Tag: College

6 Life Lessons I Learned in 2016
So.
We’re in the last Wednesday of the year.
Is anyone getting teary-eyed saying goodbye to 2016?
I can just hear you: “Teary-eyed, Kate? Tears of relief, maybe. Good riddance, I say!”
I know, I know. 2016 was definitely not one of the best years for many and that’s saying it nicely.
But what do I always say here? Good and bad always go together. They’re two different horns, yeah sure. But they’re two different horns on the same llama. So they have differences and things in common and they always go together.
That said, I honestly believe that while 2016 was a straight-up birch as a whole (that was not a typo; I’m just cautious of younger awesome peeps reading this) even the Rainiest Johnny and Jenny Rain Clouds can’t deny that good things happened this year, right? Riiiight?
And to prove it, I share to you the 6 best life lessons I learned this year.
1 | There is no pace to keep other than your own
This was the hardest one I’ve learned this year, I think. I personally grew up with the idea that I have to figure things out as early in my life as possible. I guess a lot of people are. We’re all pressured to decide what our future job should be and start working to achieve it by the age of fifteen. We are all pressured by this internal time ticking in our subconscious telling us to keep. Pace. Keep. Pace. With everyone else.
And you know what I learned this year? This is all ridiculous. There is no pace to keep. You are not lagging behind.
I could go on but I don’t want to keep this post 8973 words long so let’s leave it at that for now. I may write an entire post about this next year but for now, you can head on to my previous posts below to see a glimpse of what I think of this.
Sarah Dessen’s “Infinity” and the Daunting Task of Making a Decision
Why It’s Okay to Not Have Everything Figured Out
2 | There is always room for improvement
I think there’s that tricky, blurry line between contentment and persistence. When do you stop doing one and start doing the other?
Honestly? I have no idea.
But what I do know is this: even at times when you feel like there is no way that you could ever surpass where you currently are now, well surprise surprise because someday you will. There’s a whole lot of space left in you for improvement.
You are a work in progress.
This amazing article from Brain Pickings (I mean, who are we kidding? Brain Pickings is an inspirational gold mine; all the articles are ah-mazing!) tells of two mindsets and how they could essentially change our outlooks on life and even shape it. This article strengthened my belief for this particular lesson, too, so give it a read. It’s really enriching.
3 | Your quirks are part of who you are; embrace it
And while you’re at it, embrace all parts of you.
Further cementing my belief on this one, I recently read this amazing collection of stories by A.C. Burch called A Book of Revelations (*Amazon affiliate link over there) and my gobbling turkey the stories are just plain amazing! One of the stories had this quote that I think excellently sums up my point:
Edit: I forgot to attach this, whoops!
And to drive it all the way home, I wrote a post at Flawed Silence for Project Taboo where I talked about how I think every part of you doesn’t have to “make sense.” And since you’re there already, scroll through Kiya’s amazing blog. It’s filled to the brim with inspiration, delectable baking goodies, and spectabulous photographs!
4 | Don’t judge a person by how they appear
I’m calling it: a lot of people literally judge books by their covers *raises hands* but don’t do this to people.
Every one, every single person you met, passed by, engaged eye contact with, talked to, even those you haven’t met yet: they all have unique experiences you wouldn’t understand.
Okay so maybe you kiiiinda get it because you’ve been through a similar experience. But read that again: similar. Totally different from exact. Because, folks, even when you’ve read that person like a book from cover to cover, always remember that there is still something between the lines. And you may have missed it.
This is a hard one, believe me, I know. But as Judy Hopps always say, try.
5 | Take a break
And by that, I don’t just mean coffee break. (Or in my case, chocolate break) I mean, get some rest—physically, mentally, and emotionally. If you’re over-fatigued, sleep. I find that having enough sleep when you’re life isn’t as hectic helps in so many ways. I mean, if Arianna Huffington approves, go ahead and do it!
And if you’re feeling overwhelmed, nothing wrong with taking a break, amirite? But there’s a huge difference between stopping and quitting, mmkay? Speaking of which…
6 | Never quit entirely, immediately
So you got rejected in your job application or maybe a scholarship one. Will you quit applying altogether? Will you not pursue it anymore? Will you not try to reevaluate what you’ve done and see how you could change it?
Personally, this is the easiest lesson that I learned this year and could apply for next year onwards. But that’s because I’m plain stubborn. Well, a lot more stubborn than I was when I was a kid. I’ve decided to never let one failure/rejection/Johnny Rain Cloud get to me.
