6 Filipinos With Swoon-Worthy Handwriting You’ll Meet at the Manila Pen Show 2023

Everyone’s most formative memories have to do with learning to write in script. The satisfaction of looking at your immaculate, handwritten notes is something everyone can relate to even today, in the advent of technology that has taken us away from the simple act of...

NaNoWriMo 2022 Day 30: “five years.”

I celebrate 5 years with my lover and the time feels surreal, still. A tumultuous couple of years was enough for us to understand that ‘no matter what’ are empty words until you have buckled under the weight of such a promise. It was the first time we didn’t think the...

NaNoWriMo 2022 Day 29: “sometimes love is not enough to pull yourself together.”

I read a story recently that broke my heart. A man yearns for his — friend? ex-lover? they never quite figured it out — paralyzed by the realization of his persisting fondness. His friend asks him what went wrong. ‘It wasn’t what he wanted. Or so I thought. Maybe it...

NaNoWriMo 2022 Day 28: “untitled.”

I want to be disappointed, but I am not surprised — and for that alone I am disappointed. Feeling let down by my own inability to finish something when it’s due, when it’s something I wanted for myself, not for anyone else. My brain screams for words to put on paper....

NaNoWriMo 2022 Day 27: “three a.m.”

I’ve found that I am ill-prepared for tragedy—whether big or small. My brain stops functioning and my throat seizes up and all my frail body could do is call someone—anyone—to tell me what to do. I’ve found that I am useless and panicked and overcome with ferocious...

NaNoWriMo 2022 Day 6: “waiting.”

For the sun to rise. For a blanket of red and golden hues to stretch out over the horizon. For my veins to be touched in the same way. For a spark of joy to electrify my sleepy bones and, this time, stay. To not be sad for once. To be reminded of the kindness of...

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NaNoWriMo 2022 Day 3: “screw you.”

Just tell me that you hate me, or lie and say you do. Maybe then, it would be easier. The truth is I’m tired—of feeling too much, of needing to feel so much, and of failing to feel anything at all. The way you had carved yourself into my chest has now left a gaping...

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NaNoWriMo 2022 Day 2: “recess.”

I struggle to believe that whatever generational trauma that plagues my household will ever heal, but I hold onto hope that in the best of times, without me knowing, love is there—quiet and unspoken—evidenced by the artful way the crust of my sandwich is sliced off,...

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NaNoWriMo 2022 Day 1: “write a recipe for disaster.”

You saw your ex-lover again outside of a 24-hour supermarket eating pudding from a plastic cup. The white fluorescent light outlines his figure and you suddenly remember that this is how you’ve always seen him before—like a ghost that came into your life as quickly as...

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Monthly Musings #3: The Night Watch, Lilacs, And Discworld’s Best Novel

Monthly Musings #3: The Night Watch, Lilacs, And Discworld’s Best Novel

I had to sit with my grief for a couple of weeks after finishing this book because of how hard it had hit me. It’s insane how I could become so invested in the lives of fictional characters, to become so tethered to them that their experiences are my own, their internal struggles are also my own, and my anguish is just as great as theirs was.

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Journaling and Self-Care with the Tarot: The Fool

Journaling and Self-Care with the Tarot: The Fool

where the story begins... It was the middle of January 2019 when I decided to quit my job. The year had just begun. I had a whole notebook filled with scribbles and jottings of goals I was driven to accomplish. And yet, the one thing I had never prepared myself to do...

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