Ever heard of King Midas, whose touch turned everything to gold? Well, I seem to be suffering from the opposite curse lately—every piece of gold I reach for turns instantly into coal - dark, dull, and ordinary compared to the brilliance and allure of gold.
This peculiar phenomenon has inspired me to coin a new term: sad hilarious. You know, those moments when something genuinely awful happens, but the circumstances around it are so ridiculous you can’t help but laugh.
The past year was, admittedly, pretty great. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, going on adventures both personally and professionally. I graduated from UC San Diego, crossed the country coast to coast twice, performed in an improv show, started doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, saw the northern lights from both coasts, accidentally met billionaires, and even flew a plane. Quite a packed itinerary for just six months.
But during those amazing times, I couldn’t help wondering: when would this good luck end? Life moves in cycles - we happily bask in daylight, feeling safe and secure. Yet inevitably, the sun sets, night falls, and suddenly we’re stumbling in the dark, desperately searching for direction. Right now, I’m very much in that stumbling phase.
In the peak of my optimism, I boldly declared my 2025 resolution would be to fail as frequently as possible. I meant it motivationally - embrace failures as stepping stones towards success - but I didn’t anticipate becoming so proficient at it quite this quickly. I suppose that’s one resolution I can already check off!
In just the past month, I’ve experienced so many failures that I’ve practically been speedrunning the seven stages of grief every other day. At first, each setback knocked me down for days; now, recovery happens within hours. I’ve gotten so good at it, I’ve started skipping straight from bargaining to acceptance. Yet after the tenth time in a single month, even I’m impressed by how relentless life can be.
Oddly enough, each setback seems to be growing in magnitude while the recovery period shrinks. If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that my emotional resilience keeps getting better with every fall.
While some of these situations have indeed been serious—and I admit, I tend to lean towards seriousness myself—the absurdity has been impossible to ignore. Hence, sad hilarious.
Amid this chaos, I’ve learned a few invaluable lessons, I call them expensive lessons. They’re obvious in hindsight, yet strangely elusive until life forces you to acknowledge them. You internalize them the hard way:
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You can’t control everything: Attempting to manage outcomes beyond your reach is usless. Focus only on your own actions—control the controllable.
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Don’t take yourself too seriously: When setbacks keep on increasing, it’s easy to become frustrated. Fight that impulse. Humor is the best armor against disappointment.
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If you don’t want to fail, don’t try: You can’t taste success without risking failure. It’s unavoidable.
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Everything takes time: Whether you’re enduring a bad situation or anticipating success, patience is crucial. You can’t hurry life’s natural flow.
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Desire without action is meaningless: Wanting something isn’t enough. You need to put in tremendous effort to get it.
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Ultimately, you’re on your own: Even with a supportive network of friends and family (which I’m deeply grateful for), ultimately, only you can take action and find solutions.
As humorous as the idea of my “Reverse Midas Touch” may be, I understand it’s temporary. The night will end, and then, the sun will shine. Until then, I’ll continue laughing at the absurdity, brushing off the coal dust, and reminding myself: eventually, all this coal might just fuel something truly extraordinary.
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