New Year, New Me

We aren't the same person we once were and that's a good thing.

Ian Galliguez

1/1/20232 min read

Long story short, I lost my entire website sometime middle of this year.

I didn't freak out, which was unusual for me since freaking out is my default setting with situations like this. I mean, years of posts and writings and photographs, all gone! Yes, that is unfortunate but I didn't really see it that way nor did I take it that way.

It was a relief, if I were to be honest. If it were really important to me, I would have perhaps updated it with a post or even just a photo, right? I haven't. Not in a couple years, maybe even three. If we were to take a page from Marie Kondo, the website wasn't really bringing me joy but I was also having a hard time letting it go. This situation was akin to the Universe getting tired of my shit and doing what needed to be done for me.

I read somewhere that we literally become a completely new person in about a decade, give or take. The cells that die are replaced, thus making you a "new" person, or at the very least, someone completely different from the "old" you. Isn't that interesting? Our own bodies naturally do this for us, so why should we be made to feel guilty when we are told "Nagbago ka na" (You've changed).

Change is inevitable. We know this for a fact and yet, we still have a difficult time trying to go through and manage change. Maybe because change requires you to get out of your comfort zone. Change forces you to look at things from a different perspective. I'm starting to think that change isn't bad but rather how we react to the change that affects us the most.

A woman in a pink coat stands on the foreground with the Sydney opera house in the background
A woman in a pink coat stands on the foreground with the Sydney opera house in the background

Speaking of changes, I'm officially bi-coastal. In a reversal of roles of sorts, I'm the one traveling between two countries now. I just have to plan my weather travel much better in the future. Winter is not my favorite weather. At all.

Manila is still home and where I am most of the time but I also call Sydney home now as well. I have a lot of new friends - granted most of them are either furry or feathery but they're still friends. I'm only half joking.

Changes are always coming and sometimes they come when you least expect it but I'm a firm believer of change being important for growth. So, here's to the coming new year and here's to the coming new us - may we always learn, may we always love and may we always know our worth.