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...