I still remember how life was before quarantine, being carefree and indifferent to the big problems of the world; living life through the highs of today rather than the worries of tomorrow. And many people say that quarantine made kids grow up too fast, showing them that the world isn’t a perfect place, rather a collection of imperfect ideas that when looked at from the right angle gives the illusion of tranquility. An illusion that was broken in seconds. When people say this, they usually mean it negatively, as if to say being older is being thrust into a world with problems, without the solutions. And I completely agree with this, but is it such a bad thing? As people, we naturally feel lost when there’s nothing we’re working towards, like a big promotion, a group project, or a nonprofit cause. But children haven’t developed this sense of self-awareness. Naturally, as we get older, this universal fact becomes clearer and even self-evident. I feel lucky that I got a taste for this dur...
When I was transitioning from backflipping onto a cushion to backflipping on flat ground (which I’m still slightly scared to do…), I was tempted to ‘just do it’ to overcome the fear. And while this did work at times, at some point I was told that it looked like I was just “throwing my body at it,” instead of being deliberate about the action. In my last semester of high school, I spent a lot of time pursuing various side quests, like learning to play the guitar, do cool stuff with cards, or to backflip. And with each of these things, I have gained a newfound appreciation for developing a ‘mind-muscle connection’, both for how magically it manifests itself and how interesting the development process is. I used to play soccer competitively, and every practice, I'd realize that as I warmed up, the world seemed to move slower and slower in my head. I would slowly start to have enough time to actually think through how the ball interacted with my feet, and where the other players were m...