I record these because I forget.

Not necessarily facts. I forget realizations. Things that felt absolutely clear to me in one moment somehow become blurry six months later when life changes the lighting.

So Reminding Yourself is partly a journal and partly a strange little attempt at immortality.

I leave pieces of myself behind for whoever I become next.

This one is about cards.

Life deals all of us a hand. Some are extraordinary. Some are terrible. Most are probably some irritating combination of both.

And we spend an enormous amount of energy arguing with the dealer.

Why these cards?

Why does he have better ones?

Can I trade mine?

Can I cheat?

Can I start again?

Maybe sometimes you should.

But I started wondering what would happen if some of that energy went toward simply playing the hand in front of us as well as we can.

That thought eventually led somewhere darker.

Nobody actually wins this game.

There is no immortality card hidden somewhere in the deck. No matter how much money, beauty, power, love, recognition or success someone accumulates, eventually everybody folds.

At first, that sounds horribly pessimistic.

If you win, you lose.

If you lose, you lose.

Wonderful philosophy, Keu.

But then I realized there is a third option.

Enjoy the game.

Not because you’re guaranteed to win.

Not because everything happens for a reason.

Not because the universe secretly owes you a better hand after you’ve suffered enough.

Enjoy it because you’re here.

Play your cards.

Take the risks worth taking. Fold when you need to. Learn from the hands you’ve already played. Stop staring across the table trying to calculate whether somebody else’s life is better than yours.

And when you get dealt a terrible hand, remember something strangely comforting:

It isn’t permanent either.

Another hand will be dealt.

This episode is a reminder to my future self.

Maybe yours needs to hear it too.

Reminding Yourself is a collection of thoughts recorded before time has the chance to make me forget why they mattered.

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