Now I don’t mean to never quit your whole life. Because there will come a time, when one thing isn’t working anymore, there’s no point in pursuing it further. I just mean that maaaybe you haven’t tried everything yet to possibly work it all out.
—
Whew! That was one lengthy post! But hey, it’s my last Wednesday post of the month and the year. The last post this Saturday (December 31st, holy macaroni!) will be, like every end of the month, a creative review and probably will include a short Happy New Year message. So we’re really saying goodbye to 2016 in a few days!
Onto you: what life lessons, or any lessons in particular (I’m not picky, I just love lessons ;)) you’ve learned this year? Share them in the comments below!
Have an amazing day, awesome peeps! 🙌
December 28, 2016
What To Do When You’re Having Blog Burn Out
You know, I personally think that starting a blog isn’t so hard.
I mean, sure, you get jitters and you’ve been thinking about having one and you’re probably going to overthink everything. And I mean every. Single. Thing. But when you get past all the necessary blanks to fill, get that first post live and start interacting with fellow bloggers, you realize, “Hey, that wasn’t so bad!”
It’s kinda like learning how to swim. You’d think you’ll surely drown but the moment you cross one point to another without a rubber tube, you realize it’s so freaking easy.
The difficult part in blogging, at least in my case, is the maintaining and growing.
Maintaining a blog means writing, taking pictures, editing, and virtually mingling with other blogging peeps. And when you’re busy as heck with other stuff in your life (e.g., school, work) the maintaining part could get really tedious.
It’ll be like crossing the English Channel when you are only a novice swimmer.
End of story? Blog burn out.
I’ve had more than a couple of blogging burnouts in nearly two years, most of which I’ve thought of quitting altogether. Just recently, I’ve had two a few months past. But I’m getting the hang of this and I’ve learned a thing or two.
So today I want to share what I do when I’m having a blog burn out.
1 | Identifying the Problem
Burn outs don’t happen all of a sudden. You think they do but they don’t. It’s like the flu. So you want to recall what you’ve done recently that could have caused it. Were you working too much? Were you drowning in self-doubt?
I obsess myself with a lot of things blogging-wise (because, you know, overthinker) but particularly in my blogging schedule. I started posting spontaneously then I decided posting more “regularly”, which means almost every-freaking-day. It was at that point when I felt squeezed out of ideas to write about and I just can’t take it anymore. (Okay I feel like that’s a lyrics to something. But whaaat?) Now I know my limits and try to be mindful about it.
Knowing what the problem is can be helpful, not only to remedy yourself from the burn out but also to avoid it in the future. Because no one wants to feel bad by the same thing twice, amiright?
2 | Refueling My Motivation
I’m the kind of person who has unlimited source of inspiration but that gets clogged up inside me because I’m lazy and my motivation is limited. I usually end up just daydreaming about awesome things but I’ll be like, “Ehh, I’ll do it later.”
I know me. Which is why I find inspiration whenever I’m having a burn out. This could be going to Pinterest or visit my #goals blogs (aka: bloggers I want to be like in the future) and just scroll through the many awesome things I expose myself to.
I’d get super pumped up and inspired that I’ll start writing.
3 | Creating an Idea Dump
Blog burn out usually means having your creative juices frozen or worse dried up. So to me, it’s extremely important to take the time to simply sit down, have a notebook and pen on the table and just stare at them.
No kidding, I really just stare.
It usually gets me bored and I let my thoughts roam free. Going from this imaginary world that I hope I could make into a novel to random musings like, “Will little chicks ever learn to shut up?” (I was sitting in our backyard) And sometime later an idea will pop up.
Boredom does that, you know. Help you out creatively. And science has proven it!
Now this is just my ideal method for coming up with topics to write about. And it works great for me. If you want more, the amazing Allison from Wonderlass (one of my #goals blogs) has shared more ways to avoid running out of awesome content ideas.
4 | When All Else Fails, Take a Break
Sometimes a blog burn out just gets too overwhelming that nothing works anymore. So take a break!
No one will arrest you for taking a break from blogging. In fact, because most of the blogosphere denizens are super nice, you’ll be missed but they’ll understand.
And anyway, it’ll be good to you–mentally, emotionally and creatively. You’ll be free from that claustrophobic feeling that you get from the burn out and when you go back, you’ll be refreshed and so full of ideas!
