We live in social media bubbles, as many have pointed out. Most of the people on my feeds seem to share the same political and social opinions. I wonder sometimes if that is actually due to social media itself, that our beliefs are shaped more than we ever realized by the low quality literature we read on Facebook and Twitter. It would be easy to do that, as a gigantic technology media company.

Over the past few years, I’ve been trying to look at my sensitivity to all the stimuli in my life as a strength. I grew up with comments like “you’re too sensitive” and the too part of that sentence made me feel inadequate just for being who I am. And so I’ve been thinking about better ways to describe this trait of mine to people when I meet them, especially those that I want to work with, or people to whom I’d like to provide value.

Right before my son was born, a friend of mine told me that I am “bad at change.” It isn’t true. The friend might say that I am hiding from this fact, but I am a better judge of myself than he is. I don’t believe I’m bad at change. I think I’ve been fearful of change in my life. I think new disruptions to my life throw me off my horse at times.

+++ title = “04” date = 2019 +++ I always forget when I visit the UK how much of a love the Brits have for drinking tea. And surely, growing up, my mom who lived in Pakistan for her childhood was a very vehement tea drinker. Her cup would be filled with milky white tea every day, and she even had biscuits to go along with it. My childhood experience watching people with coffee was a whole other thing.

+++ title = “04” date = 2019 +++ In my family’s culture, the body is wrapped in a sheet and placed inside of a plain coffin. After a funeral ceremony, the body is transported in the coffin to the cemetery, but only by the men. We use a car to transport if the cemetery is far away from the funeral, but that’s it. When we’re carrying the body, the men huddle together and a core group hold up the coffin, which is heavy.