All posts tagged: Personal Growth

Ready/Unready

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Can you ever truly say that you are ready? What does it mean to be ready? I thought, I always thought, it means that you have prepared for scenarios. You have practiced, trained for what is coming. Yet, what is coming? Life, never comes in a straight line. When has a significant event in your life ever been something you can practice for? Everything, despite lessons from history, is unique when it occurs. As they say, “the only constant is change”. A reinterpretation, recombination, reformation of what we already know leads to something unexpected. Sometimes, you really do encounter something you never have before. I know I have many times. (Am I lucky or unlucky?) So how can you be ready? Perhaps being ready is a mindset. It means you recognize you are unready but you have the ability to adjust accordingly. Yet, how do you know you have the ability to adjust to something you have never encountered before? Maybe, we are all and always unready. Ready is just a framework in hindsight. When …

Letters on Tuesdays – Seeing the World

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Dear Wilton, We have been very privileged. Remember to thank mom and dad. Our parents never really stopped us from exploring the world around us, though sometimes it definitely made them uncomfortable. They were not passive either. Indeed, you can recall the numerous times that they took us on vacations to different countries in an effort to broaden our worldview and our horizons. Travelling and seeing the world take on different meanings as you grow older. As a kid, I was fascinated by the physical differences of all the places we went. Every place looked different and felt different. Some, like Singapore, was hot and humid. Others, like Thailand, was more rural and resort-like. Still others, like Japan, was highly technologically advanced. I was focused, always, on the present moment and present location. Slowly, however, I began to become more interested in the fabric that makes each place unique: history, environment, people, culture, etc. Perhaps the change was driven by my own interests in history and biology, further developed by my pursuit of an anthropology …

Letters on Tuesdays – Until A Basket to Reach Into

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Dear Wilton, Though we are thirteen years apart, as siblings growing up with nearly identical upbringings, we have many similarities. You grew up surrounded by the very books your sisters and I read. Over the years, I have seen you develop a love for reading through them. Like me, you are captivated by books and we have voracious appetites for the written word. I am certain it is because our books give us wings, wings to fly into foreign and imagined lands. The written word can easily become magic in a young mind. The written word relaxes us and takes us places where our worries become thin air and where our fears are replaced by a character’s. There are untold amounts of joy when I see you engrossed in one of my old novels. I can imagine you going through the same emotions, the same questions, and the same challenges with each book. Though it pains me to see  you having less care for the physical conditions of the books than I, for many were still …

Letters on Tuesdays – Failure is Inevitable

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Dear Wilton, Today, I want to write to you about failure. This is related to the first letter I wrote you two weeks ago, but this time I want to directly tackle your fear of failure. The timing is, perhaps, impeccable as you make your way with our parents to interview at various boarding schools. You have mentioned how you feared that you are not good enough, that you are going to fail to impress the admissions at the various boarding schools. Well, the truth is, we all face failures throughout our lives. Whether it be failing to convince our parents to buy us that toy when we were a kid, to failing to be accepted by our dream school when we were in high school, to failing to land that “perfect” job when we graduated, or to failing to complete a project to satisfaction when we are worked. You see, failure comes from having expectations. Expectations are standards of achievements we set for ourselves and sometimes for others. Not that there is anything wrong …

Half-Year Review – All that Work 就說到做到

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About four months ago, I wrote about goals to achieve by the time my birthday rolled around. Well, my birthday came and went on the 8th of June and here I am today, looking back and looking forward. Before we start, big shout out to my friends with their surprise cakes. First, let’s review my goals and how much I completed: Learn Spanish – I am at 50% fluency on Duolingo! Learn to write Chinese – I am halfway there. Still in progress Complete Data Science Specialization with Coursera – Completed! Complete Half of the GIS Specialization – Yup, got them certificates! Complete a site suitability study – Done, I actually completed two but only one is public on LoopNet! Check under attachments. Write and submit poetry to Poetry Foundation – Done, but haven’t heard back yet. Work-out regularly – Almost everyday and I run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Also started bouldering and biking from Venice Beach to Santa Monica. Practice violin everyday – Doing that as well, though been on a break the last couple …

Dessert…is the Food for Soul

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Let’s take a break from the heavier stuff. In recent years, I have taken quite a liking to cooking and making desserts. This is partly because I am beginning to notice how the food you eat affect how your body functions and feels. Another reason is the sense of accomplishment that comes with making good food. I admit, my skills as a chief is probably only average, but part of the fun is to see my personal growth. With each meal and dessert I make, I gain more experience with how to prepare the ingredients and what to do once the fire is on. Desserts are my favorite things to make. The more challenging the dessert, the more I want to attempt it. I always love a good challenge and a hard dessert is like a puzzle to be solved. Personally, I think unlike main courses and dishes, most dessert recipes require some delicacy to their preparation and cooking. It takes patience and care to make a good dessert. As the ancient Chinese like to …