5.11

Today was my 26th birthday. On my way to getting us a nice cake to celebrate with my work colleagues, my phone fell and broke completely. Fortunately, I met someone nice who let me use their phone, and I was able to call in late for work and contact my parents.

But my emotions were all over. I kept telling myself it was a new beginning, yet there was a deep wave of disappointment at the back of my mind that wouldn’t go away.

Anyway, one day later, I take a look at the phone, which looks brand new; you wouldn’t think it had cracked that badly. If I add a new case and charm, one might think I bought a new one.
But this incident had me thinking about how we, as human beings, often feel and are so broken that we believe nothing can fix us. We tend to fixate on the most damaged aspects of our lives and ignore the parts that are still stable.

I realised this analogy has something to do with the statement, “One spoiled apple ruins the bunch.” My broken phone looks new again, just like it did when I bought it back in 2021. Maybe we don’t need a total repair for all the broken aspects of life; maybe all we need is a new start while proving that the parts of us that are still stable are worth keeping.

This is not exactly how I would have wanted my 26th birthday to start, but now it’s like it never happened. Looking back, I had a good day. I’m grateful for the things that have happened and those yet to come. Having such strong faith that things are going to work out for you makes you worry less about all that is not working out.