Whether it’s language or food (or any other cultural symbol, at that), can you still be faithful to your culture if you stray away from its shibboleths?
Category: reflections
With Distance We Make Friends
It’s easy to be friendly. But some people assume friendliness should mean unbridled openness. Far too often I’ve seen how some people would lovebomb strangers in the hope that they will win their trust and friendship.
I think true friendship takes time.
Am I Too Old to Enjoy This?
The adult in me thinks that she is very juvenile and naive, and I wonder if I’m just too jaded to enjoy how whimsical she is, how her whole world seemed to be rose-colored and bright.
A Polite Chat with Dying
What do we actually lose when someone dies? (How can you lose a potential, anyway?)
Live Long Enough to Cringe
Memories to cringe over are a small price we pay for living long enough.
Whose Adobo is Authentic, Anyway?
Will gatekeeping culture and calling out cultural appropriation bring justice? Or is it going to kill the very thing it wants to protect?
The Impostor
Do we stop being impostors the moment everyone is finally convinced we are who we say we are?
The Magical Force of Our Names
When we claim names with conviction, they stop being prison walls, and instead become the bricks that allow us to climb up, transcend.
Giving Up to Live
Life is a series of untaken roads and unfulfilled potentials.
The End of the F***ing Year
To say that 2020 has been a maddening year would be the biggest understatement ever.
A Writer in Manila 