I’m Apple! I’m a fiction & nonfiction writer from Manila, Philippines.
I’m also a mental health advocate and a devotee of early 2000s blogging. Here you’ll find updates on my writing; raw journal entries about mental health, creativity, self-improvement, and relationships; plus the occasional poem or flash fiction.
Get updates via email.
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When disability bleeds into a pandemic
[Content warning: discussion of heavy mental illness and the pandemic.] As “the new normal” becomes a buzz phrase, I think about how none of this is new or normal for me.
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On Time And Again
Nearly three years ago, I met a boy who didn’t feel things. He was strange, and I liked strange people.
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Lion-hearted
I knew I’d want to check in and reflect on this day, every year, and pay attention to how quickly time flew, how unpredictable change arrived, and how fleeting all of it was.
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What color is your heart?
My blogging life began on the now-defunct Multiply.com, where I went through a phase of posting personality questionnaires and quizzes. There’s one still imprinted on my memory: what color is your heart? Mine, allegedly, was blue.
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Ten Updated Notes To A Fragile-Hearted Girl
Darling, we did it: we are truth-tellers.
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A letter for the bad times, written on the slightly better times
It’s always a music box version of Bach: Cello Suite No. 1. It’s the biggest reason I don’t mind the alarms. The second is because I set these reminders surprisingly during the weekend of a mental health emergency.
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I’ll never be famous—and I don’t know if that’s okay.
An introspective response to an op-ed by Emily Esfahani Smith “You’ll never be famous — and that’s okay.”
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On loving myself: a love letter from 2017
A love letter from me to me, delivered from a year into the past.
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An apology for every lost day
Writing about the difficulty of writing again (ha!)
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My 25th birthday: quarter life, waves, and quiet
Feeling grateful about a quiet 25th birthday.
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Notes on the new year and the old
A list-letter bidding 2017 goodbye.