More Than Just a Dream When I first received my acceptance letter to study abroad at 17, it felt like a dream come true. I was one of the few students from my hometown in Ha Tinh, Vietnam, to get a scholarship to study in Canada. Everyone around me cheered. They saw the success. But […]
24
Jul
Jul
There’s a moment during every long bike ride, every solo run, every cold night away from home when the thought creeps in:“This is too hard. Maybe I should stop.” And for a long time, I used to think that struggle meant I was failing. That if something wasn’t flowing easily, maybe it just wasn’t meant […]
23
Jul
Jul
Reading – The Tiny Habit That Made a Big Difference In our fast-paced, endlessly distracted world, focus often feels like a luxury. Between work demands, messages pinging from every app, and our own wandering thoughts, it’s easy to feel mentally scattered. That was exactly where I found myself — overworked, tired, and constantly switching between […]
22
Jul
Jul
Before I turned 25, I wasn’t sure who I wanted to be, where I belonged, or how to make sense of the world. Like many young people navigating their early twenties, I had moments of deep self-doubt, intense curiosity, and bursts of motivation. Along that journey, I found guides—not in people at first—but in books. […]
21
Jul
Jul
When it comes to academic success, most students focus on intelligence, talent, or grades. But what if the biggest factor determining your success isn’t your natural abilities—but how you think about your abilities? In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, psychologist Carol S. Dweck introduces a revolutionary concept that has changed the way educators, students, […]
19
Jul
Jul
Some days, without doing anything extraordinary, you feel it—this quiet sense that you’re heading in the right direction. That’s exactly how I felt this Saturday. It was a simple day. No big events, no intense workouts, no packed calendar. But by the time evening came, I felt full of gratitude, energy, and a deep sense […]
18
Jul
Jul
You see the highlights —The Ironman races.The scholarships to study in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.The travels, the adventures, the achievements. But what you don’t see are the failures. And honestly? There were a lot of them. The Truth Behind the Shine I grew up in a small town in Hà Tĩnh, Vietnam. Most […]
17
Jul
Jul
The Journey Begins With a Question What does it mean to grow? I’ve asked myself this question so many times—during late-night journaling sessions, on early morning runs, and even while turning the last page of a life-changing book. Personal growth, for me, hasn’t been about achieving more. It’s been about becoming more me. And the […]
16
Jul
Jul
The year was 2018. I had just landed in the UK to start my Master’s degree—full of dreams, but also full of emotional baggage. I had gone through a painful breakup just weeks before the move. My days were filled with lectures, networking events, and the pressure to prove myself in a new country. But […]
15
Jul
Jul
A Journey Revisited The first time I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, I was in early high school—curious, eager to grow up, and full of questions about the world. A teacher had mentioned the book in passing, and I picked it up not knowing it would stay with me for life. Years later, I […]