Travel Bag: Packing My Luggage

Posted on 06/19/2022 by Lenn

As the world slowly opens up and return to ‘normal’, we are finally allowed to travel again! This year, we scheduled domestic travels first and this month, we’re going to Bohol. It’s one of the places that’s well-known not only for the tourist spots such as the infamous Chocolate Hills, but also dive-spots. In recent years, more and more people have been into diving, and Bohol is definitely one of the places in the country where you can enjoy this sport.

It’s honestly my first time to go there, so I’m really looking forward to exploring the place. One of my goals is to swim with the sardines and the turtles (if I get lucky!). I’m pretty excited to share my experience on my blog once we get back, but for this specific blogpost, I’m going to share with you the stuff that I always bring with me during travels! It’s kind of like What’s In Your Bag, except it’s a luggage. Haha

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The Dusty Diary #4 🌸

Posted on 05/11/2022 by Lenn

And, thus, the heart will break, yet brokenly live on. – Lord Byron

As the campaign period comes to an end and the election day is over, I would like to say that it has been an honor to fight and spread the right information alongside the woman with the cleanest track record amongst all the candidates. The partial and unofficial tallies have been disheartening, but whatever the outcome will be, I know that, we, the supporters have to accept it. I’d be lying if I say that I never shed a tear because of the results because I did. I cried at random moments of the day, but who wouldn’t? I guess, I invested too much of everything during the campaign period or maybe I had my hopes up way too high.

Regardless, I know that we fought a good fight and I will never regret supporting the person that BBC called the “dream candidate.” The past couple of months have given me hope for a better tomorrow and a clearer future for those who are heavily dependent on the government’s performance, albeit it might not be the case right now based on the partial and unofficial results. To me, the light bulb of hope that I had up until the morning of May 9th turned into a lit match stick, but at least there’s still light. Who knows, right?

We were fighting for good governance, and I don’t understand how that could be wrong. It was never about the candidate, but more about her values, principles, and dreams for a better country. It just so happens that she is the sole candidate who embodied (and still does) these things — she shared our hopes and dreams for a better country. We were not fighting for her, but rather with her. Personally, one of my reasons why I fought with her against a regime known for human rights abuse, kleptocracy, and dictatorship is to avoid reopening wounds that would hurt the elderlies who have lost a loved one and have been hurt during the dark days of the Philippines. Alas, these things have been forgotten by the people. It pains me to witness this happening firsthand, but if this is what the people have decided on, then so be it. That’s democracy, after all.

Despite their victory, some of us are grieving the loss of a possible honest and transparent government. Being mocked by others for being sad and for being silent hurts not because we are embarrassed, but because we knew that the fight wasn’t entirely for us, but for those who are depending on the government’s performance (o mga nasa laylayan). People keep on saying that no one should depend on the government in order to live their life, that we all have the power to write our story to be successful, but a lot of people in our laylayan have been working their asses off day after day for the past years or even decades, but still remain to be part of the marginalized poor. Not having to understand this just show how privileged we are.

In any case, whoever is proclaimed the new leaders of this country, I would like to wish them good luck and may they both serve the Filipinos with the best of their will. And just like what I wrote in 2016, I will continue to be vigilant — I will continue to call out any injustice that may arise, because that’s my responsibility as a Filipino.

The Dusty Diary #2

Posted on 10/10/2020 by Lenn

I haven’t been myself lately.

Yup, you read that right. I haven’t been myself lately, again. Just when I thought I have finally moved past that phase. It’s been five months since I last wrote that first entry for The Dusty Diary where I talked about how my anxiety has been getting worse during the pandemic. I said that I’ve been trying out different things that I think might help me get through it. I didn’t write any updates about it, but during the past couple of months, I really felt like I’ve been doing better.

So to give you a brief run down of what I’ve been busy with during the past couple of months, I’ve been:

reading a lot, of course.
watching a lot of anime.
buddy-watching a series with my boyfriend.
active on bookstagram.
trying to do bullet-journaling.
doing some workout.

It worked for a couple of months as I’ve mentioned at the start of this post. But in the past week, I’ve been feeling a bit down for no apparent reason. It’s frustrating just how when I thought I am finally getting better, here’s the anxiety again, looming over my head like a dark cloud.

So I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking what I could have done wrong in the past couple of days for my anxiety to resurface, and I came to the conclusion that maybe I’m just feeling a little burnt out from work. I’ve seen it coming, but I didn’t know how to deal with it because what should I do? I need to work to earn money and suffice my needs (and wants). So I ignored it, whatever it was, I just had to ignore it because I can’t file a leave every time I feel this way. I thought it will go away eventually. I was wrong.

During work days, I always wake up with dread knowing that I’d have to spend 8 hours of my day in front of my laptop, attending meetings, and dealing with my tasks. Sometimes, even a small task feels like it’s going to take me forever to finish it. I keep reminding myself that I’ve done bigger tasks and have submitted each of them way before the deadline itself, but it just doesn’t work — I feel entirely restless most of the time. So I always find myself just looking forward to the weekend, so I can have all my time to myself.

Yet, these days, it’s either I sleep a lot or don’t get any sleep at all and it’s infuriating. There are nights where I’ve been awake until the wee hours of the morning, listening to music that might help me fall asleep while drawing spirals, the way John Green told me to. It’s funny thinking about it, if you’re not suffering from the same thoughts.

I’ve also been suffering from migraines more often these days which almost always result to my being irritated. I snap at everyone who talks to me because I feel like I need more silent moments — I just don’t want to speak with anyone. There are also times when I am in a desperate need for an escape and on most days, it’s through reading that I find my peace. I lock myself up inside my room, just so no one can come in and pull me away from my book. Sometimes, it’s through journaling as it keeps me busy, especially when I’m trying to think of ideas that will make a spread look pretty enough. But there are days when I crave a different kind of escape — I just need to get away from this dark empty space inside my head.

So, yes, here I am again; back at where I started. Again, trying to write all of my thoughts thinking that if I do, this blank space will take all of it away. If you made it up to this point, thank you for listening, even if this doesn’t have any conclusion at all.