all the trinkets

navigating life in my 20s

Tag: Personal

  • You Don’t Need to Understand

    You Don’t Need to Understand

    Story time.

    As a kid, I was the scrawny, quiet one lurking in the corner. And I was often misunderstood. I guess even now, I still am hehe but I accept that now. Back then, it bothered me so much.

    No one, not even my family, could ever get me and that was what made me upset most of the time. That they didn’t understand. At one point, the whining turned into a self-pitying excuse. “They don’t understand me. Why?” became “They don’t understand me. Why bother?”

    I isolated myself from a lot of people. Not physically. But for a long time, in my mind, I was alone in the world. Only I understand me, that’s what I always thought. It all comes back to the whole “I don’t rely on others a lot” that I told you a few posts back.

    Related: What I Learned from Pushing Too Far

    Now I ache for the younger me. I feel sorry she had to see the world in such miserable lenses. But I also don’t want to be like her anymore.

    Recently, I see so many people who are similar to younger Kate. Misunderstood and suffering alone and living in fear that nobody will understand them.

    And I also see a lot of people who are too preoccupied with what they believe in, what they think are right and how things should be, that they don’t have space in their hearts or minds to see things in any other angle. Seeing these people clash against each other in a confusing mess, that familiar thought from my childhood resurfaces, if only they understood each other…

    I had to stop myself. Because I realized now that the idea of people perfectly understanding each other? Sadly, that’s not possible.

    You Don't Need To Understand | I share another story and why I no longer think understanding others is what we need to be compassionate to others.

    See, there’s something I learned not too long ago.

    Our experiences are our own. And so are our thoughts.

    Okay, make that everything in our mind.

    Everything in our mind is our own.

    No matter how many people claimed to have similar experiences or ideas or thoughts that you have, these will never be exactly the same as yours. Kinda like how we have our own unique set of fingerprints, you know?

    And that’s just how it is.

    The reason why younger Kate’s grand ambition of Everyone Perfectly Understanding Each Other won’t ever come true is because we inherently can’t. We understand things in our own ways. And so we see and comprehend seemingly similar things differently.

    So if completely understanding everyone is not possible, what will happen to us? Is a compassion to many people not possible, then?

    Are we forever cursed to chaos and messes brought by misunderstanding and, ultimately, hatred? (That sounded like a line from a blurb of a YA fantasy lol)

    The answer came to me in a form of a photo shared on Twitter.

    https://twitter.com/camphalfblood/status/826197313278328832

    Of course. Respect!

    (Side note: I swear, I was tearing up when I read that letter. I had to stop myself because I was in the middle of a class at the time.)

    I particularly love that line: “…they did not need to understand, but they did need to show respect.” Because in that one line, this anonymous teacher from Massachusetts, who wrote this letter to the amazing Uncle Rick, gave me the answer. And it’s so simple.

    You don’t need to understand everyone. You don’t even need people to understand you. You just need to respect others, whoever they are and whatever circumstances they’re in.

    Because that, my awesome and beautiful friends, is the best way to show compassion to people you don’t understand.

    How will you show respect and compassion to a person today? 🙂

    Have a passion-filled day, awesome peeps! <3

    post-promotion

  • To The Brave Risk-Takers who are Doubting Their Selves

    To The Brave Risk-Takers who are Doubting Their Selves

    To the dreamers who dream of wonderful things. To the young hopefuls discouraged by the cruelty of the world. Who were told to “just give up” because their big ideas are too big for this world to carry.

    To the once innocent child, whose hopes were raised and whose hearts were spoon-fed with “dream big”s and “you can do anything”s, just to grow up with crushed dreams and doing nothing.

    To the people courageous enough to take risks but have wallowed their selves in self-doubt.

    Please.

    Keep on dreaming.

    Fill your heart with hope and believe in yourself. The world needs more of you.

    And in the words of the Cecil Beaton:

    cecil beaton quote

    Have an amazing day, awesome peeps! 😀

  • You’ll Be Just Fine

    You’ll Be Just Fine

    Hello, everyone! I know Mondays could be hard a lot and like Garfield, many of us hate it. But I also know that bad days in general don’t choose when they’ll pop up. Personally, I’ve had a bad Friday at least once in my life.

    So I want to share to you all a lullaby I discovered on Spotify. This is an original by a Youtuber named Kenzie Nimmo. It’s so good and so comforting. Besides, who doesn’t love a really simple and soothing lullaby, right?

    Happy Monday, awesome peeps! 💃

  • What To Do If You Accidentally Press The Send Button

    We have an overcast sky here and the rain just stopped. It’s so cozy and I don’t want to do anything today. But I got this crazy idea for a blog post and it cannot wait a day more.

