Thank you for all the birthday wishes and all the love!
The idea of celebrating my 25th year makes me want to shut the door and just stay asleep in the coming weeks. It makes me anxious, honestly. It reminds me of all the things that I need to finish. As a deadline-oriented person and an Aries (char, joke!), being 25 makes me worry about the life ahead and the missed opportunities. It is as if I have to submit something remarkable on my 25th, like a terminal report.
Some may say, I am overreacting. Maybe, yes. While 25 is relatively young, believe me, most of the people my age today ask the same questions, ANO NA BA KO? Nasaan na ba ako?
Maybe, things happening around us and all the young people making it big at the very young age makes us all worry about our current state and our future. Parang napapagiwanan ka. And I am no different. I want to this, visit that, buy this, and be like that. The list goes on. I have my insecurities and worries, just like your typical millennial.
We always think that something is wrong about us even if we have a good job with a good pay grade, good bosses. Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO). That’s it.
That’s the thing about my generation, I guess? We all want to be someone. We all want to be significant. We all want to build our own thing, our own ‘brand’. We all want to be like this and like that. We want to have something to be proud of ASAP. We all want to be successful and it makes us so stressful. We often fail to wait.
The idea of having a deadline in life has to stop.
While there is nothing wrong about being sooo competitive in life, we need to manage our expectations about ourselves and the things we want to achieve. We have to wait. We have to enjoy the journey first. Sometimes, we become so stressed with what’s happening because we’re not prepared for it. I still believe that we need to be exposed to various vulnerabilities before becoming a great person. After reading several biographies of great people like Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, John F. Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, The Beatles, Bill Gates, and the likes, I think all of them took the time to learn and wait for their turn.
See? Char.
Naks. This sounds serious na a.
But really.
To all my fellow anxious *young* professionals, I think we often miss the opportunity to be genuinely happy because we are too busy scrolling the feeds of other people who we think are more “successful” than us, who we think are “living the life.” We are so busy looking at other people’s successes and we forget that we have our own timeline. That everything in social media is just a projection of the happy side of things. You cannot see tons of payables posted on instagram. You can’t see the scratches and the ugly surface published on facebook.
What I am saying is, don’t be blinded by the idea that other people are not struggling like you. Go, take your time. That is why this year as I celebrate my 25th year, I dare to begin a journey of becoming a person with a quiet and gentle spirit. I will begin a new chapter with renewed hope of appreciating the people around me more and just candidly celebrate life!
It’s okay not share everything in social media. It’s okay if it takes a lot of time to cross one item on your bucket list. It is definitely okay not be like her or like him. It’s okay to sleep, be steady, enjoy a book, and chill. You just do you.
Having said all that, I hope I can celebrate the joys of this world with all of you candidly. Cheers to 25 years of existence and unconditional love! Para sa marami pang sablay sa buhay!
Details on how I celebrated my 25th will be up soon!
I’m gonna be away from the internet for a month as I’m going to visit my dad in the middle of nowhere New Zealand! His connection is super slow/limited, so if I do manage to get online, I’ll probably not be able to load Tumblr. (I don’t have a queue, so my blog will be a bit dead for a while.)
I had the loveliest day out with a friend today and am glad to be back in bed now because I’m knackered! According to my Stepz app I walked 8.2 miles (or 17,800 steps!) and that’s pretty good going for someone who could barely stand a month and a half ago :D
We had breakfast at the famous Regency Cafe in Pimlico (see pics) which was just totally my #aesthetic and I can’t wait to go back!
As with anyone, I’m sure my weaknesses feel so much closer to the surface. I don’t find myself to be a weak person in general therefore I don’t think of myself as being full of weaknesses. I do, however, have more than a few.
My ability to compartmentalize and be objective
Not seeing people for what they really are until it’s too late
I cheated a little bit for this one because I decided to ask those around me (partner and child) what they consider my top 3 strengths. I was delighted to hear the results and think they know me pretty well. They are:
What I love about journaling is that a prompt can bring out so many variations of one thought/idea. When I think of the things I value, it’s more intangible. Well, sort of. They existentially exist, but have no actual monetary value. Sheesh, anyway, they are as follows:
My family (kid/husband/people)
Love/Charity (I know these are not the same thing, however, to me, to be someone who is loving means to be charitable with your time, patience and love. Also, you need to love others to feel charity and if not, you might be a bad person ;).
Creativity (even if that shit is a mess, I appreciate that you made it.)
