A pointwise list of things I’m glad I stopped doing

Calm, happy & at ease

1. Depriving myself of the pleasure of enjoying the mainstream music, shows and books in the relentless pursuit of uniqueness
2. Assessing people’s socio-economic backgrounds before I become friends with them; treating people as social capital
3. Undermining local languages and taking pride in being subpar at them
4. Taking people’s time off personally
5. Pretending that I can multitask
6. Withholding my feelings because of the fear of rejection
7. Expecting too much of people
8. Expecting too little of people
9. Misdirecting my agitation towards people who care about me
10. Lying about goals so that I don’t fail publicly
11. Not giving people second chances
12. Putting words over actions; people barely ever reveal their true feelings through their embellished speeches, it is only through what they do as a practice
13. Eating instant noodles
14. Deriving superiority from material possessions and feeling sad when I don’t have the fancies
15. Thinking that novueau riche or new money is an insult
16. Blaming my parents for everything that is wrong with me
17. Eating unhealthy things that don’t taste good

Waiting for myself to read this 5 years later only to think I’m stupid as hell.

Photo by Yair Mejía on Unsplash