    Has your thumb ever had its own consciousness and suddenly you pressed send in the middle of typing your replies?

    I did. Many times. My thumbs are unreliable. One time, I was writing a blog post using my WordPress app but I accidentally pressed “Publish” instead of that gear icon. Not only that, it got published twice. What the heck is wrong with my thumbs? I had to delete both abominations of a published post and continue writing, grumbling at my thumbs while doing so.

    The same goes when I’m commenting on a post and when I hit reply/send midway, I’m like

    I want to show an example made by my good blogger friend and inspiring human being Kiya of Flawed Silence.

    comment

    She didn’t just handle the embarrassing pressed-send-accidentally scenario really well but I could also relate to her a lot. Then a couple of days ago, I found a rather cheeky solution.

    Basically, all you have to do is to disconnect your Internet connection while the WordPress app is loading the unfinished comment/post. That’s what I did the last time it happened (which was last Wednesday), it would say error and go back to being a draft. If this happens on your computer, just close the window as fast as you can. Better to start again, I always say.

    There you go! This is a completely random and not-so-helpful post but yeah. 😅 

    And if you can’t help it and it’s already out there, relax bro. Do what awesome Kiya did and coolly embrace your fingers’ clumsiness. There are far graver mistakes to make. So don’t worry, at the end of the day, you’re still alive. 😉

    Happy typing, awesome peeps! 💃

  • Mistakes and Little Victories

    Mistakes and Little Victories

    Hey guys! Caitlin at A Little Daydreamer started out The Ultimate Blogging Challenge and I plan on participating as much as I can. Today’s the first day and it’s all about getting to know each other better. Basically, you create something that represents yourself and lets people get to know you better. Here’s mine.

    Artworks

    These…are my stuff.

    Not everything I own but some of the things that I think could represent me well: Art.

    I love art so much I can probably write an ode to it. Just give me a few weeks.

    I started out tracing Disney princesses when I was around seven or eight. You know, like you put a thin bond paper over a certain printed illustration and just trace the lines? Yep, that’s how I started. And oh man, I boasted my traced works like they were Mona Lisa.

    When I started drawing without guide, I drew girls with really huge eyes and long wavy hair and really long legs. It was a style I got from my bro’s nanny. And when someone pointed out my drawings’ legs were too long and they look like messed up Bratz, I started reassessing my works and fixing what needs to be.

    Then in fifth grade, I discovered Youtube. There were tutorials on how to draw anime girls and anime hair and anime bodies. I was a sponge trying to absorb everything.

    This summer I’m trying to learn watercolor and *sigh* all of my works are junks. You can’t see it but the drawing book underneath the tubes and pens? That’s my practice book with all the distorted and failed attempts at painting flowers. But I’m still trying to draw them better.

    I tried landscape-ish paintings. And while they look kinda okay in this picture (thanks to VSCO), they’re still a little messy-looking. You see that white thingy between the trees in the forest painting? That’s supposed to be a white wolf. But then my aunt saw it and she was like, “Is that a cat?”

    And I said, “No! That’s a wolf.”

    “Well, are your pine trees too small or your cat-wolf too big?”

    “It’s a dire wolf spirit,” I muttered sheepishly. “It’s supposed to be big.”

    My first attempt at a galaxy print in my drawing book looked like a mixture of red, blue and violet ground meat. It’s horrendous but I’m still trying.

    And that letter K? While I love art, I’m not really a craftsy person. Took me one whole week to finish and used up all the masking tape. Should’ve created a template instead of winging the measurements.

    So before I further embarrass myself, I guess what I’m trying to say here is: I’m nowhere near as great as those dudes and dudettes in Saatchi or DeviantArt. But I can be. Someday. Hopefully.

    See, I don’t believe anyone started out in life as a fully fledged expert. We were all noobs at one point. I’m still a noob in watercolor and crafts. And my anatomy still sucks. But I’m trying to be better every day, learning things through my mistakes while celebrating the little achievements.

    And I guess that’s also how I take on life: just trying to be better every day.

    So yeah.

    My name is Kate and I’m a work-in-progress. 🎨:)

  • 18 Lessons I Learned in 18 Years

    So. It’s my birthday today. Would you look at that, I’m now 18. Hurrah.

