Category: Insights

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Books Insights Pals Secrets

Life Updates: Book One + Netflix Games + Kawawang Ego

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1.

FINALLYYYY! I finished my first book of 2026! I just finished reading Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel. Pero hindi ako ganun ka-happy kasi 3.5 stars lang sya for me. Since hindi ako magaling mag-review ng books, hindi ko ma-eexplain kung bakit ganun ang rating ko. Basta based from my reading experience, the insights, and the lingering impression after finishing the book, it feels like a 3.5 🌟

Romantics value intensity over stability. Realists value security over passion. But both are often disappointed, for few people can live happily at either extreme.

— Esther Perel

2.

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Free Posts Insights Life

To Be.. Or Not To Be.. A Mother.

Meron akong ka-chikahan na friend. Kinekwento nya sakin yung conversation nila ng kapatid nya. Their shared complaint was, â€śKelan ba sila magkakaanak? (kami raw and this other couple from our friend group) Tayo lang ba ang mahihirapan?? Hirap na hirap na tayo, etc…” Alam naman nya na decided kami ni Kenneth na ayaw namin magkaanak, but I think nabibilang sya dun sa group na nirerespeto nya yung ganung desisyon ng mga couples, pero hindi pa nya fully gets kung bakit. For them, being a parent is the default choice. Baka andun pa sya sa ganung level of understanding.

But it was enlightening. Sharing that conversation with me—between her and her sister—was an insight. May ganun palang thoughts ang ibang mga nanay. â€śMag-anak na rin kayo para mahirapan na rin kayo tulad namin.” I get it. I don’t take it against her. Totoo namang nakakapagbigay ng comfort pag may kasama ka sa paghihirap. Pero karamay na nya yung kapatid nya diba? Bakit lahat dapat kasali? Dun papasok ang, â€śThe more, the merrier.” Haha.

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Insights

The Other F Word

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Dito Ba? O, Dito Ba?

Dami kong tanong. Recently kasi, ang hilig kong manood ng mga Manila vlogs. Yung mga podcasts na pinapakinggan ko, gusto ko as much as possible Tagalog. Aliw na aliw rin akong manood ng Pinoy movies ngayon (kakatapos ko lang panoorin kagabi yung movie ni Regine Velasquez at Robin Padilla: Kailangan Ko’y Ikaw). Basta para bang uhaw na uhaw ako sa anything Pinoy. Ito ang mga tanong ko:

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Free Posts Insights Life

Lola Goals

During our weekly heart-to-heart session last week, merong tanong dun sa couples deck na:

What’s your ideal day pag nag-retire ka na?

So inisip ko yung mga gusto kong gawin pag lola na ko, which is:

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Insights Life Secrets

Thursday Letter #16 | Honesty is the Best Policy

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Sometimes, I get conscious sa mga sinusulat ko dito, kasi pakiramdam ko minsan paulit-ulit. Or I sometimes negate myself, lalo na pag nababasa ko yung mga luma kong posts. Despite this worry, it’s not stopping me from hitting the publish button. Kasi yun talaga yung reality ko eh. Yun ang pinagdadaanan ko. Perceptions change. Tastes change. Normal lang magbago, at normal din na magpaulit-ulit.

It’s also a universal reality na mabagabag sa isang bagay, tapos akala mo resolved na at naka-move on ka na, until dadating yung araw na mababagabag ka ulit. Or yung may sasabihin kang gagawin mo, proud na proud ka sa plano mo, tapos sasablay ka nanaman. Wala eh. Yun talaga ang realidad. Sabi nga nung isang guest sa Ang Walang Kwentang Podcast:

I’m not here to be a role model,
I’m here to be the real deal.

Inah Evans

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My Decembers

December is a sensitive month for me. Kasi simula pagkabata, as mentioned before, ito yung favorite month ko. Festive and vibrant ang paligid, magbi-birthday ako, nung bata ako alam kong magkakaron ako ng pera pamamasko, nung tumanda na nakakatuwa yung mga sale, and just overall looking forward to family holiday events. My brain had a certain expectation pagsapit ng December, built from my childhood and was a constant part of my world. Pero nagbago lahat yun nung nag-move kami sa Canada.

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Insights Pals Secrets

Best Friends

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I was listening to a podcast and one of the hosts talked about having a best friend and how they had a falling out, and I naturally thought of my best friends and how we had a falling out. Back in grade school, I still think fondly of all the ‘best friend things’ we did. Listening to boy bands and girl pop stars (we loved Christina Aguilera), sharing our boy band crushes (mine is Ben of A1), gushing about our real-life crushes, gossiping about girls we didn’t like, skipping my piano lessons and hanging out at their house for hours (yung pambayad ko sa piano teacher ginawa kong pang-meryenda namin), and all that cutesy naivetĂ© that childhood brings.

I find it incredibly cool that back then, living in a small province, we’d just tell our parents we were going to our friend’s house and then just walk there on our own. No cellphones, no way for them to track us, no texting our friend to say we’re coming over—we’d just show up on their doorsteps completely unannounced, and all that was just normal. What we had was pure, unadulterated quality time with our friends, and there were no cellphones to distract us. If there’s a landline phone, its main purpose was to prank call our crushes (hindi kami nagte-telebabad ng best friends ko kasi kung gusto naming magusap, pupunta kami mismo sa bahay ng isa’t isa para mag-chikahan). Those were the days indeed.

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Free Posts Insights Life

Goodness Gracious

I wanted to share an article I read about being a good person. The author—drawing from social media standards and contemporary novels—humorously summed it up this way:

First and foremost, a good person possesses a deep understanding of power structures and her relative place in them. She has a sense of humor that never “punches down.” She doesn’t subtweet, buy stuff on Amazon, or fly on too many planes. She has children in order to fend off narcissism—a bad quality—and develop a stake in the future of planet Earth, but she would never presume to judge another woman’s choice. And though she occasionally makes mistakes—cheats on her boyfriend, offends her friends after drinking too much, doesn’t call her mom very often—she admits them. A good person is not perfect (she has read enough not to fall for that trap), but she is self-aware.

Lauren Oyler — For Goodness’ Sake
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Career Insights Secrets

The Okayest Employee

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I’ve downloaded the LinkedIn app again just to take a peek of what’s out there. I even  received two messages about remote job opportunities na para bang alam nilang babalik na ko sa trabaho soon. Pag nakauwi na ang Mama sa Pilipinas, I will be in my full-on job hunting mode.

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