May you love it the way Steve Jobs loves his clicks — Back when Bob Iger was at the helm of Disney and Steve Jobs was still around, they would do all these fun top-secret CEO stuff. Steve would take the Disney exec through multiple doors — swipe cards, biometrics, exactly what you’d expect— and they’d arrive at the mythic place where…

And the wonders of an inexplicably important day — On my second day in Salzburg, it occurred to me that there wasn’t much left to do. The Salzach River divides the city center into two districts: the Old Town on the west, and the New Town on the East. The day before, I’d already explored the Old Town. My…

Creating a “Life Spread” is surprisingly clarifying & actionable — Ever since I read about the four-burner metaphor, I’ve been taking pains to be as deliberate as I can be with my life. If you haven’t heard of it, the metaphor first appeared in a New Yorker piece by David Sedaris, and it goes like this: Imagine your life as…

Is it time, as Chris Brown sang, to “Say Goodbye” to my old self? — At the end of 2020, my Spotify Wrapped revealed that after three years, Chris Brown — if you’re reading this, Breezy, I’m sorry — was officially dethroned as my top artist. He was now second to my girl NIKI, a Gen Z Asian indie singer who had a totally different…

Have you nailed these three pillars of self-care? — My sister is a part-time shopaholic, part-time fashionista, and a full-time surgeon. She’s in the penultimate year of her residency, which means it’s her 600th year in medicine. And since she works in a public hospital, that means she practically lives there, rarely goes anywhere, and barely has time to…

Or how I learned to relinquish control over my “life plan” — Some time ago, I found this infographic on Business Insider titled “The Age You Peak at Everything, According to Science.” I remembered it while I was writing my birthday essay, and thought it’d be an interesting thing to share. Like a fun fact! Something nice-to-know. So I posted it on…

*Creates a pros and cons list* *fails* — The following message is a post made anonymously in a Philippines-based Facebook group called Ready2Adult PH. It has been lightly edited for clarity by the author. Hi, I’m a NBSB [No Boyfriend Since Birth]. I’ve been so independent all my life. I had to figure things out on my own…

Whose fault is it? — Painfully amicable is how I would describe my last breakup. This was seven years ago, so I can only remember so much. Me, in his arms, in our living room. His joke that our relationship was akin to that Jordin Sparks song (“Why does love always feel like a battlefield?”)…

Essential characters for the tough episodes of life — I begged the universe for a plot twist in my life. Well, here it is: A guy who I’d been liking from afar realized he had feelings for me, too. And when he finally felt the spark, he came out to me in a manner that was the equivalent of…