My IELTS Story

The Listening Test Here I am, sitting among this sea of strangers. Like during any kind of exam, a tense silence fills the air. The room is dim, though there is enough light to read and write. Windows are nowhere to be seen, creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia which engulfs me, suffocating me. Scratch that.…

“Before the Coffee Gets Cold”: Book Review

If you had the opportunity to travel back in time, who would you like to meet? In “Before the Coffee Gets Cold," author Toshikazu Kawaguchi serves us a narrative brew that is equal parts whimsical and deeply introspective. Set in a humble café tucked away in the streets of Tokyo, this slender volume invites its…

My Sehnsucht Experience

"Sun-kissed"Cortona, 2015 The first thing that comes to your mind when you read the title is probably, "What on earth is Sehnsucht?" I'll try to explain a bit about it first before we get into my experience. Sehnsucht (pronounced zeyn-zukht) is a common German word used in everyday conversations, but the translation is complicated. If…

Gelesen: Der Alchimist

Als jemand, der viel liest, ist es einfach unmöglich für mich, ein einziges Lieblingsbuch zu bestimmen. Ich finde, jedes gute Buch ist ein Kunstwerk und verdient es, Respekt zu bekommen. Diesmal habe ich mich für "Der Alchimist" entschieden, weil erstens das Buch bei mir einen tiefen Eindruck hinterlassen hat. Und zweitens, ich glaube, es lohnt…

Would Happiness Exist Without Sadness?

Is it possible to be happy without being sad? I found myself drawn to this question while writing my research paper about how psychological resilience was related to forgiveness and happiness(1). Behold the result of this research (and my musings)… here are some answers. Answer 1: No, happiness could not exist without sadness because different degrees…

Timeless

Seconds, minutes, hours merge into yesterdays; yesterdays merge with tomorrows— into now. The past is all but a thought fading away; the future seems close but may never come. All is left is the present— the time I spend with you.

Habibi

I remember having to stop at Last Action Hero after mindlessly flicking through the TV channels as I was struck by the fact that Danny, the kid who sticks with Arnold Schwarzenegger throughout the movie, looked like this cute brat I used to sit next to in class back in high school. His facial expressions, his cheeky…

The Alchemist

The Alchemist is a novel by Paulo Coelho about Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy, who has recurring dreams about a treasure prepared for him at the foot of the pyramid. Santiago is brave enough to follow his dream even if it means he has to give up his everyday life. He sets off on a journey that leads him over the souks…

Do we live in the matrix? (Part II)

Maslow's Self-Actualization Theory Self-actualization is the final stage of Hierarchy of Needs as claimed by humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow*. This theory explains that people work towards their highest potential in a hierarchical form, usually illustrated as a pyramid. But before achieving self-actualization, people have to satisfy the needs in the lower level first. Basically, the lower the…

Do we live in the Matrix? (Part I)

"Cogito ergo sum." René Descartes Imagine, what if this life is nothing but a program. Nothing is real. Fallen leaves, howling wind, beautiful sunset, falling in love, raging wars, misery. We are only brains simulated by a computer while our real bodies lie unconsciously somewhere else in some other dimension. Could we possibly live in…

Wenn Galaxien sprechen

"Die Sterne lenken das Schicksal der Menschen, Gott lenkt die Sterne." - Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), dänischer Astronom In einer sternklaren Nacht lag ich alleine im grünen Gras. Der Wind wehte leise, streichelte ganz sanft meine Wangen. Ich ließ den Blick über das Firmament schweifen. Der silberne Mond sang auf seiner eigenen Sprache und die stille Sterne,…

The Small-World Phenomenon: Six Degrees of Separation Explained

Six Degrees of Separation refers to the hypothesis that any person on earth is distantly connected to any other person through no more than six people. The term itself was first introduced in 1929 by Frigyes Karinthy, a Hungarian writer. Basically, it means that between you and a random person, there are only six people at…

You Are What You Hate

Conversation 1 She: "I hate her." Me: "Why?" She: "She's such a hypocrisy egomaniac snob who constantly demands to be the center of the world." Conversation 2 She: "I really, really, really hate her (a popular singer)." Me: "Why? You don't even know her personally." She: "She's ugly. Her voice is crappy. She can't even sing." Me…

Life is Fragile

"Cause this life is as fragile as a dream and nothing's ever really as it seems." One day my best friend suggested this song to me, As It Seems by Lily Kershaw. It's a pretty good song and the line above is her favorite, which now becomes mine too. At first, I didn't really pay attention to…

Nostalgia

Nostalgia - it's delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means "the pain from an old wound." It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards... it takes us to a place where we…

Lucid Dream Experience

Have you ever had a dream in which you were aware that you were dreaming? If so, then you had a lucid dream! Before we go any further, I probably should explain first what a lucid dream is, in case you've never heard the term. A lucid dream is a dream where the dreamer knows…

Are Extroverts Happier Than Introverts?

I study psychology in university. Once in class we learned about Motivation and Emotion and as we touched on the topic about happiness, my lecturer said, "Extroverts are mostly happier than introverts." As an introvert, it made me think. Is it real so? Okay, we may assume that extroverts are happy because they are fun, cheerful,…

Confessions of an Introvert: Silence isn’t Awkward, it’s Golden

I used to wonder, "Is being quiet a bad thing? Is introversion a personality disorder? Am I asocial? Should I change myself?" Because as an introvert, I felt like there was something wrong about how my personality worked in a world that couldn't stop talking. It seemed as if I had to cover myself with…

The Timekeeper

"When you are measuring life, you are not living it.” This was the last book and the second book about time I read in a row. Whenever I read a book about time, I always get a kind of strange feeling. Not in a bad way. It's just...strange and makes me think. The book written…

The Teacher’s Challenge

Once in sociology class, one of my classmates asked the teacher whether there were any examples of assimilation. We'd checked every Sociology book we had but there was nothing mentioned about it. My teacher answered that she herself and as well the authors of the books had no idea about it. She then made a…

Netflix’s “Dark”, Paradoxes, and Determinism

DISCLAIMER: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. "Dark" is a Netflix sci-fi thriller series from Germany co-created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. I’m not going to fangirl over it but rather use it as an example to discuss a type of quantum phenomenon: time paradoxes (I didn't put the "time" in…

Freedom

Picture by Laily Birds are such free creatures. They can walk on land, soar in the sky, swim in the sea. They can go wherever their little hearts desire. If only we could imagine the hardship they must face―dodging storms, harsh climates, predators and human threats. Being free doesn't mean you can do whatever you…

Leben wir in einer Matrix?

"Cogito ergo sum." René Descartes Stell dir vor, was, wenn das Leben nur ein Programm wäre. Nichts ist real. Fallende Blätter, heulender Wind, herrlicher Sonnenuntergang, sich verlieben, tobende Kriege, Elend. Wir sind nur Gehirne, die von Computers simuliert werden während unsere Körper unbewusst woanders in einer anderen Dimension liegen. Leben wir möglicherweise in so einer…

Surreal Reality

Sometimes I find myself waking up in a dream so peaceful I wish I could sleep forever, but dreams fade—like everything else in life; I wonder if it's all a dream too. One day will come when the sky falls down, the sea swallows up the hills, the earth crumbles down to its knees, and…