I told myself that I would refrain from putting up a “hello, world” post but what the heck?

For more than half of my life, I struggled to maintain an actual journal that would serve as my outlet. But since procrastination is my second nature and sustainability has always been questionnable with me, I always failed to keep one that would accurately chronicle any period of my life. However, fifteen years ago, I managed to put up a livejournal account. What once started as a writing exercise actually served as an on-and-off relationship of sorts where I would log in and out at the most random of years and update. Unfortunately, due to the extremely personal nature of some of the entries and the censure required of my work, I don’t think a lot of the latest entries there could be publicized.

It was actually because of this censure that I opted to write less and less. Afterall, less talk (or writing that could be used against you), less mistakes, right? Writing took a back seat for the past few years. And along that went my sanity.

Since I’ve been feeling more of my old self these past few months, I decided to try to get back some parts of me that I’ve lost from before and try to reintegrate it with the “new me.” Hence, this blog.

——

I guess this is also the part where I write something about myself, eh?

Hi! I’m Alena. I’m a 29-year-old female, Filipino, who came in here for a writing exercise. I just took my Diplomate exams in Internal Medicine and am praying hard to pass so that I could move on with my life and start training in Cardiology.

Medicine basically defines me, especially these past few years. You take out medicine in me and all that will be left is an empty shell. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing in my book, it’s not necessarily good either. I do write sometimes but my heyday as a writer has passed, I think. In my good days, I’m usually the ball of energy in any crowd. In my bad days, I’m the overgrown kid throwing a tantrum in one corner. I used to think that I fit awfully in Medicine because I’m not “agit” or “masungit” enough. I still am not enough of those but I learned to grow into my own brand of a physician that I could somewhat be proud of. Haha.

In a rare free day, you’d see me curled up in bed doing nothing, watching crime/mystery/rom-com movies/series, or caught in a wikipedia spiral on serial killers. If you ask me what I love, I’d tell you it’s Harry Potter. But if you get me drunk enough with dark beer, I might actually admit that I’m a big fan of Cardcaptor Sakura and Li Syaoran.

——

I haven’t really thought much about what sort of content I will focus on but I intend to make this a writing exercise of sorts. You would have to excuse the sudden shift to vernacular, though. Some things are better off said in tagalog. Or swardspeak. Char.

See you!