    It’s not that I’m glum about it, don’t misinterpret. It’s just that…I guess as you grow older, birthdays just becomes this small detail in your life that people around you feel obliged to be happy about. Or I dunno, maybe that’s just me…

    Holy heck, it’s my freaking birthday. Why am I so melancholic? Arrrggh. Keep it light-hearted, Kate. Srsly. This whole Comprehensive Exam preparation is really getting on my nerves. -_-

    What I am happy about are these:

    Bruh

    • Google greeted me! With awesome delectable cakes…that I can’t even eat. But oh well, Google greeted me! Isn’t that awesome? 😀
    • One of my bestest friends ever (Hi Quexy!) reminded me how cool it was that the whole world is celebrating something on my birthday.
      But here’s the thing: somewhere out there, someone’s celebrating your birthday, whenever it is. And the world is finding new ways to celebrate something every single day. By the way, happy Easter Sunday/ National Cherry Blossoms Day, everyone!
    • Said best friend (Hi Quexy!) sent me the most awesome multiple SMS birthday message ever~ <3
    • Two of my awesome closest college friends send me Facebook messages that made me speechless. In completely different ways…Because there’s this…
      DO YOU SEE HOW CUTE THIS IS?

      And there’s this…

      goat heart.
      I dunno how to feel with this… (And yeah, yeah. I said screw anonymity but it applies to me. Not my friends.)
    • I’ve finally finished my part in the company study. The concepts of which I have only an inkling of knowledge of. Crossing fingers for the oral defense. X(><)X
    • I have the same birthday as Keira Knightley and freaking James Potter!!! To think that J.K. thought of creating a character with a birthday same as mine is just so…💕

    Anyway, I remember watching Jenna Marbles’s 29 Lessons I Learned in 29 Years and was inspired by it thinking, “Hey, I wanna do that on my 18th birthday!”

    Because there’s nothing better than reflecting back on the path you’ve taken and comparing where you’ve been to where you are now. Right? And also, I don’t feel old. And I wanna feel old today (see #16 below for why) so looking back on how I was for the last 18 years was a pretty good idea. So yeah. Here are 18 lessons I learned in 18 years.

    1. Disney lies. Birds–no, animals–will not approach you just because you’re singing. Or in my sister’s case, trying to feed the chickens with leaves. Imagine a girl trying to prove to her little sister that “chickens eat moringa leaves” and chasing the chickens around the yard. Man, that was a highlight of my early childhood days.
    2. Cartoons and animations are not only for children. NEVER.
    3. Sometimes, curiosity makes the cat a smarter cat. If you’re curious about something and you wanna learn it, go! Best case scenario, you’ll be invited to The Ellen Show. Or win a Nobel. Worst case scenario…you’ll learn something new. Be it something mind-blowing or totally unnecessary. You learned a new thing. That should count for something…right?
    4. Vegetables will never taste good when you’re a kid. But you’ll learn to appreciate them when you grow up. Trust me.
    5. Getting below 85% (or A) is not the end of the world. It took college to make me realize this.
    6. It’s okay that you like something kids your age don’t. This lesson is still something I’m learning today. If you like something, others’ opinions shouldn’t really matter.
    7. Maybe you won’t have many friends, maybe you’ll have few great friends.
    8. Listen to your mother’s advice. When she said not to touch that tiny red bump on your cheeks, don’t touch it. Or else, you’ll suffer more than 5 years of acne scars. Kate.
    9. Your quirks also make you who you are. Embrace them.
    10. Related to #9, you don’t need labels to be you.
    11. Even if your photos aren’t Instagram-worthy, it’s okay. So long as they’re packed with great memories.
    12. So what if you like something ridiculous or silly? Michelle Phan is obsessed with Sailor Moon but that does not make her any less awesome. Love what you love. #TeamUnicorns
    13. You can’t make everybody like you. You won’t like everybody. But choose wisely the people you are willing to waste and spend time with. <– Look at that. I sound like some old philosopher.
    14. Change will never be something you’ll expect. And that’s okay.
    15. We’ve all got our own pace. So, really, there’s nothing to “catch up” to others. Especially when studying, Kate.
    16. Appreciate sleep. You’ll get less and less as you get older. Until you’re retired and all you have to do is sit on a rocking chair on your front porch yelling at kids. I can’t wait to be old.
    17. You will get there, wherever you wish or dream to go. I promise, you will. Do your best and have faith on yourself.
    18. And if at rare times that you don’t, maybe you’re meant to be somewhere better.

  • 5 People That Inspire Me To Write Poems (And Have Given My Mind Word-gasms)

    Ever experienced reading a quote or a phrase in a book or a whole stanza and just reacted like,

    or,

    I have always been vocal with my love for books and words in general. I mentioned my undying love for words perfectly woven to create lush ideas and trigger deep emotions. And I might have aspired to finish writing a book (which I’ve achieved back in high school) but I’ve never thought of myself as writing poetry. When I was in a sophomore in high school, I was appointed to create a nutrition poem which will be our class’s entry for the contest. Along with one of my friends, we winged it and just made every last word of the line rhyme.

