Category: Adventure
-
The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“She dropped her shyness like a nightgown, and in the liquid glare of sunlight on old boards she held up her hands-as if, in the terror of the upcoming skirmish, she had at last understood that she was beautiful. In her own way.” ― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the…
-
get a grip and smile
Floodgates freaking opened today really don’t know what came over me. Hormones it must be. Don’t we all have one of those times where we start crying for one reason or another, and to stop the tears from coming is totally Mission Impossible. Thankful and so glad for the impromptu late night escapade with Dia…
-
magic squiggles
“What an astonishing thing a book is. It is a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts, on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew…
-
only the beginning
Starting this career for real… a million emotions rolled into one. March – April Shanghai Manila Osaka Bombay
-
the road untravelled
“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” ― Marilyn…
-
outside my window
The prettiest sights are almost invariably tainted howbeit calculated efforts to keep our perspectives crystal clear. A willfully affirmed fogged vision. We like what we see, forfeit what we don’t. That’s human beings for you. Yes, the world’s less glorious with your eyes wide open. What’s that stuck on your window panes? Maybe you should…
-
the modern gothic
The Basílica y Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia (Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family), better known as Sagrada Familia. Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Catalonia. Magnum opus of Antoni Gaudi, God’s Architect. Viewing it from different compass points gives you a distinct feel of the buildings’ elements, its Nativity Façade (east), Passion Façade…
-
keep calm and stay sassy
The school of hard-knocks that is life clearly isn’t just any bubble-wrapped, sugar-coated candyland. When the going gets tough, chant this mantra: To me, being 22 & trying to keep your sanity in this crazy world is: 1. Realizing what a terrible person I am / had been 2. Knowing my flaws, recognizing the need…
-
letters to a young poet
“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At…
-
take a holiday from reality whenever you like
“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness…
-
had my heart aglow
Memories aren’t created to be tossed aside or fed to the wind. Most unfortunately whoever created Man didn’t engineer our brains to work as per a shredder does – feed it in, tear it apart, then proceed to expel the remnants. Letting go takes tremendous practice – a dab of ignorance, a handful of shrugs, closed…
-
ladies in hats and pink poodles
“The next night I went back to the sea dressed in 1950s silk travel scarves – Paris with the Eiffel tower and ladies in hats and pink poodles, Venice with bronze horses and gondoliers, New York in celestial blue and silver. I brought candles and lit the candles, all the candles, in a circle around…
-
headlights, buggies, immaculate Pixar movies
So this lifelong paper chase concludes in February with the Bachelor’s degree conferred on me yet the anticipated pride hasn’t hit, let alone any sense of accomplishment at having survived the insanely rigorous rite of passage into the adults’ society. Why then, did this flimsy piece of paper hold more intrigue ten years ago, than…
-
I was a bride married to amazement
“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it is over, I don’t want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don’t want to find myself sighing and…
-
you’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss
-
“live by your own rules”
In my first year at NUS, I made a friend first day at Statistics class. Standing outside lab trying not to look lost, this guy pointed me in the right direction, then held out the door for me (I still remember okay!) I sat next to him, and because I sucked at programming, he helped me…
Viktoria Jean 