I would know, I took a break last month. Went to Patrick’s rock. 😄
Burn outs are a pain in the backside but it’s not the end of the world! There are always gonna be ways to remedy them and avoid them in the future. Speaking of avoiding burnouts, I found this really awesome post from Melissa Hebbe where she shares some tips on avoiding blog burn out. I really like the bit about allowing yourself to fail.
Have you ever had a blog burn out? Do you do something about it that I haven’t mentioned? Share it in the comments below or tweet me!
Happy blogging, awesome peeps! 💃
November 5, 2016
4 Storytelling (+Life!) Lessons from Hayao Miyazaki’s Films
It has been more or less three years since Hayao Miyazaki’s last feature film, The Wind Rises, was released and until now I miss his presence in the film industry.
Hayao Miyazaki, in my opinion, is not only one of the best animated filmmaker in Japan but the entire world. You could watch his movies at any period of your life—whether you’re nine or twenty-nine—and they will still resonate with you.
I mean, I’ve probably watched most of his movies more than a dozen times each for the past six years and there are still new things I would learn as I watch one of them for the enth time.
I planned on creating a tribute article of sorts but I felt, with my little insight, I would never do him or his films justice. Which is why I’m doing this Kate-style: a list of lessons.
Since some folks out there are probably participating in NaNoWriMo, I thought I can help out in the inspiration part with these lessons on storytelling. I freaking love stories anyway, whatever medium is used, so this is also me fangirling about storytelling. And I’m going to casually insert some life lessons in there too, if I can help it. Because you all probably know how obsess I am with life lessons, right? (If you hadn’t, now you do ;))
Whoa, that’s like using one stone to hit two birds and eat a cookie! #Winning.
1 | Learning to Pause
Don’t get me wrong, there’s something thrilling about action-packed stories. I love them and my regular praise for Rick Riordan books is evidence enough. But I also love how Miyazaki has this short “breathing room” after every excitement. A space where we see his characters simply reflect their circumstances and we don’t really need any explanation or dialogue. We just connect with them.
I mean, who could forget this scene?
In a sense, you could also apply this to everyday life. I understand the appeal of living in the fast lane but pausing every once in a while, giving yourself a little breathing room in your life, won’t be so bad. Personally, I like plunging on to a project or some task and give myself a little break after. And when you think about it, isn’t that what the Pomodoro technique is all about? *le Eureka gasp*
2| Not Really Happily Ever After
Growing up, I have always gravitated towards happy endings. The hero saved the princess, the cursed town restored, yada yada. I’ve only started to appreciate the not-so happy ones in my late teens, have only realized how closer they are to reality.
And in most of Miyazaki’s films, you would not get a completely happily ever after. I mean, everyone’s happy, sure. But some things aren’t tied up tightly into a pretty ribbon. While Jiji did return to Kiki’s side in Kiki’s Delivery Service, he still can’t talk.
Things don’t always go exactly the way we want them to. And that’s okay. 🙂
3 | Incredible Character Depth
Okay, by far, this is one aspect in a Hayao Miyazaki film that I like the most. (Which is why I’m going to have a short fangirling moment below mehehe) And if you know me, that’s not a surprise at all, considering I always talk about character depths in my book reviews.
The thing is, Hayao Miyazaki’s characters all have incredible depths. And I mean incredible!
Princess Mononoke’s Lady Eboshi is not the cruel, heartless leader of Irontown because we see her compassion towards her workers, women from brothels and lepers—people who have been looked down by the rest of society. The titular character of Howl’s Moving Castle may be one of the film’s good guys but he also bears a vain and immature attitude.
(Image via Nefarious Reviews)
In Miyazaki’s world, there is no purely good guy or a purely bad guy. And it pays to realize that this is true for our world too.
Everyone has a little good and a little evil in them and in the end, you can’t sum up a person by one act. And anyway, that just seems unfair, ain’t it?
4 | Emotions and Logic
Fun fact: did you know that Miyazaki creates scenes through the emotion they bring? He and the rest of his animators actually come up with the storyboard afterward.
I’ll give you a minute if you’re mind’s blown.
You okay now? Okay.
And hey, don’t worry. When I learned about that the first time, I was like, “*whispers* NO FREAKING WAY.”
The Storyboard for Ponyo (via Creative Stuff)
Maybe it’s because of this that Hayao Miyazaki’s films always bring up a surge of emotions whenever someone (me) watches them. Maybe this is why we (I) could connect to the story and the characters so much.
