In an attempt to not let the year pass by with just 1 entry in this blog, I’m going to do something I haven’t done in a while, which an edition of The Sunday Currently!
FEELING Weird and tired. This afternoon I had a matcha soft serve, and usually I get so alert after that bit of caffeine kick that I vow myself never having matcha after 3pm coz it’ll just jolt me up the whole night. But I ended up crashing hard and napping right after. This is how I know I’m entering my luteal phase and my main symptoms for when this phase arrives is just being always mad sleepy and not needing any sleep assists at night. It’s really good for my sleep debt because it eliminates it😅
WATCHING As a big Hospital Playlist fan, I’ve been really enjoying Resident Playbook lately. It fills the void that I missed when I was watching both shows. So I’ve been spending this afternoon watching clips from the show.
READING
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley is what I’ve been reading on my Kindle. I’m almost done because I made the annoying decision of marketing is a Read on my Goodreads because I felt like the quality of the story really deteriorated towards the end. The premise was great but as I kept reading it I found the characters more annoying as time went by and didn’t root for them anymore.
Maybe I’ll finish it, but maybe I won’t? We’ll see.
EATING Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn. One of my favorite snackies.
LOVING This morning at church I saw a girl wearing a really nice, simple leather Furla bag. I think it was this one. It seemed bigger when I saw it but it seems small now and I can’t seem to find other sizes so it might be this. Posting so I can remember!
WISHING (and yapping about how..) ..it’s my birthday month this month (HOLY SHIT IT’S MAY??? — I thought I could finish doing this entry without mentioning how time flies but here we are), and I wish the same each year. Good health and sanity. Can you believe I’m turning 37? I’ve been blogging on the internet since I was 14, a whopping 23 years ago. I’ve had this site/domain since 2010 or 2011 which has been a crazy long time. And here I still am. Still thinking nothing has changed, yet so many things have happened. Cheers to entering the late 30s stage, how did I get here?
Thanks to my little assistant ChatGPT, I’m able to write this post with question prompts about what kind of a year 2024 was. A lot of things happened last year, but at the same time I feel like I was just writing about my West Coast trip last Christmas in my previous entry.
Will I ever get tired of whining about how time flies in this blog? It feels like it’s the only way I can truly grasp how time just passes like nobody’s business. Like, who gave time the audacity to go by so quick?
What was the biggest highlight of your year?
I think it would have to be my Bali trip last June where I had a big reunion with my childhood best friends—my core C.O.F. as how we used to call it: core circle of friends.
It was also the first time I’ve been back in Indonesia since the pandemic, which was interesting because Bali and Jakarta were the last out of country cities I visited before the lockdowns happened in 2020.
It was so good to finally see my best friend, Noemi, who moved to Bali for good at the beginning of 2024, and have some bonding time before she becomes a new mom and enters a new stage in her life. At the same time, I also got to spend time with Carissa before she moves to the U.S. for good as a newlywed! Plus all the Indonesian food we got to eat, don’t even tell me about it.
Bianca (and her husband, Chris), Patrick, and I flew in from the Philippines, while Norv and Patty came from Jakarta, and Gabby and his wife traveled from Australia as part of their own family reunion trip. It’s difficult to explain without dedicating an entire chapter to it, but in essence, the people I grew up with during my formative years in Jakarta all came together as adults to celebrate life before hitting several life milestones. It was bittersweet as we continued to leave our childhood behind.
Another highlight would probably be getting to meet and spend time with online friends IRL in Hong Kong last October! They have been my constant chat buddies from the thick of lockdown up to now, and our friendship has truly transcended the four corners of the Discord app.
What is one challenge you overcame?
Personally, learning to say no without feeling guilty has been a big milestone for me. A huge part of me is a people pleaser, and every time I turn down a social event, a work project, or a favor I can’t commit to, it used to eat me up inside. But this year, I’ve learned to let go of that and put myself first. Is it an age thing?
Another challenge I overcame this year was losing a freelance client I had been working with since 2019—essentially a significant chunk of my extra income and a secure freelance gig. They needed to take a break to realign their business offerings, so hopefully, it’s not a complete halt.
One challenge I’m still working on is being overly critical of myself, downplaying my professional achievements, and struggling with imposter syndrome. But 2025 will be the year I actively work on this.
What is a new skill or habit you learned?
Expounding on what I wrote above, I’m not sure if it can be considered a new skill or habit but I felt like I am really coming into terms with being okay to say no to things or situations that don’t serve me. I used to be so much of a people pleaser back then and always want to say yes or concede to avoid conflict or to make sure I don’t put myself in a negative light or situation, but I’ve really gone deeper into learning how to listen to myself first, which could mean saying no or even disagreeing to a lot of things.
What was one thing you’re proud of last year?
Honestly? Always just proud of making it through the year. Even though I’m so hard on myself mentally most of the time, I still manage to insert little pockets of grace that I award myself at times, and I think that’s enough.
Spent Christmas 2023 and New Year 2024 in NorCal. This was a day in San Francisco.
Last month, this domain expired. It took me until the very end of its grace period to renew it again, because why would I? I had not written in over a year and seems like blogging isn’t a thing anymore. I had a phase where I wanted to open a Substack then realized, why would I? I still have this little space of mine on the internet that no one really knows anymore, so wny should I stop using it right?
2023 was the same. Everything feels just the same these days. Everyone around me is growing, adulting, experiencing life milestones, yet here I am.. still me. From extrovert to introvert.
