{"id":808,"date":"2025-12-12T16:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/?p=808"},"modified":"2025-12-17T01:33:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T01:33:50","slug":"opinions-on-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/?p=808","title":{"rendered":"Opinions: On What?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-955 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_4734-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"593\" height=\"854\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve kept a journal since I was eight, pouring my thoughts onto its pages every Sunday. Rereading those old journals still gives me a rush of anxiety, but writing has been a cathartic and essential way of processing life\u2014and of living it fully.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-987 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3018-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"395\" height=\"526\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Above all, writing has been a tool for curiosity, helping me bridge the many worlds I inhabit\u2014as a traveler, a scholar, and someone navigating life. At my high school graduation, our principal asked us to make a promise: to remain lifelong learners. I took that charge seriously. Degrees and titles may follow us, but learning happens every day, in the places we know intimately and the ones we\u2019ve only just discovered. Writing allows me to return to those places with new eyes, in harmony with one of my favorite quotes: <em>\u201cChange the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I hope this space becomes an extension of that philosophy\u2014a place for sharing, learning, and a kind of symbiotic conversation that helps me grow into a more thoughtful, informed, and empathetic person.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-950 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3683-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"431\" height=\"574\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This will be a home for the internal journeys that thread through my many interests \u2026 and all the small and sweeping moments that shape a life. I\u2019ve come to believe that meaning doesn\u2019t just live in the extraordinary; it thrives in the everyday, the ordinary, the ubiquitous. That is where I find joy, and it\u2019s where I hope to meet you.<\/p>\n<p>Here, I\u2019ll share the musings I once thought too random or insignificant to belong anywhere. I\u2019m beginning to understand that they are precisely the opposite: they are the threads that connect us. Happiness, I hold fast to the belief, is only real when shared\u2014and sharing isn\u2019t limited to adventures or milestones. It\u2019s found in the small wonders, the quiet thoughts, and the gentle moments that reveal our common humanity.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for reading, and thank you for joining me on this journey.<\/p>\n<p>With gratitude,<\/p>\n<p>Earlene<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-948 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_0462-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"643\" height=\"482\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This will be a home for the internal journeys that thread through my many interests\u2026 and all the small and sweeping moments that shape a life. I\u2019ve come to believe that meaning doesn\u2019t just live in the extraordinary; it thrives in the everyday, the ordinary, the ubiquitous. That is where I find joy, and it\u2019s where I hope to meet you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_sb_show_comment_boards":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[57,56,55],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-interests","tag-opinion","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":988,"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/about.earlenecruz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}