Journal entry

Along with this blog, I started a journal for myself when I began my Peace Corps journey last July. It started off as a daily monitoring of my happenings, before going on hiatus when dengue hit me (knock on wood; don't want round two to strike) last August. But I picked it back up again after arriving in Tabaco. The journal is a bit more raw now; a way for me to jot down something important or a thought that visits my brain. No longer an everyday occurrence. It presently sits at a whopping 49 pages (with 9 more months to go!).

I normally like to keep journal entry's to myself, using this blog as a way to expand and share various topics. But I feel compelled to share a recent entry. Background: this entry was drafted up after a previous conversation with a few other PC volunteers the night before Typhoon Haiyan struck. 

November 26, 2013 - One thought that I just remember I stated a few weeks back the night of the typhoon (not at all related but nonetheless important): “eras” or “ages” come and go without us even realizing it. Looking back on history, how many people actually realized what was happening when it was happening? Like the environmental movement in the 60s. Or even previous World Wars. Or a presidential assassination. We never know exactly how our lives are going to pan out and how the little things we see on the news or throughout our day could end up impacting our world much farther down the line. Even something like music. How much it has changed since I was a teenager. And how my tastes and preferences have changed with what happens around me. So how do we attribute the world around us to our likes and dislikes? Our passions and desires? Are we wearing masks all the time? Are we just going with the trends, afraid to partake in a paradigm shift? Or are we contributing to that change and are the trendsetters ourselves? Bottomline, there are so many external influences that subconsciously influence who we are and who we become. But staying true to your personal attributes and really knowing yourself is the most important thing you can do to differentiate and blaze new trails in a world driven by a competitive lust.