Wistful Wednesday

[image source: GFriend (Youtube) ] A story ~ Glass Bead "I may seem like a glass bead, but I won't break that easily."      --"Glass Bead" translated lyrics from Color Coded Lyrics [Diary entry: 30/06/2021] High school, as many would know, is an extremely tumultuous time. You gotta think about dates, friends, grades, future careers, parents' expectations, and the impending shadow of adulthood looming over our free will. Yeah existentialism aside, it really is just a culmination of too many expectations piling on top of each other. Pop culture says that it's the last moments of youth, parents say it's the boss battle where you gotta get your slack together and there you are, stuck in the middle; you're throwing out decisions like you think you know what you're doing...but let's face it, you really don't know. Bad choices, great times, amirite?  Sure, I've made it to 16 years old not really caring about being popular, or about the l...

Close your eyes. Do you hear the sounds of the ocean? No?  Well, listen closer. Hear the tides ebb and flow effortlessly with the ups and downs of life. Doesn’t that sound just wonderful? LOLOL Of course not. I wish life were that calming. Any creature who breathes, including plants, knows that life is more like a squiggly line drawn by a 5 year old rather than a serene, oscillation of the ocean. Which is why, I've decided to switch things up a bit. Instead of publishing each Wednesday of every week, I will delay the  Secret Story of a Song  (SSOS) postings to the 3rd Wednesday of every month . (5POM postings will remain unchanged.) This switch up will take effect after August 25, 2021 . There's a couple of reasons why I've decided to slow things down a bit: 1. I am in the last year of my undergrad degree at the moment and I want to focus on graduating, and getting a job. 2. Each post takes a shit-ton of work and I don't want to sacrifice quality, so I'm sacrificing...

[image source: Mianzi (Youtube) ] A story ~ Because I love you *9 years later...* It is a sweltering summer day swallowed up by  a  blunt, blue void . As I sit on this bench,  I imagined those who impatiently came and rushed off before me. As I scan the bus window,  I felt the tiredness of those who were as exhausted as I am. As I leave for the promise, At the edge of the long, green field, The thistles of grass poke me under my ankles and, The silence is filled to the brim with noise. I reminisce on the melancholy of each child who grieved as I did. I remember that they had to like their own presence, Because no one else would do it for them. (...) How I couldn't wait to lay my head down, Under the shade of a maple tree, Along the walk of memories. (...) I meet my past reincarnations here, Just like how I meet you today. Mourning with your permission to grow. Forgiveness with my dose of regret. Apologies with the nuance of knowing that, I would not be who I am today...

[image source: Makoto Matsushita (Youtube) ] A story ~ The Quiet Storm The truth is, I don’t know anything. How do I know this?  Well, I don’t know, ask someone else. The truth is, I’m scared to know more. It only reveals the monumental wall of questions I have to ask because of one answer. The truth is, that it would be easier to run away. It would be easier for me, but crippling for the ones who know me. The truth is, that I’m not wise. I’ve just made more mistakes, and had a harder time learning from them. The truth is, that I don’t fit into this world, so much, that I do fit in it. If everyone is special, then no one is. The truth is, that the truth is not my own. I am just a blank sheet of paper that is crumpled and crumbling away into a fine white powder that will dissolve once it hits the water. I am the remains of a person who used to believe that belief was all that they needed. The truth is, that this isn’t the truth. It’s what select people call the truth. But when somet...

[image source: Ruby Ibarra (Youtube) ] A story ~ 7000 Miles [Why are immigrant stories so hard to talk about?] I’ve noticed something interesting about most of my friends. Like 80% of us are actually the children of immigrants (with some being young immigrants themselves), but, we don’t talk about that at all. There would be occasional references to one's own culture within our group, for instance, my Korean friends would comment that they prefer spicy food because they're Korean, and my Pinoy friends will share how unusually large Filipino families are. Nevertheless, there's not a lot of talk of the very thing that has made our lives in Canada possible, which is the immigration process.  Why is that? Well, if one is starting a new life in a new country, there's bound to be struggles that reveal social problems you've only seen on TV, and never thought could be so visceral in real life. Racism, sexism, income inequality, dissonance in cultural values, immigration la...