Grief and Healing

Earlier this week, I attended a Zoom novena Mass of a data science mentor’s father who passed away due to covid-19. My mentor and I did not exactly part in the most amicable of terms last year due to a misunderstanding but we got restored earlier this week. I am taking this tiny development in my personal relationships as a spark of good although it transpired in the most weird and saddest of circumstances. We now share the club of the fatherless here on earth, and it’s very tough to maintain sanity while being in this permanent membership until our turn to go next comes at the end.

I signed up for philosophy class instead of innovations class for grad school this term on top of the Wednesday algorithms class. I find the philosophy class very disconcerting. I struggle to finish the homework because it requires so much mentally but in a different way. It’s forcing me to dig deeper into my psyche and uncover layers of myself that I’d truthfully rather keep hidden. Some days, I wonder, what does this class have to do with business analytics? It does not have the predictability of statistics or coding subjects where you can answer in clearcut terms and get an objective score.

I realized that the subject itself ensures that we do not lose our humanity in our quest of being amazing wizards with data points and numbers in the business sector. Whether I like it or not, whether it makes me comfortable or not, it’s balancing out the technical parts of my master’s degree curriculum.

Pink Pilot Pen and Ink Combo for the Broken Heart

This was not a perfectly winning week for me. I am beaten down by some hurdles with my current professional transition. A woman who recently underwent a breakup posted on a Facebook group that she is getting rid of some fountain pens that evoked painful memories of her ex-boyfriend. My eyes were drawn to this Pilot Grance in pink pearl shade with an MF gold nib. It’s also my first fountain pen with a gold 14k nib and a suction-type converter. I got the pen and bought a matching stunning 100th anniversary edition Pilot Iroshizuku ink in Bishamonten shade to complement its pink theme. I used the pad paper I won with my bestfriend Jill in an Easter fountain pen and accessory contest last April.

Pilot Grance in Pink Pearl inked with Pilot Iroshizuku Bishamonten

For the first time, I actually just enjoyed this purchase. It was not a disordered type of purchase but a mindful purchase. I began using the pen more frequently than everything else in my collection because it glides smooth like butter on my Rhodia orange notebook. In that moment where ink and gold nib touches the paper, it’s just me and that moment. I do not have to think about a million other floating things in my head because I have that single moment where I need to draw my upstrokes or downstrokes to form the letters and the words.