I don’t know how others perceive me, and frankly, I’m too busy thinking about how I’m being perceived to actually realize how I’m being perceived. Does that make sense? It makes sense to me.
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything long form that’s not for work. Everything is consumed in little tidbits nowadays (you can check my TikTok watch time for that, it was literally my obsession for a good while til now) that it kind of giving me a hard time even trying to write something substantial about my life.
Anyway, I’m not going anywhere with this entry. I just wanted to see if I can still write something long. I have so many unfinished entries in my drafts too. Will I be back to write something more? I hope so.
Happy New Year!! I hope you had a great new year and eve, to anyone who still reads this! I thought it would be nice to have a TSC entry today, considering the first day of the year falls on a Sunday. Let’s get it!
FEELING Pretty good but undoubtedly still anxious. Like every new year as of late I don’t feel any different and less hopeful due to the state of the world for the past few years, but I am always trying my best to not let it get to me and focus on the good even though it gets tough at times. Storms always pass, and that’s what keeps me going.
WATCHING & LISTENING My YouTube recommendations after I was away for a week. Us The Duo just released their hits for 2022 and it’s always a nice compilation of all the hits we enjoyed the past year.
READING I admit I haven’t been reading books the past year, but I really want to change that this coming year. Obviously I can’t even do the 1 book a month anymore, but I’m just going to try and read some. I hope I can at least keep that up!
EATING Nothing right now, but I had Mac & Cheese for dinner earlier.
THINKING About how blessed I was to be able to spend a part of my holidays with a complete family unit. My dad joined us in Singapore last week for a much needed family bonding time.
HOPING For the year to be kind to me, for me to be kinder to myself, and to not let my inner demons get me down so much like it did last year. I also hope to play more tennis and read more books this year. Most of all, I hope everyone has a better year than the last!
It’s not like I’ve forgotten this blog, because I still visit it from time to time — but I’ve definitely forgotten how to write, with all encompassing feelings of adulting stress taking over me. Even my Hobonichi has seen better days. Joke’s on me, because I ordered another one for 2023 in attempt to improve my planning and journaling skills that I’ve so very much neglected.
In an attempt to record my life this year—which I really really need to do—I’ve decided to list down every month of the year so far with little tidbits of what happened.
January
Typhoon Odette/Rai was traumatic to say the least. On December 16, 2021, Cebu was hit with the shittiest typhoon to ever devastate the city since the early 90s and it completely ruined the city’s operations. The aftereffects would go all the way up to February-March. People had no electricity, water, for weeks up until months, even. January was still such an early recovery period and many still experience trauma when it gets brought up. Still, I’m grateful to have been spared by all the monstrosity due to many factors which I used to my advantage. I am grateful to have friends and family who helped me pool over USD 2,000 (₱100,00++!!) for relief goods, donating to relief operations, and even fix a few houses! That’s an experience I will never forget.
February
I was met with the worst tooth nerve pain I have ever experienced in over 3 decades of my life. The pain was so bad that even the regular OTC meds didn’t help. I will never forget bawling and writhing in pain on the way home from the dentist and calling to beg her to up my painkillers. I would not want to wish that pain on to anyone. I ended up having a root canal with Gutta-percha.
March
After exactly 2 years of having no students at the school where I work, classes were finally back face to face. And because the business office was already on optional hybrid setup since May 2020, days at the office would get really lonely, with no screaming kids, no hustle and bustle of classrooms and teachers, and just overall lack of inspiration without the students and teachers that you physically everyday. Needless to say it was a new adjustment phase for me, from only going to the office for 2-3x a week for 2 years with reduced hours, to going back to really early mornings and late afternoons. As much as I loved being back, it made me realize that my lockdown work schedule was—amidst many unfortunate things—a real privilege to experience.
April
My close friend Juna’s wedding was beautiful. It would be the first wedding this year, and my first of second as a bridesmaid. All odds were in our favor during that day despite weather news, and I had never been more drunk in my life.
May
happy birthday to me~ (yes I still play tennis every weekend)
This is where it gets kind of deep. Despite it being my birthday month, my dad visiting from Indo, and just a lot of reasons to be grateful, I was met with one of the worst bouts of mental health lows in recent times. It ate me up and rendered me helpless. It wasn’t even that bad during the worst parts of the pandemic, so I’m not really sure how it came about this time or where it came from. In retrospect, 2022 feels like a really off year of trying to keep up with my mental health highs and lows and I feel like I’m hanging on to nothingness sometimes. After a mental health intervention from my dad one night, one from my girlfriends another afternoon, many nights of crying and self-imposed tantrums, I somehow managed to pull myself back up (like I always do) and celebrated a big birthday party with a group of family and friends — which took 2 days to plan. I think that will be the last time I hold a big party, after that night, I may have to do with silent night birthdays moving forward. The beauty (or perils?) of entering your mid-30s. The month ended with a nice trip to the mountains with a group of friends for a birthday (not mine this time 😊) weekend getaway and I was able to get refreshed and relaxed.
June
Took a few days off and flew to Boracay, my first flight since late 2019 and the longest I’ve not flown ever. It was a good break after a busy April and May and finally gave me a chance to take it easy thanks to school being on a break and having less intense work days. It was also a busy month preparing for a close girlfriend’s bachelorette party—yes, another wedding where I am a bridesmaid—more on that in the next part.
The fact that the year is almost ending is pretty surreal. After 2 years of what seemed like both the longest and shortest years of my life, 2022 feels like growing pains but I can’t point out if I’m growing out of something or growing from something. Life is still hard to figure out, and that’s the most consistent takeaway from this whole thing.
