Stories

I always tell myself just one chapter. And then it is 3am and I am still there, completely gone into someone else’s world, and I don’t even feel bad about it. I’m Klara, and I live in Cebu City. My evenings go to school, where I’m studying Special Education, and the rest of my time […]

I wasn’t supposed to hear that conversation. But I did, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. I’m Dot, and I live in Cebu. My days are mostly school, requirements, and whatever Korean drama I’m currently losing sleep over. From the outside it probably looks like a pretty ordinary student life. But underneath the

I was in the middle of a clinical rotation when it happened, and nothing about that moment felt like I had imagined it would. I’m RKD, and I live in Cebu City. If you asked me what I do day to day, I’d tell you honestly: I sleep. Life as a nursing student is a

I didn’t figure it out in one big moment. It just hit me one random day, the way realizations do when you’re not even looking for them. I’m Nemie, a college student from Pit-os, Cebu City. Other than studying, most of my mental energy goes into trying to rationalize my decisions and my thoughts, even

For a long time, I thought going outside was just for getting from one place to another. I didn’t know it could feel like breathing for the first time. I’m Caloy, and I live in Cebu, Philippines. My days are built around work, the kind of life that looks responsible and steady from the outside.

Some mornings I wake up already inside my own head, and the day hasn’t even started yet. I live in Cebu, Philippines. My days follow a rhythm that looks simple from the outside: wake up early, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, rest. But inside that structure is something quieter and harder to name,

I don’t have a word for it yet. But I know what it feels like, standing in a kitchen in Cebu, folding something that didn’t grow up where I did. I live in Cebu, Philippines, where the heat arrives early and the smell of the ocean finds you even when you’re nowhere near it. Most

My ate didn’t tell me what to do. She just reminded me that I was allowed to choose. I’m Chloe, a nursing student from Cebu, Philippines. My days are long in the way that student life is long, early mornings, heavy requirements, and a quiet pressure that follows you even when you’re not studying.  When

I was lying in bed watching Grey’s Anatomy. I hadn’t done anything strenuous. And then, for no reason I could explain, I just couldn’t get up. I’m Charlotte. I’m a Filipina, and right now I’m living in Vietnam, though “right now” is always doing a lot of work in my sentences. My days are full