Just another day but with cakes & candles

Turning 22 didn't feel much different from when I turned 21 or 20. But of course, another 365 days of exploring how to be human garnered me irreplaceable memories in this never-ending learning journey called life.

In this piece, I'd like to share concepts in contexts whereby I actually applied some sayings/aphorisms/advice this year when dealing with doubts/adversities.

•  Be willing to put yourself out there even if you're an amateur

Exposing yourself in forms of ideas, thoughts and creations either online or offline can be daunting, especially when you're not a so-called professional in that particular field: like what you're reading now. I'm not a writer nor a native speaker, yet I'm putting myself out here writing weekly even when I know no one's reading.  

Steve Jobs once said:
"Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it."

We were not biologically born with the ability to be artists, investors, astronauts or anything professional. However, we could be. Every professional started off as a beginner, it's the cornerstone to anything great with no shortcuts to bypass.

There's nothing humiliating about being a novice because you know you're on the right path to grow and be an expert one day, either sooner or later, if you just don't give up.

This brings me to my next point:

•  You just need to show up

"Eighty percent of success is showing up."
-Academy Award-winning writer-director Woody Allen

There are days that suck. There are days that you don't feel like doing anything at all. There are days when everything conspires against you. It's definitely alright to rest, to take some time off but more importantly, you still need to show up. You never know when will luck strikes and your business will be booming, you never know when your blog posts will be shared and will be making rounds on the Internet, you never know when you'd be looking at the weighing scale realizing the tiring days at the gym were all worth it.

There were days when I was not excited about learning and decided to show up at the clinic I'm volunteering at anyways, there were days when lectures seemed too boring to attend and a lot of other instances in which I showed up when I was not motivated. In the end, knowing that I chip in little by little towards a greater goal, I thank myself for holding on.

•  Things almost always don't go as planned, but you can adapt

We all know water, it's one of the most important elements that's necessary for us to live. Water freezes when it's cold, water evaporates when it's hot, water changes its "shape" to fill whatever vessel you pour it into, water even erodes rocks when given enough time. Think of yourself as water, changing forms depending on the environment, taking life head-on gracefully with courage and power.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one most adaptable to change." -Charles Darwin

I was to some extent furious about the pandemic. It ruined a lot of my plans for almost two years, prior discussions became futile, money was wasted, places unvisited. It took me a long time to learn that being sad and angry doesn't change the reality, the modified end result might even be more ideal than the one I planned. Even if everything turned out to be suboptimal, I feel much better to be grateful and embrace the uncertainties of life.