mysticaperture

[mysticaperture]

Well, how the heck did we get here?

In 2013, the millennial-supported blogging website Xanga.com closed down, which took with it millions of pages of millennial youth culture. 

To be fair, like some of our musical and fashion tastes, a lot of it is worth vanishing into the electronic ethers. JNCO jeans, Xanga posts about how our moms were unfair, and screaming emo music should make any millennial shudder.

On the other hand, for millennial youth who were emotionally neurotic and enjoyed writing like myself, Xanga was where we sharpened our verbal spears. Through formless, countless rants, we expressed the inner worlds of being a teenager or a young adult. It also very quietly planted the seeds for my future in journalism, twenty years and two career changes later. 

Twenty years after starting my blog on Xanga, I'm nostalgic for those posts. Did my posts foretell my future? Have I grown beyond being reflective and passive into a dynamic go-getter? 

As I pondered who I was and who I am today, I have to say my basic proclivities are still the same. The only difference is that I have had a ton of life experience, and an equal proportion of therapy to go with it!

However, a key trait of mine is the desire for reflective journaling. I can only guess why I stopped journaling after Xanga, but the reason isn't important. Today, I want to start writing again. I feel as though I have so many more meaningful things to say to myself, and to the five bots who care to scape through my blog. 

I will craft intentional pieces reflecting my internal musings about being me and things that are important to me. 

Some topics that I will write about

Being a second-generation Filipino-American feeling the pull to the motherland

Exploring healing trauma through Eastern and Indigenous medicine

The growth of my spirituality under COVID-19 lockdowns

The Veteran Affairs' mismanagement and its tolls on veterans

Going to Iraq, 15 years later and what I have to deal with

Being a new filmmaker that wants to tell philosophical stories

On trying to be a good Dad with so many emotional setbacks

Maybe I'll even write about the time I saw an Army officer put my sergeant in handcuffs