I thought I was poor until I realized rich isn’t always about money. I come from a very big family, and honestly, I’m proud of that. We used to live deep in the forest where we had to walk about 45 minutes just to reach the main road. Shops were far away too, especially since we didn’t have a car at that time.  When I was in school, I had to wake up as early as 4am every morning just to catch public transport and arrive at school by 7am. So growing up, I thought I was poor.  I thought if your house was near the school, you were rich.  If your parents had their own car and could send you to school, you were rich. I was young and naive. I was raised with the mindset that being rich was only measured by how much money you had.  But as time went by, I grew up and moved out. That’s when I slowly realized something. I was actually rich all along. When I was a child, I was taken care of very well. My mum prepared everything for her children. We had food on the table ev...

Growing up, instant noodles were never really on the list whenever we were hungry. My mum would rarely feed us instant noodles because somehow, there were always proper meals ready at home. Breakfast, lunch, tea time munchies and dinner. There was always food prepared by my mum. But there were times when I saw my mum eating instant noodles on her own.  And I remember seeing how much my mum enjoyed it. The way she looked was so comforted just by eating instant noodles. Back then I didn’t really understand it. As I grew older and finally reached the age where I could eat instant noodles whenever I wanted, I still didn’t think much about it.  But now that I’ve moved overseas, became a mum, and sta rted living life on my own away from family. I finally understand that feeling somehow. There’s this weird comfort that comes with instant noodles.  And yes, I know it’s “not healthy.” But honestly, sometimes eating something comforting makes me mentally happy too. And I think ment...

At first, it felt like I had just gone away to boarding school. Everything here felt foreign to me. Adjusting to new places, new weather, and new ways of socialising.  I was deeply homesick. I wanted to go back home so badly, but with COVID and everything else happening at the time, it wasn’t easy. Day by day, I slowly learned to let go of the things I couldn’t control. I stopped forcing everything and just learned to go with the flow, hoping better days would eventually come. Somehow, the roads that once felt confusing slowly became familiar to me. The grocery stores didn’t feel so foreign anymore, and even the cold weather that I used to complain about all the time started feeling a little more normal. Then somewhere along the way, this place slowly stopped feeling temporary. I became a mom here. I created routines here. I cried here. I healed here. And maybe without realising it, little pieces of me started growing roots here too. Maybe that’s why this place slowly became par...