Personal List on Living Through a Pandemic

Nothing fluffy. Just keeping on a list of what keeps me sane. Some people cook, read, having a deep conversation with their loved ones, or bingeing on series. While those are the things that I enjoy in normal circumstances, I surprisingly found those triggering during these times. So here’s what I’ve been doing:

• Taking a shower every morning
• Doing my skincare routine
• Doing yoga for 10 minutes every morning
• Put on my favorite perfume
• Putting on makeup even when I don’t go anywhere
• Setting up a fixed time to work
• Setting up a specific table as my workplace
• Writing
• Coloring, without being committed to it
• Watching youtube videos
• Taking care of a stray kitten and her mother
• Admitting that this is a hard time
• Getting in touch with my feelings
• Accepting negative feelings as the new normal
• Blocking all the advice ‘to stay positive and stay productive’
• Venting out and crying to those who would listen every now and then

I will keep updating this, and if you’re willing to, please do share yours as well.

2019 Reflection

2019 was one hell of a roller coaster ride. I was convinced that I got behind in the race of life then realizing, life is not a running track. I ticked quite a bunch of ‘firsts’. My acne cleared up for one whole month then decided to come back. I also managed to save up for a trip to Japan but decided to save the money instead of going.

One resolution I did fulfill this year: to read more books. 1 per month to be exact. Only two of them are heavy reads, but at least 5 of them are quite profound.

All of them will take me to where I want to be. I am thankful that for the whole 2019 I get to work promoting something I really believe in: reading.

Image: Reading by the Edge of the Marsh. Dennis Perrin (via: tumblr)

 

Hello

It’s quiet in here

people are either on twitter or instagram
sharing their most engaging thoughts or most engaging pictures.

It’s quiet in here, it’s nice.

Early Onset of Quarter Life Crisis

Warning: Shizz about to get real. Skip along if you’re prone to get nauseated from too much feelings.

I used to think that once I am in my 20’s, life would be different. I would already be living my dreams, picking off the fruit of my works and accomplishments. However, here I am. Still living in the same place I used to live in, spending most of my times sleeping or commuting just like how it used to. To top it off, I’m even working on the kind of job I once dread to ever be doing.

The “Shut up and do it” Agreement

I hereby sign this agreement with the latest photo of myself

I’m known to make far too many plans. In fact, i’m great at making plans. But to actually execute it is a whole other story. I’m always, too tired, too distracted, too stressed-out, too broke, too busy –and too tangled in a lot other things but the plan itself. Sounds a lot like an excuse i know, because it actually is.

However, i figured that if i made a written form of said plans (and better yet publishing it), i’m left with no other choice but to do it. So as an attempt to tell myself to just “Shut up and do it” here are some things from my bucket list i’m going to get done by next year.

Minimal

My quest for a minimal photo backdrop had finally found an answer. The locals informed that the place “is not actually that interesting”. But fueled with the need to recharge post-Eid relatives visits, i stubbornly insisted to go. And apparently, the place is exactly how i want it to be.

An Old Friend

Unattended yet undeniably, is how fashion took parts in people’s life that even innocent-8-years-olds are affected. Not even slightly aware of the reccurence of the grunge trend, or that John Stamos rocked denim jacket when he was the coolest uncle on TV, or even the fact that Britney & JT as a couple once showed up on AMA wearing top to toe denim, and generally any other cause of early 2000’s denim craze, a girl asked her mother for a denim jacket. All she knew that it looked cool and that all her friend seems to own a pair.

and to give this whole narration a little more context : this is the story of yours truly.

Alive

To mark the end of the longest abandonment I’ve ever done to my blog,  firstly I must clarify that I am still breathing and alive.

Secondly, for the sake of your attention span, i’m going to cut the part where i explain how dementor-ish the sixth semester is, and skip along to my latest where-i-stands (beside the bermuda triangle of home-dorm-campus).

One morning last week, i wander around a tea plantation, pre-shower, sweating under the chunky knit i wore on such sunshiny morning, carrying no photography device better than a point-and-shoot camera several years behind the time, and no photographer better than my baby sister,

yet i regret nothing.

Sentiments

“Umm…, that’s very nice Mom, but, you know… I don’t actually wear  jewelry”, was my first thought, when I received a dainty white gold bracelet –completed with tiny heart shaped pendants which induces me to purse my lips a la Miranda Priestly— as my 18^th birthday present. Despite of passive-aggressively declaring “Mom, I would rather get myself another shoes than a fine jewelry”, i wore that bracelet anyway. And later, I have to admit that my mother indeed, knows best.

Virtual Reality

There were days when i tumblred through the nights, and now i spend all day building a dream home upon a thousand home idea pins. For that reason, if only online hoarding was a paid job, i’d probably be rich.

Internet allows us to see places we never visited, collect clothes we never owned, hang out with celebs who never knew we were alive, and feel the moment we never experienced. Basically creating the life we never had. Although that life only lies within millions of codes in the virtual world, it feels satiating enough that we prefer to  sit in front of the monitor all day instead of actually make our way to it.

Yes i do that, and i plead guilty.