-
Bangui Windmills And The Strange Absurdity Of Taking Life Too Seriously
What if none of this really matters? What if everything we stress about doesn’t mean as much as we think it does? And what if that’s the best news you’ve heard all week? As I stood before the massive Bangui Windmills, I couldn’t help but laugh a little. Here I was, surrounded by giants that survived everything nature threw at them, while I’ve spent the past week battling storms that only existed in my head. All week long, I thought about canceling my trip to Bangui Windmills and Ilocos Norte. I kept thinking about the recent earthquakes and aftershocks. I kept thinking about my recent performance at work. And I…
-
Kibungan Cross Country: Hard Truths That Only Mountains Can Teach You
It was noon, but the sky was gray, and the trail was lined with dead bodies. Rain poured without mercy, making the mountains weep and swallowing the trail ahead. Drenched in rain and sweat, I blinked hard, rubbed my eyes, and looked again. Wooden coffins. Three or maybe even more. Some even had name tags. And for some bizarre reason, I knew, in that particular moment, the Kibungan Cross Country hike wasn’t just another climb. It was messy, brutal and relentless. And it was about to test me in ways I didn’t expect. As I passed the coffins and the storm raged on, I began to see the truth. I…
-
National Museum Of Natural History: The Things We Miss While Scrolling
Most people don’t make it past the first paragraph. You probably won’t either. Or maybe you’ll just stop to look at the photos from the National Museum of Natural History, Philippines. That’s how we’ve been programmed these days. We are rewired to scroll, pause, swipe, and repeat. The algorithm decides what matters now. And if it doesn’t flash, move, or shout in under eight seconds, we move on. That’s why museums feel so irrelevant today. And it’s not because they’ve failed to evolve and adapt. They’ve renovated, rebranded, and redesigned entire exhibits just to hold our attention a little longer. But still, we scroll past them. Because museums offer depth,…
-
Mt. Kupapey Proved That Burnt Toast Can Lead To Something Beautiful
What if everything that went wrong was actually going right? What if a cancellation was actually a redirection? What if the setback was really just part of the setup? Most of us have goals and trips we’ve mapped out for months or even years. We plan for months, picturing how everything should unfold. And yet, it takes just one storm, one cancelled flight, and one shift in the weather to throw it all off course. That’s what happened to us. We were meant to take the mighty multi-day Kibungan Cross Country hike. That was the dream. But the Universe had other plans. And somehow, we ended up hiking Mt. Kupapey…
