Notes from Elsewhere

What I’m Doing Now

Last Updated: Wednesday, 3rd September 2025

I’m heading into becoming 30 next month. On the one hand, I want to pretend I’m 29 again, and I will continue to be for every subsequent birthday until I’m 40 30. On the other hand, I can recollect the words a slightly mad Belarusian lady told me while inexplicably grabbing my midriff to exhibit my ostensible thinness: “You’re in the prime of life; I would give anything to be your age again. You have life experience, and you’re more mature; you’re no longer a baby, but you’re still young enough to be full of energy and curiosity. This is the best decade of your life.” I kind of know what she means; I think this period of life is the true “coming-of-age” season, and that too many of my generation are expecting themselves to have everything figured out at 25. But these days, most of us don’t even start making sense of things until after 30 (sometimes even later). Maybe that’s a reflection of how cushy life has become, now that we have time to be self-absorbed enough to consider such things as who am I, what do I want, and what matters to me. 

Writing & Reading

Lately, I’ve been writing often after reigniting my love for it for the first time in years. I was smitten with writing my whole life, but I fell out with it for a few years, and now I’m rusty. But once I picked up the proverbial pen again (read: detachable keyboard), a dormant obsession awakened in me. 

Regarding reading, I’ve been getting back into it after an 8-month hiatus due to being busy (see below). I was caught in a cycle of busy → sick → busy → sick → busy, but things have finally started sort of calming down. And I do miss reading, but I’d be partially dishonest if I didn’t mention that it’s not exclusively busyness but also laziness that has caught ahold of me. I’ve become too reliant on short-form content and quick answers, which has caused an important part of my brain to forget how to focus—all the more reason for me to commit to reading books again.

Life Events

Last December, I moved country. Ineluctably, this required a tonne of paperwork, copious stress, a dash of fear, and a behemoth reality check. I love it here and have never felt more at home anywhere else in my entire life, but my progress learning the language is much slower than I expected. I’ve never properly learnt a language before (besides rote memorisation in school), and I’ve never heretofore struggled to learn something, so this has been a huge, humbling hit to my fragile ego. Catching pneumonia also wasn’t particularly nice, but that was entirely my fault (I’ll never grow out of refusing to wear my coat).

I finished a diploma in teaching English as a foreign language only to realise I’m unsure whether I want to do it or not, and I’m trying to cope with feeling like I wasted time (even though I usually think learning is rarely a waste of time).

Oh, and I’m also getting married soon, which is pretty cool.

Current Focus

Lately, I’ve been hyper-focussing on geopolitics, governance, and cultural attitudes. I never knew I was passionate about politics until two years ago (when someone else pointed it out), which makes sense given that I had to experience life before I could develop meaningful opinions about it.

Additionally, since moving, I’ve also rekindled my proclivity for cooking. I forgot how much I love and adore food, especially preparing delicious vittles and sharing with others. With all these old penchants being enkindled, I realise just how bad a place I was in just a few years ago when everything had lost its joy.

As for what I’m not doing: I’ve found myself less interested in video games this year—maybe for a lack of quality content, potentially it’s just a passing season in my life, or perhaps I just don’t find them as rewarding anymore, I don’t know. It’s been years since an AAA title has caught my attention (Ghost of Tsushima being the pinnacle for me), so for a while I’ve just been playing old indies, management games, and other casual things. Besides briefly becoming addicted to Prison Architect again, I’m just not feeling it this year.

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