The world may tell us hundreds of story of success, but they rarely tell us stories of good lives. Indeed, what makes a life good is usually its successful stories. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. And it shouldn’t have to be that way.

In writing this essay, I was having a little thought process, where I attempted to define some universal characteristics of self-perceptions. Based on these descriptive characteristics, I then tried to figure out how to benefit from our self-perceptions. At this point, I assumed that self-perceptions could be either controllable or incontrollable. This essay is open for challenges and criticisms due to the current lack of references and evidence.

As we become older, we feel the pressure to stop being dreamers and start actualising those dreams. That also means there are dreams we can bring with us into the future, and others we must leave behind. Sometimes, I wondered if those dreams I left behind had died. Or they are simply, unfinished.

Life has its high and low notes. As humans, we aspire to a life full of high notes. But it can be argued that the ability to find and enjoy the low notes of life is critical. And the reason doesn’t have to be complicated.

My parents started their business when they had me. The company is now 20 years old, and so am I. Their business has become a part of my identity. Its birth brought into my life many things to ponder upon. One of them is the lesson on how to be a good person.

I wrote “Summer in the city bus” when I was 16 or 17. And then when the final year of high school came, I submitted it to the Kenyon Writing Award. I was applying for the Creative Writing programme at Kenyon college in Ohio. The school rejected me, but

OK, you lady! Let us be fair. We are not saints. We humans have dirty thoughts and shameful intentions all the time. [But] This social matrix means that certain things have to be fake for the order to be maintained.