essay

  • My Greatest Achievement

    My Greatest Achievement

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    I remember when I told my mom that I was accelerated from grade 6 to first year high school. I whispered the news as we are about to shut our garage gates. I saw her face and how it lit up. I knew she was proud and happy. Everybody was. And I also was. Genuinely happy. Secretly, of course. We didn’t have Facebook then.

    I miss feeling proud of what my hard work can actually achieve. I miss the feeling of making people proud without the need to try too hard.  When I didn’t need to calculate and validate my every move. I miss crying tears of joy, being overwhelmed by happiness that you need to express it in the most ironic way possible.

    My greatest achievement was when I was accelerated from grade 6 to first year high school, and it all went downhill from there. After that, everything became a competition.

    My greatest achievement happened in grade 6 and it’s okay. It’s okay to hold on to that. That place in my heart and memories where I was proud and genuinely happy.

  • When Celebrities Die

    When celebrities die, we begin to realize that Santa does not really exist, that the snowman we’ve built eventually melts in summer, that Ken and Barbie have broken up and that no matter how hard we pray, God will not bring our grandmother back from her long vacation.

    When celebrities die, we are faced by reality. The reality that we often escape by watching movies and staying up late to finish a 3-season series marathon. The reality that pushes us to obsess on the glamourous, eventful, controversial lives of Hollywood, local and even other international celebrities. This is why when celebrities die, we have an unexplainable grief in our hearts even if we are from the other side of the world.

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