It’s a rather dismal Monday night in September (a strange month for me back in the day because I would be excited for school to start while simultaneously deeply wistful that summer should be coming to an end. I have since come to learn that we, as a society, are very prone to an “either-or” mentality when it’s perfectly acceptable to think “both-and”. IE: We are allowed to feel two conflicting things and that was very comforting for me to realize and greatly reduced a lot of my inner turmoil).
(more…)Author: Kazandra Pangilinan
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What I Thought of ‘Normal People’
Normal People by Sally Rooney is a book that came to me highly recommended from friends, the internet, and even President Obama.
A quote on the cover from The Washington Post says, “A novel that demands to be read compulsively, in one sitting.”
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The Secret Lives in Kitchens
Morning. The coffee is brewing, and Hall & Oates are singing, and the door to the back porch is open, letting in that cool, almost-September breeze. I like these quiet mornings when I’m the only one home. It almost feels like playing house – the way I used to when I was little. Except now it’s real.
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More Than…
There are a few remaining rays of August sunshine left and I’m sitting with my back to the window, letting myself soak it all in. I don’t do that enough. Soak things in, I mean. When I read books, I feel like I’m sometimes too motivated by needing to know what happens that I don’t savor every word, sentence, paragraph. And when I eat, I feel like I want to try everything, so I chew quickly, so that nothing runs out before I’ve had the chance. And when I walk, I stride with purpose, propelled forward by some invisible force.
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These Moments, Too
I hear a plane flying above me, somewhere in the pure sky. There are birds chirping, somewhere in the trees. And in between all these things, somewhere in the deep folds of the universe, there’s me. I’m not doing anything spectacular – not jumping on overnight bus journeys and waking up in new cities, or trying new foods with names I can’t pronounce, or climbing volcanoes at sunrise – I’m just here, quietly existing in my own little way.
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The Danger in Being Too Positive
I’ve lived most of my life trying to see the good in everything. With a sense of pride, I don my rose-coloured glasses, celebrating the accomplishment that against all odds, I didn’t become jaded or cynical like other grown-ups.
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28 Years Later
Today is June 28th. I turned 28 years old at the beginning of the month, something that came and went like an old friend who so comfortably walks through the door without saying hello and leaves without saying goodbye. That is to say, I didn’t really think about turning older this year. It somehow just happened.
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Skeletons in my Closet
I have a lot of skeletons in my closet. Not literally, obviously. I’m also not talking about secrets I’d rather not reveal. The skeletons I’m referring to are more of the fabric variety. Soft and silky, or patterned with lace, or frayed with ripped hems, or made up of polyester fibers.
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What the March Sisters Taught Me About Money
A very loved copy of Little Women sits quietly on my bookshelf and fills a tender place in my heart. With bent corners and pages slightly stained from tears that have fallen upon them, it’s a book I’ve read over and over again. At first, with my sisters, gathered around our own Marmee. Then by myself, stumbling along on my own journey from girlhood to womanhood.
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Things I Learned Growing Up 