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jessa

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Everyday Stories, Lived

Blog

This is a collection of stories and daily musings.

  • Knowledge isn’t enough

    In my 20s, I was all about acquiring knowledge and I pursued it through graduate studies (because I was convinced that undergraduate degrees were not enough for a woman to compete in a male-saturated field of engineering), hours of countless training, and the acquisition of certifications that were often too many (or irrelevant). Oh how… Read more

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  • Online aggression

    I find more people angry online than in person and I don’t know why. Because it’s election season in the Philippines, the occasional angry mob has become a 24-hour online presence and it has been challenging to drown out all the noise and think clearly about the values and principles our parents and well-meaning teachers… Read more

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  • Living in selflessness

    I constantly have to remind myself that I am the adult now. Sometimes, I still feel like being in the in-between—the chaos between a surf and the shore—tossed and turned into places familiar and unknown. While the routine keeps me sane, not pushing the boundaries makes everyday too predictable and boring, safe but hollow. The… Read more

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  • Pitfalls of spreading yourself thin

    Wanting to do everything all at once will only make your life a frustrating one. I used to be a fan of multitasking because I thought it was an insignia of productivity, being able to finish multiple unaligned tasks in a day, a week, a month, or at least for a whole project duration. Multiple… Read more

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  • Resisting the urge to respond immediately

    What I learned to part ways with after seeking and engaging in creative activities is the idea that “messaging somebody entitles us to receive immediate response” because we are no longer high schoolers messaging one another, tethered to our phones all day long. I have trained myself for years (since I got ahold of a… Read more

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  • Living in a self-focused culture

    Mainstream media would keep telling you about putting yourself first above all else which often leads to thinking only about immediate gratification within one’s lifetime without thinking about the next generation. This unsettling reality of short-termism got me thinking about how this generation has become lovers of self, which resonates with: For people will be… Read more

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  • Milestones we now find difficult to achieve (unless you are the elite)

    I find it hard to imagine how my parents, at 30, bought their land, built their house, and created a home with their children. This erosion of life’s fundamental milestones charts the same course as our broader societal fractures. While the elite class grows wealthier and more disconnected, entire generations find themselves unable to achieve… Read more

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