“To be an artist is to fail as no other dare fail” - Samuel Beckett

I was sitting at a coffee shop one day, as I paused from a hectic and pressured week. Both personally and professionally, I felt as if I wasn’t reaching my true potential. I felt defeated.

I glanced over to my left to find a young boy. He was around 4 years old. He caught my attention immediately. His face looked as if he was on a mission. He looked determined to attempt what he had never done before; jump to an empty chair so he could sit beside his mum. His eyes focused on the target. He readied himself. He visualized the goal. He knew what success meant. 3…2…1… The boy jumped.

Alas, he jumped too soon. Only half his body was able to make it to the seat of the chair. He tried to cling on, not giving up just yet. But gravity failed him this time. He let go and landed back on his feet safely. I looked on in complete...

Most people choose to skip the 101 course; that which embodies the notion of a beginning. The simplicity and innocence of concepts learned in the foremost years of an individual’s education have the potential to lay the path down for complex thinking thereafter.

Please, don’t cheat time.

Learn with conviction. Do not be afraid of purpose. Understand that mastery can only be born out of curious and humble beginnings. By going through the endeavour of learning and thought-crafting, we have the capacity of creating and moulding ourselves.

In the poem The Speed of Darkness, Muriel Rukesyer wisely says, “The universe is made of stories, Not of atoms.” She’s right, our learning doesn’t only shape ourselves; it shapes society. It allows us to place a thread in the interwoven series of stories we call history.

I ask you, I challenge you: Stay humble. Confidently say “I don’t know” and it...

I saw him as a superhero. He stood six feet tall, a giant in my 8 year-old eyes. My grandfather was the type of man who would stand with dignity, he was the type of man who would instill courage in you just by staring into his eyes.

My grandfather’s name was Blas, an uncommon yet familiar name. He was a musician. He played trombone for the National Symphony of Spain for over thirty years. If you ever saw a man who loved his job more than he loved breathing, it was my grandfather. Because, you see, music is more important than breathing; it is the reason you breathe. When you are blessed with the curse of musicianship, music resonates within you every minute of your life.

At home, Blas walked across the living room to a corner where he kept all his musical instruments. Cones, used to mute the sound of the trombone, resided in fading brown cardboard boxes. He took one out, carefully...

If there’s one thing you should know about me, is that I like apple sorbet. One spoonful of it and I am transported to a galaxy where apple is bountiful and time lasts forever. Until the spoonful melts and I am left with lukewarm syrup-like water in my mouth, those darn laws of nature. The heavenly apple sorbet, like many other foods across our diverse planet, was created out of the sheer curiosity of the human mind. “Hmm, I wonder what it would taste like if I pour this into that.” And thus, my friends, we have tasted succulent inventions such as crème brûlée, peanut butter chicken and, yes, even your grandma’s cookies. What a world it would be without them! Curiosity it seems, perpetually lingers close to our hearts, always deciphering ways that something could become more interesting and more divine.

From everyday occurrences such as food to lustrum long projects such as...