12 November 2021 | I was awestruck the very moment I saw Duomo di Milano while alighting from those Italian subway stairs. It was drop-dead gorgeous; extremely more beautiful than how I have it imagined based on limited clips I vaguely remember off Milan, a local Filipino movie (about searching for something but finding something else instead) I happened to watch over a decade ago.
That afternoon, getting drowned in a sea of pigeons and tourists around Piazza Duomo, it felt like I was also caught up in another aimless search, slowly sinking in the moment. Despite the laser focus, eyes-on-the-prize mantra I so believe I have in my core, my plans are somehow always rearranged,. Oftentimes, my intended course are diverted, my planned goals being shifted, and my set standards constantly being adjusted. And so, in front of the Vittorio Emanuelle II Statue, in an effort to avoid unnecessary redirections, I made this solid pact with myself to at any cost, finish this master thing I get myself involved with, no matter how ugly things may get. As this is the perfect means to regain that self-trust I lost due to a series of disappointments I incurred in the recent past, I could not afford to sink into the very same quicksand I get trapped into and go through the same failing episode, again. So, here’s to hoping, this time, to actually find that something I have been looking for in coming here, even if it means occasionally finding some other equally interesting things along the way.
