Special Episode | The Pain of Changes

With what happened at Meta in the past two weeks, half of my marketing fellows were let go, as part of the 13% company-wise layoff. I was not one of them. I did not know how to describe my feelings at that particular moment, and I still don’t. All I know is that the suddenness of loss hit me off guard, and my heart sank deep and felt hard to float back on. I was trying to stay positive by sending caring messages, and telling myself to stay strong, but nothing seems to work fundamentally. I think there is another kind of permanent pain dwelling deep down in my heart that triggered me to re-reconcile a lot of thoughts that I didn’t get a chance to think about. I started to question the questions that I thought I had an answer to, asking a lot of whys and then realize life is a book that you won’t be able to read until you have been through it. There is actually nothing to question about, but let the waves of time push you through. You thought you had control of how to ride them, while the truth is, you barely have any. You thought you have got all the education, experience and self awareness to better control the direction of life, while the fact is that life is a box of chocolates. As negative and passive as this may sound, there is something I believe that drives me and everyone of us forward in a manner that we believe in. It goes deep down to the value that we believe to bring, inspired by the passion that we are naturally born with. We are always educated not to trade anything else with passion, but the reality is that it might just be a word worth nothing today or tomorrow. We are lectured on to focus on process instead of result, which ironically often turns out to be the sole measure to evaluate our success. And what is success? Life is not a business, and home is not an operation. So at the end of the day, what is that light at the end of the tunnel that we are looking forward to? I have no clue. I guess that’s what all humans have been relentlessly chasing after: the meaning of life. And I think the only way to find the answer is to live it, and live it fully. I know I have been carried away. And that’s ok. We tend to think deep when we are hit hard. And this whole journey about finding the answer is probably why we exist. Now it’s all about perceptions in terms of how you look at things that happened. It’s not relevant if things happen for a reason or not, as you can just change that reason to whatever you want. All that matters is that you choose your way to carry on. You may not have all the freedom you need to navigate this journey as you want, but you do own every little step in front of you to move forward, as you know, tomorrow is another day. And from what happened, it’s pretty clear that life is not about winning or loss, as it’s purely a collection of experiences and emotions for us to taste and be through. It’s a privilege to have the chance to live through it and it’s definitely magical to have so many people to live through it together, which absolutely adds another layer of richness to this already-fruitful experience. So, thank you my friend, my metamates, thank you for being part of this journey and I treasure every single minute of it.