2025 or/and 2026
The calendar will soon switch its last two digits, which apparently is not a big change — but for humankind it becomes an opportunity to put experiences into perspective. It is a moment to project what new things we can create.
There are many theories, methods, tools, tutorials, and charts on how to do or feels things better — how to create super-powerful habits, super fortunes, super foods, super bodies, and super minds. I am not a critic of super tools; I am usually curious about them (or at least parts of them). I just got The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. Books with theories and methods on how to live better or how to do things better are, for me, mostly informative of the desires of a particular society at a particular moment in time. In my opinion, these books work mostly as cultural artifacts.
For instance, Atomic Habits implicitly tells us that our regular habits are no longer working. Or at least that's how we feel about our own habits. The title Let Them implicitly suggests that we are not letting them go—or that we are letting them go come to much. The book How to Not Give a F, mostly tells us that we give too much of a F. to things that don’t really matter.
I could go through this game one by one, and if I could write a text based only on these self-help book titles, the symptoms of our contemporary society would be visible: I don’t let them go, my habits suck, I give too much F., and so on.
But in fact, I truly believe we are all amazing and resilient, and that's there is no right formula to do things better.
I am writing all this because it’s the end of the year, and all of us feel this immense urge to come up with resolutions. What I am going to do here—and anonymously—is simply write and share a few themes of my last year. Some of them are capabilities and discoveries that I want to continue; others are things I am just becoming aware of, and want to leave behind.
What are you continuing, what are you quitting, and what are you starting? These questions, by the way, are not mine; they are offered by Mel Robbins.
My imagination can be taken seriously
For many times in my life, I cursed my imagination. I thought: If only I could be a rational and logical person in the most literal sense. If I could see bridges as solid structures made of numerical equations, specific materials, and skilled builders—pure rational work standing as proof of rationality. With rational and logical minds, a city is built. I wanted to build things made out of pure logic.
The bridge is only one metaphor among many I could bring up. This is not to say that we can divide people into logical and imaginative ones. However, imagination often takes a route that cannot always be explained or defended like a built bridge, a budget, a policy, and so on.
For this very reason, I diminished my imagination and punished myself for imagining too much—for creating stories and texts and art, and for reading too much philosophy instead of doing Excel sheets or creating bullet points with one-sentence goals. When in fact, my imagination became my most powerful vessel in my professional and academic life.
It is because of my imagination that I wrote books and travelled. It is because of my imagination that I received awards. My imagination took me to write a Master’s Research Paper in the field of Women and Gender Studies. My imagination took me to apply for a PhD in the Faculty of Information. It is because of imagination that I survived hegemonic forces, and it is because of imagination that I was able to write in between languages.
My imagination—as my language in words or in visuals—is not something to be tamed or fully explained, but it can be taken seriously. My imagination is a genuine curiosity; it is a constant wondering; it is a non-stop being surprised by senses, words, people, and facts. The bridges I build are invisible, but still necessary in the city.
My imagination is a method worth living by.
The love of being physical
This goes along with my imagination. I do love physical activities because they activate my imagination. I have a never-ending level of energy, and I need to exercise. I don’t like regular gyms because they feel tedious and repetitive. Boxing, so far, has been a good revelation. I punch instructors and bags pretending I am Black Widow. It’s incredibly fun. It’s incredibly healthy. And I sleep so much better.
Dancing is something I truly love, but I never did it professionally—only in my living room.
Tea and coffee
I found out I love cinnamon apple tea. I keep loving coffee
Short Form writing (sometimes only a few words story, a few words scence, a few words expression. if I can do this, I will love it!)
Creating images, visual story telling
I hope to be simple with my gestures and actions and always filled with great joy.
Image, cleaning the closet or life of a warrior or mess defeated Defeating the mess.