. These girls who I used to play with at the schoolyard in T-shirt and shorts were now in makeup, with long hair, in figure-hugging clothing, often with a man at their arms. It…Body Image3 min readBody Image3 min read
Published inAge of Awareness·Nov 24, 2019Member-onlyEducation —An Ally for GrowthEnlarging your Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Horizons — There is an out-of-print book called “The Three Boxes of Life: And How to Get Out of Them” written by Richard Nelson Bolles and published in 1981. Truly ahead of his time, in this book, Dick offers a model different from the accepted model of dividing our lives into three…Spirituality4 min readSpirituality4 min read
