Recently, I find myself investing hours into a game called “GO” or known as Baduk in South Korea. This game focuses not only on capturing but also defending a territory in the table of GO. The premise is simple, whose stones cover the most areas and have the most “liberties” point wins. Winning this game isn’t as straightforward as attempting to win a chess game. The movements in GO(Baduk) are more flexible and it’s almost challenging for a beginner to predict the next move from the opponent –we’re not a mind reader (at least I am not). Not only that, once the stone is placed, it can’t be moved— so we have to make a careful decision. The good news is that, there is an unlimited supply of stones which can be placed to cover the table and surviving attack from the opponent.

Although there are strategies to win, it is less predictable and rarely has the same pattern. It’s quite an abstract game that forces us to think outside the box. We can’t bring the mindset of chess to this game. I had to leave that out of the door when I attempted to win. Safe to say, I’ve lost more than I could ever count but once I get the gist of the game, I’ve learned something far deeper than just wanting to win.

What I find most fascinating about this game is that not only do we have to look into the whole table but also our smallest acquired areas & think of ways to protect it. We have to ensure that our next placement would protect all the surrounding stones. With just one mistake, it could cost more than a couple of stones especially when we’re rushing and playing aggressively— this game isn’t meant to be played aggressively.

When I say life is like a game of GO, I ruminate about the problems and/or challenges in our life that comes out of nowhere. We don’t know how, when or where it might come knocking on our life. Once it’s there, we can either “pass”, “surrender” or play the game, do our best to protect ourselves and find ways to survive with more options in hand.

Picture this, there are two stones; black and white. We get the black stone which represents the decision that we make and the white stone represents a problem/challenge in our life.

In 24 hours alone, provided that we’re not rotting in bed, we probably make a lot of decisions regarding our life. And all those either lead to more options or puts us into a difficult place. We can’t really revert our decision as time isn’t something we could rewind.

If you decide to pass, there will be more problems as you choose not to make any decision and the white stone will have its way. Think about that time when you decided not to make any decision regarding your problem, didn’t it lead to more problems?

Naturally, if you still want to survive, you’ll do your best to capture that white stone and fix the problem but surrendering is an option too, a way out if you will— I don’t particularly recommend that. I am also not too familiar with the idea of "surrendering" in this game just yet but you get the gist of what waving the white flag means.

This reflection stems from my recent distressing situation. It’s almost like I was surrounded by a lot of white stones which seemed like there were only a few ways out.

I was making some decision rather aggressively that I didn’t look into the bigger picture nor even all the “territories” that I have acquired. I suppose some decisions couldn’t be reversed and that being said, I can’t just “pass” the day and let more problems surround my life.

So, I took a step back. I pondered and, in my inactivity, I decided that I would no longer be on Instagram, X or any other place where I am only passively contributing to. I’ll only be in places where I am actively contributing and where I know my energy is simply well-spent.

On top of that, my real life requires more energy than it usually does. It’s almost like a separate section in the table of the GO game with its own white stones surrounding the black stone. My mom doesn’t have a lot of time anymore as she’s busy taking care of my father and so, I step up, maintaining our home until we can find a helper /assistant that would help with cleaning the house. The transition that I experienced hadn’t been smooth as after a decade living in a shoebox room where everything was within reach to a two storey home with proper room and all that. (Out of topic, If you decide to purchase a house, make sure it’s easy to clean & doesn’t take a lot of your energy😂). That being said, the energy spent into cleaning and mainting a sleek space is 10x of what I normally used to.

Everything has a trade off, and with my decision, it’s almost impossible to post daily. At first, I didn’t like the idea that I couldn’t post daily anymore and that hivebuzz badge of 365 days author is going to be so impossible to reach. But if that means more time to write, edit and refine my writing, why not? Afterall, this space used to be my safe haven and something fun to do that fills my time while I improve my train of thoughts and discover something new.

Anyhow, see you around.

	𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 & 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳 . 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰.