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Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport

Good morning humans! I am now in America. I arrived in Los Angeles last night after two flights (amounting to 14 hours in total) and one 8-hour transit at Manila. I spent a lot of my time on my computer actually working. Then I ate, stared into space and tried, unsuccessfully, not to fall asleep. I did some sketches and took some video of the airport too.

Coming back to America this time feels even more natural than the last time. I feel happy and safe here. Everything’s amazing but in a different way from when I first arrived in New York City last June.

Every single American airport I’ve been to in my life (Chicago, LA, Orlando, NYC) more or less looks exactly the same on the inside. I actually like the way American airports look.

Philippines was an interesting place to transit in. I’ve never been there before. It’s always such a beautiful feeling to see the infrastructure of a city from the air. Especially if it’s a foreign city you’ve never been to before. So it was interesting to see Manila. It looked very messy – but having spent way too much of my life in conservative, uptight, so-tidy-it’s-inhuman Singapore, messiness and a bit of dirt is really welcome in my life at this point.

I realize that I do appreciate certain things about Singapore so much – this becomes more obvious the more I travel and especially when I do so alone. However, I also realize that it’s time for me to move on in life. I don’t know – perhaps it’s just the way things are in the world these days? I personally think it isn’t very healthy to one’s personal development to remain in one cultural environment your whole life. How much of human life can you experience like that? Being around people that have a global outlook, or who more or less want to experience different cultures and value travel, I feel comfortable and inspired. Travelling alone (which, when you first begin, is ridiculously scary) I feel more connected to humanity than ever.

Every time I travel I get reminded of how we’re all in this together – whether for better or for worse. Might as well make the best of it.

Interestingly I don’t feel so lonely at all this time around – mainly because there are so many people around me that I find it hard to be lonely! On the plane, in the airports, everywhere.

Flying is still really scary, but I’m getting used to it. Turbulence isn’t so much of a problem (both my flights were ridiculously smooth this time!) – it’s more of take-off and landing that really freak me out. Landing in both MNL & LAX was really not so good this time around. It’s mainly this really desperate fear of death that I experience. But then I always tell myself – we’re all gonna have to die someday and we don’t really have much control of when, where and how. And going down doing something that you love and are committed to – really is probably one of the better ways to die. When I think about it like this, it ceases to bother me so much.

Since the landing into LAX wasn’t the best, I also realized that it wasn’t really the fear of death that was causing me suffering as much as it was resisting the present moment. That was quite an interesting thing to realize. You see, life is not without fear or difficulty. If we’re going to spend our entire lives trying to avoid fear and pain – it’s totally possible, but you’ll also manage to cut out a lot of joy (I lived like that for a very long time). I don’t think life is always about always being able to get exactly what you want… it’s more of the process that you go through, the experience you have growing into the person that you want to become.

I accept fear as a part of life – sometimes ‘negative’ experience are necessary for growth. A life without growth – that is something I’m truly afraid of. That’s something I know that money (no matter how much) or social standing can ever make up for.

So, in short. First day in LA. Everything is wonderful. There isn’t much else to say now. I’m pretty certain I’m on the precipice of something major, but I’m excited, eager and very grateful for everything.

I have to get a photo of LA at night one of these days. The lights of the city at night, especially when seen from elevated ground, are unbelievably beautiful.