I grew up in the Philippines and moved to California when I was 8 years old. I recall the legends and tales of my culture, but many were frightening and taught children to behave without question or suffer a horrifying fate. Several stories were quite extreme, but this method of instilling fear is pervasive to Filipino customs from the news features they favored airing while I was a child, such as instances of...

”The best part of climbing is when it all clicks and gravity ceases to exist.” -Chris Sharma

I’m almost there. Only a few holds left and then I’m at the top. My forearms are on fire but I must keep going. I pause and take five deep breaths, picturing all the oxygen reinvigorating my sore muscles. “Fear is the mind-killer” is the mantra I tell myself as I make the last few moves....

“‘There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion.’” - Edgar Allan Poe, in Ligeia

“Cold is merciless. It shows you where you are. What you are.” -Wim Hof

A few years ago, I watched a documentary from my one of my favorite YouTube channels called Yes Theory that introduced me to a man named Wim Hof, aka “The Iceman”. Wim Hof is an extraordinary man from the Netherlands who has spent his whole life developing The Wim Hof Method, which combines deep breathing, cold exposure, and...

By happenstance, your particular configuration of atoms from stardust conceptualized you. Each indivisible thought forming in your mind is a product of your environment and experiences with which you had no control over from the very beginning. You did not choose your genetics just in the same way you did not choose what your favorite color is, what to put on your grocery list, the next show you’ll stay up late to watch, and whether...

Change is part of the unpredictability of life. It is something that everyone must adapt to, yet many of us, including myself, struggle with change on a daily basis. We, as humans, are prone to want to control everything that happens in our lives. Obsessing over details, we plan ahead, only for life to throw something at us that we weren’t prepared for. Even when we do expect these changes, they can still be hard...

Perhaps one of the most revolutionary movements in the history of music was the emergence of indie. One might think of indie as a single genre – but it is really a collection of genres that fall under the same umbrella. Indie music started in the 1970s as a counterculture movement in both the US and UK, where many musicians started to question the bureaucracy and loopholes associated with big record labels such as Warner...

Demonstrating and practicing confidence is a seemingly tall order with the proliferation of great successes algorithmically presented to us on a daily basis. Achievements are celebrated but failed iterations are footnotes. Unsurprisingly, lacking confidence, or lacking trust (from the Latin root fidere) in oneself has sowed the seeds of imposter syndrome, inferiority complex, insecurity, and self-doubt in our culture. Each enterprise the hesitant self is excessively deluded to lose faith, further fueling this divination. Women...

I have secured my place in this beautiful wasteland

Unphased by the passing of time, I wait for answers under the shade of the sun

Limited but limitless in my attempt

To understand what it means to exist

In a place that holds little life

Always clear nights to gather wisdom from the stars

So those who eat my flesh go mad with my secrets

A piece of me may be lost

But...

Yesterday, I was inspired by Carli’s charming composition on the changing of the seasons. Our planet’s 23.5 degree tilt to our resplendent, life-giving star sustains the waxing and waning of its incident energy and warmth. As terrains defrost, the flowers bloom and bears ambrosia to the rest of nature, harmoniously intertwining the cycle of life and its blessings with its arrival. But how long until springtime is no longer a prolific metaphor for new...

While I waited for my bus home the other day I was watching a bunny carelessly hop around in the grass, and it dawned on me that Spring was approaching. Animals and birds are out, blooms start to appear on the trees, and the people around you seem generally happier. It’s that time of year in between the Winter and Spring seasons where you start to notice these signs of life again, and with it,...

Although only one week of Women’s History month remains, we should perpetually practice gratitude for the women that shape and influence the world as we know it and leave a positive impact on our lives. These are the survivors of prejuduice, forced to take on subservient roles and debilitated identities across all nations by the opposite sex and even amongst their ranks. A manifold of attempts to unite for equality by visionaries, liberators, and educators...