Life Reflections

Thoughts on what’s going on in my life.

The One That Tops The List

This Is My Story, part 9, the Finale. This day, thirteen years ago, marked the beginning of my publicly declared and lifelong commitment to follow that lovely Man whose likeness cannot compare to any other. Did I know inside out what that commitment would entail, or...

Blood Is Thicker Than Wine

This Is My Story, Part 8 What better way to spend time waiting for my siblings’ flight to land than to be thankful for them. This Thanksgiving holiday, the Elia’s are reuniting in DC (awesome), and it will be uber fun! My siblings and I are pretty close in years. As a...

Teach Me To Dream

Teach Me To Dream

This Is My Story, part 7   If you asked me during my early college years what I wanted to do when I grew up, I’d tell you: to be an ordinary, good person. You know, do good things in life, graduate, work, get married, have a family, et cetera. I once asked my...

The Highest Education

The Highest Education

The highest education is not contained within the perimeters of privileged schools; it’s in the communion with the Greatest Teacher in the universe.

My Father’s Legacy

This Is My Story, part 5 November is a big month in my family, since it contains five big celebratory events: both of my parents’ and my birthdays, my parents’ anniversary, and my baptism anniversary, with the latter two having the same date. When my father passed...

Unlikely Friends

Unlikely Friends

This Is My Story, part 4   One of life’s greatest joys is meeting new people and finding kindred spirits, those you can resonate in particular ways of thinking. The effect is energizing, it’s as if you’ve been friends for ages, or should have been friends before....

The Person Inside

This Is My Story, part 3: How a Quiet Girl Found Her Voice. When God came into my life, He liberated me from me. If you had known me when I was a teenager, spanning the time I was in middle school, high school, and early college, you would’ve known me as a quiet and...

Lady Vera

This Is My Story, part 2 The first great gift God gave to me came in the form of my parents. Today is my mother’s 55th birthday and this post is dedicated to her. Born in Bali, my mother is the validation of my weak and thin claim that I have roots in a most exotic...

The Richest Girl In The World

This Is My Story, part I. In a few weeks, I’ll be turning into an age that I’ve been looking forward to for a while. And as it usually goes around this time, I automatically go into reflection mode. This year’s reflection mode, however, is in extra high gear since I’m...

More Amazing Grace

More Amazing Grace

The longer I am a Christian The more I find out How much of a sinner I am How incapable I am To be like Jesus My understanding increases My nature struggles to catch up Still wretched, still poor Thus I fall shorter, shorter of the mark The longer I am a Christian The...

Sunset In My Rearview Mirror

...is the view I get when I head home from campus. I have come to associate it with the peace of homecoming, the quietness of a day's end, and the coming rest. It is especially precious on Fridays. On this particular Friday, this certain poem seems to match the mood...

Save the Best for Now

Save the Best for Now

One of the things that my childhood best friend and I used to do a lot was to dress up in the same clothes. Our moms would buy us the same t-shirts or the same dresses in different colors, as if to say to the world, "Yea, we hang together." There was one time though...