bethgstories

It’s a glorious time to be alive. Enjoy every second of it. I know you are worried – you were just diagnosed with a neurological condition last year. You are thinking about how you are supposed to live a life of restrictions when you badly want to meet the world. Let me tell you that everything is okay right here, several years into the future. We survived two neurological ordeals and you could say that we are a miracle. Sounds cool, right? Actually, I just realized that we’re cooler than we always let on, while I am writing this. Do not worry too much over there because you are doing just fine. Just please stop whining and sulking about not being able to take the UPCAT because years later, it will be irrelevant to the path we are going to take. UP will always be the dream that we woke up from, and you can count me on this. Here in the future, we always get good-paying jobs because we know our worth, and we know what we can do. Although, I’d ask you to fall in love with knowledge, and ...

I wanted to ditch this blog.  I haven't been myself lately, especially in this space, and hate this feeling. I've been overthinking what to write and what to share when I told myself over and over that this space is my breather where I am allowed to talk about the fun stuff, the good stuff, and more bad stuff. Damn, I terribly miss the days when all I cared about was my scheduled MG clinic visits to pick up my prescription and meet with my MG friends and we'll talk about all kinds of stuff over cups of McDonald's coffee until dusk, and Ate Dee would remember that she's from Cavite and it's time to say goodbye and call it a day. Those days were gold. I was glowing and life was more simple. Productive. Happier. It's not that I am not happy these days. But then, not everyday I am happy and motivated. There are days when all I want to do is lie in bed, stare at the ceiling for hours and wonder if I am really where I am supposed to be doing what I am supposed to ...

It's the Blue Magic season (if we're still in the 90s)! Piles of chocolates are arranged neatly by the entrance of the supermarkets and flowers and heart-shaped red candies in sticks are in every corner. Memes are trending about how couples would probably do Netflix and chill on Valentine's Day while single people would do just Netflix, and maybe some bottles of wine and self-bought chocolates.  Which is totally fine, I mean for the singletons. It's the day to celebrate love - and because love comes in different shapes and sizes, celebrating self-love totally counts!  Valentine's Day has always been special to me though I haven't been in a relationship for as long as I can remember. And being alone and spending more time with myself made me realize that it's way more fun to buy myself books and read them in a coffee shop rather than carry a Blue Magic paperbag that was given to me half-heartedly. It's a lot cooler to buy myself varieties of dark chocolat...

Former CNBLUE member once said, "two books a month is a lot" ( video at 10:57 ), and guess who took it by heart. Of course, I didn't force myself to read more than two books this month because 1) 2 books is a lot, and; 2) I am overwhelmed with the pile of unread books on my shelf and because there are just so many of them I do not know what to read first and all the thinking and deciding took so much time that I ended up reading nothing.  Excuses. Okay, let me tell you the truth. I am lazy, okay? Plus I am too busy being happy with my job. So I decided to just make a monthly recap of all the books I've read instead of doing reviews for each. Also, I figured it might force me to read as many as I can so as to make a decent monthly list.  So here are my books for January.  1. Every Moment Was You , Ha Taewan This is one of the last few books I bought last year, and it ended up as the first book I read this year. If you are a Kdrama fan, you know this book very well. Lee...

Look, I am tired. For the past two years, I didn't know what it was to be not tired. Just like everyone else, I was too busy just trying to survive and searching for things that will help me keep my sanity at bay. Those two things needed every ounce of my strength that I didn't have anything left for the things I used to love and spend time on.  This year I figured, I'm tired of being tired. My inner self, the one that has the ball of sunshine, tells me to let her take charge. She says that maybe, we don't need goals. Goals are just an unhappy long-term to-do list that makes you hate yourself when not achieved. Habits, on the other hand, ignite motivation. And perhaps habits are what we need. Some healthy ones. Or maybe that's the goal - establishing healthy habits. Hence, the glow-up project.  Body We've seen it on TikTok and YouTube - hundreds of girls filming their aesthetic and motivating morning routines. We've also seen videos defying the concept of be...

If there is one thing that 2021 taught me, it's courage.  Art Sector, January This year seemed to have a good start, so I told myself that the slump must have been over. I started waking up early, going out for the first time ever since the community quarantine was implemented to do brisk walking, writing a journal, and hydrating with pretty water. Sounds like That Girl on Tiktok, right? I even planned ahead and expected that some of my WIPs will be done before the year ends. Great! This year is gonna be amazing. Better.  Except that it wasn't. The virus evolved and created many variants like it made it a mission to teach us the Greek alphabet.  Padre Pio Shrine Batangas, February Saturday Afternoon with the Minas, February Brisk walking through the fallen flowers, March But who was I to complain? I was at home, safe and sound. I was with my family. I still have a job that paid the bills and a little bit more. People are dying. Some people I know are frantically looking f...

These days I find it a privilege to be able to finish reading a book. Convenience Store Woman is only 94 pages though, perfect for when you've got nothing to do but roll over your bed for the rest of the night. At first, I thought this is going to be another plotless book, the kind I've learned to expect from Japanese stories like The Nakano Thrift Shop . But it gave me an extremely different kind of entertainment. I didn't find it funny or humorous, unlike the rave reviews I've seen. In this book I got mad, I smiled a little, raised my brows, and exhaled quite a few times.  Relatable Keiko Maybe, I could relate to Keiko. Except that I wasn't a troubled kid (okay, maybe just a little bit). And I could not see myself doing the same exact thing for eighteen years. Plus, I'd like to think I've successfully established my self-identity.  Keiko can't define herself in any other way, except that she was born to be a convenience store woman. She felt the need t...