Experiences, Memories and Life Lessons

The other night I thought about fear. A powerful emotion closely related to shame but actually more intense than anger. I was recollecting a conversation with a friend about driving and I thought of what I did before when I was having that same issue. I realized that more of us are actually fearful of something we have not experienced yet. And the only way to get through it is to go ahead and do it. The more we spend time worrying, the lesser we spend on doing. We create more and more excuses on not doing if we think…

Today marks my 6th year anniversary of passing the NCLEX and I felt the need to share something to help my fellow Filipino nurses who are aspiring to become a USRN and work here in the US. Think of this as the easy and budget-friendly version of the entire NCLEX process. I myself DIYed my NCLEX and you can do it too. I know, the entire process of being a USRN is overwhelmingly confusing (this was my initial impression too) but there is a simpler way to look at it. The less-intimidating approach it is to look at it as…

We have a surplus of information. About 20-30 years ago, information was scarce and to the ones who had it, it meant power. Now, it is everywhere and we no longer consider it as an upper-hand. In fact, too much information can be a disadvantage, a distraction even. Not only that it creates doubts, it amplifies our weakness. An excess of information implies less concentration. Oftentimes, leads us to a path of nothing--easily falling for anything, without standing for something. The better way to information is to go against the crowd, to avoid what everybody knows. If more and more…

The good thing about being the "kuya" or the "older" person in the room is your hindsight advantage. That's why parents/elders usually give the young-bloods directions and strong, unsolicited opinions about a particular scenario because "they could've" done it themselves if their circumstance at that time allowed them to--this is kind of controversial but you get the point. Few days ago, I was asked by my younger brother about a life decision that most of us go through. I obviously experienced what he was asking about and I have my own opinion of it. I wanted him to see a…

As we go through adulthood, there are several things that demand our time. So we create hacks and workarounds to somehow catch-up with our own lives. In my case, I create default systems. Currently, I am working with meals, I want to eat as healthy as possible when I can not compromising what's on my plate's taste. So my go-to breakfast right now is simply: scrambled eggs with scallions, sautéed spinach on the side and a cup of coffee--with rice, of course. Simple and quick but has everything I need. And the cool thing about is I don't have to…

Photo by Andrew Neel The truths about learning: it is messy, it takes time and it comes with a lot of frustration. We go through all these to be wiser than we were yesterday, last week, last month or perhaps last year. Wisdom is something we take pride and value because it is something we can only share, not taken.

If we have become so blinded by the end-result, it will be difficult for us to love the process.

I hate that at some point in our lives (or for some people, their entire lives) we have to be a cog. That we don't have a choice but to comply to what our boss tells us to do. That we need trade our precious time for the company's benefit. But of course we get something in return for trading our time, money, our means to survive, to pay for the things that we need. But is it always for our benefit? Does it come with wisdom too? I hope we don't let it become the reason why we remain…

I have had lots of ideas circling in my mind, my problem was that I did not act on them. They remained as ideas, they never had value.

If we find ourselves complaining about a situation we're struggling with, it just means we have not accepted our reality. We can either look-away and keep on complaining about our problems or confront them and come up with a resolution. A normal life has pains associated with it and how these pains are approached is up to us.