    It was fun but it was nowhere poetic or meaningful. And the shocking part is…we didn’t place. No really, it was not shocking at all.

    But ever since that “!(____)You, You(____)Me” poem and creating that Writing/Creativity blog, I’ve been considering writing poems. And I’ve had dozens of hundreds (of thousands) of people who aspired and inspired me to do so but here are the top 5.

    1. Christopher Poindexter

      For those who doesn’t know who Christopher Poindexter is, click here. I’ve seen snippets of his poems in Facebook via Word Porn, Mind Porn and Great Minds. Of all the many typewriter poetry images I’ve seen of Poindexter, I have forgotten what the first one was. But I always know a Poindexter-fingerprinted poem when I see one (and it’s not just through the typewriter format of the images). His poems are always filled with the right dosages of poignancy and hope and, most of all, love.
    2. Pablo Neruda
      I learned about Pablo Neruda through reading Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins and I loved him ever since. His works have always been so straightforward in conveying their messages. And yet (despite or maybe because of their straightforwardness) they have the capability to throw you off against waves of emotions the way No Face was rocking helplessly against the waves created by the train.
    3. Charles Bukowski

      Charles Bukowski is ruthless and gritty and romantically fragile. I love him and his works. I haven’t read any of his novels and novellas but I’ve read tons of his poems and that one above, The Laughing Heart, is my favorite.
    4. Adam Young (a.k.a Owl City)

      You might argue with me on this and I’ll be happy to entertain people who disagree. There’s just something about the way Adam Young creates lyrics (which I’ve quoted dozens of times in Twitter and Facebook). It’s funny how the first time I heard Fireflies, I thought the lyrics was lame. Not anymore. However, the charm of his lyrics certainly would be lacking without his mind-blowingly light-hearted musical arrangements.
    5. Oscar Wilde

      His witty prose and way with words certainly appealed many people. But what I ove most about Oscar Wilde is how he could pull off rhyming poetry without looking lame. (Because heck if I could do that.)

  • Your Self vs Your Labels (and your “About Me”s)

    Funny how this is Katie and that’s my nickname. via Google images (source) Read the article if you want to. It’s pretty fun.

    Big-headed as it sounds, I can easily say that I’m a person one can’t describe in one word. That’s most likely why I have these hoards of different topics to discuss on this blog. I tried talking about just one main topic in another blog once. That blog didn’t live long. It’s still there somewhere in the depths of the web. Not active but merely existing. (Whoa, I feel like I just described Kronos.) Single niche blogs doesn’t work for me, although I read TONS of them.

    It’s the same thing with my self.

    I don’t see me as just one type of person. I am so many things that can’t be coherent in one single word. So imagine the difficulty I face when filling in those “About Me” in my different accounts in different sites. I have to think of something that’s short but could summarize the basics of me. It takes me, at most, a few hours. That About page in this blog? Yeah, it took somewhere around 45 minutes to an hour. But still.

    Then after a few “About Me” filled out, I learned something: I could never summarize myself. It’s not possible.

    And the same goes for other people. I truly believe that no one is just a nerd or just a jock or just a popular girl at school. You don’t need to be a tomboy just because you’re a girl who is “one of the guys”. Go act something childish that you love to do even if you’re supposed to be an adult. Like collect toys or read comic books.

    And let’s face it: the labeling? It’s not just others’ fault. I see all these people who have let themselves be absorbed by their labels and I feel sad and frustrated at the same time. Why can’t one just embrace his entire being instead of that one thing that people thinks of first? That person is just making his own wounds deeper by not becoming more than just a label.

    We all know, in courtesy of Shrek, that ogres have layers. But the thing is, we have layers, too. The difference between us and Shrek (other than the complexion and ears) is that there are times when it’s not easy for us to see those layers.

    I’m a blogger, an avid reader, movie and music junkie, frequent Pinner, less frequent Tweeter, art enthusiast, probably an accountant-to-be, and, most of all, hopefully the first unicorn rider. And I still have more in myself to discover. My tombstone has to be as tall as the Washington Monument for them to completely summarize who I am. (Imagine hundreds of Washington Monuments in graveyards. Burial would have been nasty expensive. No wonder we have eulogies.) And so does everyone else.

    So how about you? Who are you?

    (And unless the answer is “Human” or “Person” or “Girl/Boy/Man/Woman” try not answering with one word.)