I once spent six hours at 3 a.m. deciding whether to buy a $15 microphone.Last week, I bought a $325 ticket to Kyoto in twenty minutes — without blinking.Same person. Totally different brain. Here’s what changed — and how I realised fear isn’t the problem until it’s steering me away from what matters. Before I […]
How I Stopped Overthinking the Things That Matter Read More »
A letter to my younger Asian immigrant self If I could start over again as an Asian immigrant in the Western workplace,I’d do three things differently: – 🔧 Learn to change a car tire– 🗣️ Speak the language that gets you seen — not just the one that keeps you safe– 🙅♀️ And please… don’t
Don’t Be a Grandmum at Work Read More »
The Fear Beneath the Fear I’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately.Not because of one big event,but because of this slow, persistent tension I can’t seem to shake. I just went to get some medical tests.I know I’ll need long-term medication.I also know it probably won’t be subsidized — not in Taiwan, anyway. I don’t know how
The Fear Beneath the Fear Read More »
At the beginning of July, I decided to commit to something I’d only dabbled in previously—practicing handstands consistently for an entire month. I’d been intrigued by handstands for nearly two years, thanks to countless Instagram reels filling my feed. But curiosity alone hadn’t translated into real progress. It wasn’t until I consciously decided to dive
30 Days Upside Down: What I Learned from Finally Committing to Handstand Read More »
I hit rock bottom at the dentist. Went in to check a cracked molar. Thought it’d be a quick fix. Instead, the dentist said my front crowns are too old, there’s a visible gap between my real and fake teeth, and my bite is off. The fix? NT$70,000 (AUD $3,500) for the front. NT$26,000 (AUD
Too Late Again? When Midlife Fear Shows Up in the Dentist Chair Read More »
My dad hadn’t joined a protest in 50 years.But on a rainy night in July, he stood beside me on Ketagalan Boulevard — wrapped in a thin yellow raincoat, chanting with thousands in the storm:“大罷免，大成功!” Succeed, the great recall! Two days later, we were out again, not for a festival or family reunion, but to
The Quiet Collapse of a Democracy I Came Back to Protect Read More »
A story about $5 scarves, emotional inheritance, and the sharp moments that wake us up. It was hot. Heavy, humid, sticky July Taipei heat. I was sweating and in my dad’s bedroom trying to photograph some scarves my mum had kept from decades ago, souvenirs from when she used to travel to Europe, back when
Midlife Reinvention Isn’t Always Glamorous. Sometimes It’s $5 Scarves and Regret Read More »
I never paid attention to them before. Too famous. 25 years later, I spent a whole Monday afternoon watching Yellow on loop with tears in my eyes. I was hooked. Here was this barefoot, teenage-looking Brit, walking along a grey beach in a too-big jacket, singing with a kind of shy sincerity: “Look at the
Midlife productivity hack: cry to Coldplay. Read More »
Between me and my parents, there’s a quiet space I chose to stay in. Bronnie Ware, an Australian palliative care nurse, spent years listening to people nearing death. In her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, she shared what she heard most often: 1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a
What Will I Regret If I Don’t Try Now? Read More »
A few weeks ago, at night.I turned on music and lay down on the mat, in my dad’s living room.It was over 30 degrees. I felt like a hot dumpling in a rice cooker. Not in a dramatic way, just in the quiet way grief shows up.No sobs, just breath.The tension from earlier in the
The Night I Felt Like a Dumpling Read More »
