I have spent most of my life being told I was bad for being upset about things other people decided were irrational. This is one of those times. I invited my grandmother to hotpot as a belated Mother’s Day gift. In my mind, I had already mapped out the meal: my mom, dad, sister, grandmother, and I. My grandmother was the person I had added to our usual family meal, so I had a rough financial expectation of what the afternoon would cost, somewhere around ₱2,500 to ₱3,000. Then

On masking, connection, and why belonging can look different from what we were taught. Is it strange to admit that I have never really felt like I fit anywhere? For a long time, I thought that meant something was deeply wrong with me. If I could not find belonging even among my own people, then surely the problem had to be me. But I have been sitting with that feeling long enough to start questioning it. And the more I look at it, the more I think it is both more complicated