Are you one of those who prefers a house with or without a garden? Do you like plants? What do you do to take care of them?
Honestly, I don't like plants that much because they remind me of caterpillars, but I don't want to lie that I want a house that has a garden. Our house is surrounded by plants, but even though we're abundant with different kinds of greens and even fruit-bearing plants, we don't have a decent garden we can call our own. Well, we tried making one years ago, but it always ended up getting destroyed by both our pets—dogs and cats—who like to play among the plant beds and also our chickens, who always do a good job in scratching and digging our newly planted seedlings back then.
That's why we kinda just gave up and let whatever grows in our backyard grow. We sometimes trim the ornamental plants and also uproot the weeds, but not all weeds, because sometimes there are those weed-looking plants that are actually useful to our pets—especially our cats. They eat those whenever their stomach is upset, and the next thing I knew was that they're vomiting whatever bad stuff they had eaten. Further, they also used those weeds as beds whenever they wanted to relax and sunbathe during early morning.
Screenshot from Love in Sadness
A garden is really a nice place to have, and I do really like to have one that's inside my house. That garden idea was inspired by a certain K-drama series that I've watched before, and ever since I saw the main lead's garden in his house that was next to his kitchen, I was definitely in love. I envy that garden because it looks so relaxing and I could totally imagine sitting among those plants—catterpillar and worm-free plants 'of course—while reading a book and sipping coffee. Ahhh what a luxury if I could achieve that vision, but I know that that would take a considerable amount of time, effort and of 'course money, which I mostly don't have now. But I do hope I can when I already have a stable state of life.
Tell me about a female character in a movie, or a book, that you identify with, or that inspired you. What message did it leave you with?
As for this one, I do have a lot of female characters that I look up to, but a character that I identify with is something that's quite hard to find because I'm a person that don't have the qualities to be the usual heroine. However, recently I read a book where the main character is a woman, and surprisingly, I relate much to her. Usually, the main characters are often the usual archetypes—the brave, the beautiful, the all-knowing, the risk taker and many more ideal types. However, Takako, the main character from Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, is far from your usual main character. She describes herself as an adequate person, not best or worst—just the one you'll consider normal.
I'm a pretty normal person and honestly, I don't stand out if I'm among the crowd, so I really relate with how the main character feels about herself. Further, I relate more with her because of her love for books. Unlike her, I started loving books in my younger days; however, the way she described what she felt when she finally found that love for books resonates well with me. Her experience—although normal and even boring to some people—made me appreciate simple moments. They are really simple and not riddled with complications; however, sometimes in those seemingly simple moments, we unexpectedly find important lessons.
Lastly, the heartbreak she experienced was something that I relate to. Although the heartbreak that I went to wasn't romance-related, I still experienced what she once felt. There are those times when I'm so sad to the point that tears just fall randomly—I'm really so down at that time, and just reading that part of that novel made me reminisce about those days. Like her, I've slept almost the whole day just to escape the reality that I'm in. It's just all of a sudden when everything came tumbling down on me, but life wouldn't stop even if I ceased to move. And so, I tried and kept on coping with the condition I'm in, and like her at the end of the novel—thankfully, I'm also better now.
That's why if you're in a pinch right now, don't worry, because that would pass, and eventually things will get better—that's something I learned from Takako. So hang in there, rest if you're tired, but don't forget to continue and move on to another page of your life.
Most of the pictures that were used were taken by yours truly, ridgette while the first picture was edited in Canva.