I think this comment from RogerEbert.com could sum up my thoughts on this one:
“He’s (Miyazaki) always made us realize that human/dramatic motivation is too complex for either-or reasoning.”
While I really want to ponder upon Miyazaki’s thoughts on the complexity of humanity, the point is Hayao Miyazaki does a huge part of his work emotionally, something that I think is important in art in general. And it worked well on him.
In our case, we have to find what works for us. I, for one, am the kind of person who has to balance both emotion and logic in my life. I can’t function in total intuition nor in total organization (a long story I’ll tell some other time) so I need balance.
So that’s it! These are the storytelling lessons I got from Hayao Miyazaki’s films along with some life lessons as well. While we’re at it, here are two amazing videos about Hayao Miyazaki that I’ve watched (for like a hundred times now):
Hayao Miyazaki Tribute Video in 3D by Dono (Vimeo) – A 3-minute tribute video of all of Hayao Miyazaki’s works. This brought me surrounded by my own lake of tears. Like the feels…
Hayao Miyazaki – The Essence of Humanity by Channel Criswell (YouTube) – A 16-minute video essay about how Hayao Miyazaki understands the complexity of human emotions. This is so amazing, I downloaded it in my YouTube app for offline watching. <3
Have you watched any Hayao Miyazaki films? Which one(s) is (or are) your favorite? What are your thoughts on his films as a whole? Share them on the comments or you can tweet it! (Yay for options!)
Now excuse me, I have to go and binge-rewatch some of the movies I just mentioned above…
(I didn’t know you could crave for movies)
(Crap, now that I thought of crave, I’m craving for ice cream too)
Happy watching, awesome peeps!
November 2, 2016
What To Do After Experiencing Week-Long Exhaustion and Stress
So here’s the thing…
I. AM. DRAINED. AS HECK.
Like seriously. Drained. I’m at the point of dragging my tired body like…
This entire week felt like a montage of projects, paper works, exams, quizzes, and make-up classes (the fancy term for “extended school stress”; has nothing to do with cosmetics, sadly.)
But instead of time whirring by as a normally paced music plays in the background, it’s the opposite. The music plays awfully slow and I am freaking tired. And I won’t say I’ve never been tired like this before because I have. You don’t graduate high school without exhaustion. (Now that is the evilest form of cheating, graduating without stress). But this whole semester, I’ve never been as tired as I am now. Figures much since it’s nearly finals already. *sigh*
Anyway, I’ve been away for quite a while now…right? I mean, I’m currently functioning in dog days so it felt like it’s literally been years since I last posted something. And I thought what better inspiration for a blog post than freakin’ stress, right? I have a number of stress-tagged posts here anyway. So here you go.
1. EAT. We’ve all got different comfort foods that will help us de-stress. I, personally, have lots ranging from soft foods like ice cream, marshmallows, and hot milk to hardcore ones like meat. Whatever you’re craving for, eat. Just know when to stop. Okay? And if you’re craving for metal, go to your doctor. That stress is making you need some serious medication.
2. LISTEN. Some sounds are so serene, it makes you feel relax…and reflect on your life. Like, recently, I got into Seafret’s “Ocean” and it was making me feel like I’m currently experiencing the dramatic part of a movie. Which is not far off from what’s happening in real life. It doesn’t have to have lyrics, even.
  BRAIN.FM has AI-generated music that will help you relax, nap/sleep, or meditate better. I’ve tried the 30-minute nap music and I was out immediately. Woke up around 3 hours later.
3. TAKE A LONG BREAK. Now, now. I’m not saying you have to stop whatever is causing your week-long stress altogether. I mean, if it’s giving you week-long stress, it must be important, right? What I’m trying to say is give your body and brain a breathing room. Let them rest for a while. A day, overnight. Have a full 8 hours of sleep. Check your social media for a while, make a blog post (*ahem*)…
  Not even the strongest, most efficient machine can go on without a rest. Create a new momentum rather than exhaust yourself while maintaining an already long one.
There are far other things that you may want to do: yoga, simple meditation, painting…but these three above are the general ones that I could come up based on my experiences. What you really have to do is, generally, rest. You are not a superhuman, no one is. You won’t get nor achieve anything with an exhausted mind and body. So rest.
And I’ll be doing the same now…
Good night/morning/afternoon, everyone! 🙂
March 11, 2016