Postcards from Elsewhere Quotes

“Experience is a good teacher only when cupped with reflection. If you don't reflect, you will only make the same mistakes over and over again.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Far away, you are invisible, and it feels amazing.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“I traveled not to move, but to be moved.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Nowadays, people think 'passion' means something you love and enjoy doing...In fact, it's the other way around—'passion' comes from the Latin word passio, which means 'suffering.' Passion is something you are willing to suffer for, something you're willing to slave for.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“As you grow older, you will learn that not everything that contributed to your success was because of "you"—that your success wasn't largely because you are smarter and better than others, but because of the right context and circumstances that tipped toward your favor.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“The older you are, the more you realize that most people are the same, just with variations of external packaging and personal issues that they carry.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“To be in New York is like traveling around the world but staying still. You never feel like a minority in New York because everyone is a minority, and everyone seems to come from elsewhere.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Being third wheel sucks. I sometimes feel like a pet or an adopted child in dates with my couple friends. Sometimes I wonder if I'm there to (a) make myself jealous or (b) make myself feel good about my single life.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Love in the age of Tinder is like love in the time of cholera. To be more accurate, it feels very Game of Thrones-y. There are just too many characters to keep track of, and you seriously can't get attached to any of them because something too good to be true is bound to be killed off without explanation.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Your value increases and decreases depending on the location, as well as the supply and demand levels of the geographic market. We may feel like hot property in a place like the Netherlands given the rule of scarcity, while it's a lot harder to navigate the Asian market whose demand is skewed toward petite dolls with porcelain skin.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“They say that great stories happen to those who can tell them, but I think great stories happen to everyone.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Failure is a part of life, so just enjoy the ride and learn to laugh at yourself.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Adopting a fresh mindset of learning for the sake of fun can open up a whole new world.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“To be great, you have to be better than good: you have to go beyond following the manual; you have to improve, to risk, to be brave, to be curious—and wow—curious will take you places!”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Starting off a little behind everyone else can be discouraging. Most of us, after all, grew up where success, or being the best, is celebrated. [...] The problem with this mentality is that it creates an illogical fear of failure. The biggest victims are the overachievers. Because of the anxiety of failing, overachievers tend to stick to their expertise and what they know best. The fear can cause shortsightedness, which hinders their ability to broaden their skill set.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Everyone starts off as a beginner. Every pro surfer looked like an idiot when they first got on the board.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“I wonder if a culture's disposition is directly correlated to the climate. Maybe I need to look at historical information if there was a point when islanders in Hawaii or Jamaica congregated to start a war and made plans to conquer the world.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“It was only when I lived overseas that I became more aware about my cultural identity. It's interesting how your "Filipino-ness" shines through when you're uprooted from your natural habitat to live in another country.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere

“Better to part with a beautiful memory than to push something that stood no chance. We can't lose the magic of a "could've been" story, the plot made for movies.”
― Rachel Arandilla, Postcards from Elsewhere