Relationships
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Everybody wants a piece of cake
As a party host in a crowd filled with 30s and above, I need to do a lot of convincing to get them to at least have a slice of cake. But with children? All you need to do is convince one, and then like dominoes, they would begin to flock around the cake to… Read more
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Never misses mealtime
I can’t remember how it began, but this rooster became a regular visitor, especially during mealtimes. He makes his presence known by walking around the dining area, turning his head enough to make eye contact. He looked funny and cute, bobbing his head left and right, making sure we understood he meant business. He only… Read more
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My mother’s mechanical pencil from 1981
A conversation with an old classmate made me realize I’ve been living out my mother’s values without fully understanding where they came from. When I posted online about my six-year-old e-reader in March 2024, my high school classmate messaged me out of nowhere. She remembered the yellow mechanical pencil I’d used throughout high school—something I’d… Read more
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Sitsiritsit
My sister kept talking about sitsiritsit—a traditional cassava crisp—after she saw a vendor at the other side of the road while we were on our way to Malalag, a municipality in Davao del Sur, Philippines. I’ve seen this cassava crisp back in my childhood, usually carried on the shoulders by vendors who walk under the… Read more
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Breaking free from the mind control hive
I remember a friend asking our small group, as a way to challenge our ability to think deeply, “Would you follow a leader even when the leader is doing bad things?” We never really discussed how bad is bad, but I can remember how each of us had conflicting responses—about how we shouldn’t be naive… Read more
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Taste as a time machine
Following the New Year celebration, we still had some guava left, and to keep them from spoiling, I decided to eat them. While sharing was an option, nobody wanted to have them, so I ended up eating them all by myself. What’s fascinating is that while I was still slicing them, I started recalling childhood… Read more
jessa 