Odessa Zara's

My psychologist told me that I have to know them more. Not myself, but them —the people around me. Because if I don't, I'll only fill the gaps with assumptions. And you know what assumptions lead to? Overthinking . It’s like trying to figure out what’s inside a locked box. If I never open it, I'm left with my own scary guesses. And most of the time, what I imagine is scarier than the truth. I’ve heard this idea before from Hange Zoe (tmi but she's my favorite character in Attack on Titan, haha!). She once said, “ The world cannot trust people whose faces they have not even seen, so let’s go and meet them. If there’s something we don’t know, we can go there to understand. ”  And the same message was carried forward by the next commander, Armin Arlert. I believe it was in his nature to talk and understand others first. Then I thought about how much this mindset fits the research I’ve done for both my bachelor’s and master’s studies. I dived deep into an -ism that has face...

Hook is everything. First impressions shape the experience. The beginning sets the tone. Just like how I used to feel hopeless if I woke up late—like my whole day was ruined before it even began. “Today isn’t perfect anymore.” At least, that’s what I once believed. Then, I picked up Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I started with the Introduction, and honestly? It felt slow. Page after page about some town called Roseto Valfortore. I kept thinking, Why do I need to know all this? What’s the point? But I kept reading, and by the end of those 12 pages—boom. It hit me. Insightful. Eye-opening. Now, I can’t wait to read the next chapter. So why did I stick with it? Maybe because Malcolm Gladwell is a big name—the author of The Tipping Point and Blink , another international bestseller. I knew the payoff would be worth it. Or maybe it was my own commitment—I had already signed up for a daily reading challenge, so I had to finish it this month. Or… maybe it was something else. Maybe I’ve ju...

An early morning walk often feels calm and predictable, but today was different—an ambulance parked in my neighborhood, its lights flashing silently, made me slow down and reflect. While I was leisurely strolling, enjoying the stillness of the early hour, someone else was likely having a very different kind of morning—one filled with urgency, worry, and perhaps fear. I don’t know what happened. Maybe someone needed immediate medical attention, or maybe—just maybe—it was a different kind of emergency, like a birth. That thought gave me a bit of comfort—the idea that, perhaps, a new life was about to begin, offering a positive twist to an otherwise tense situation. Even then, starting your day with a rush to the hospital must feel like being thrown into the deep end of a pool before you’ve even had time to wake up properly. It’s interesting how life can show you such contrasts in a single moment. Life’s like that, isn’t it? Sometimes, we’re on a calm ride. Other times, we’re on a rollerc...