What does it take to get to know someone? I've written three hundred thousand words in these blog posts, and I don't think that's enough. I'll save you the effort to learn the basics, at least: my name is CJ, I graduated in 2023, I grew up in the Philippines, and while in MIT, I lived in East Campus.
We could talk about the things I like, or, at least, the things I used to like. I've written thirteen versions of this bio before, and in them I listed these things: board games and video games, typography and logic puzzles, type theory and syntax, meditation and interactive fiction. I don't know when you're reading this. Days from now, months from now, years? I don't know how my likes would've shifted.
Or we could go on an adventure. Of my favorite places in and around MIT, some are still there, some are renamed, some are long gone. Does it make my writing less useful, that it refers to places that may one day disappear? The things that made my dorm room special lie in junkyards, but there'll always be special dorm rooms here. The places I can show you may not be here, but it was never about the places, wasn't it?
We could sit. We could talk. We could talk about all the people we miss, and all the things we hold dear, and all the reasons to love, and all the ways to live forever. And maybe it'd get quiet enough that I forget, for a moment, how old I am. And maybe you'd feel the same way.
And then we could tell each other stories.
But until then, I hope you enjoy reading mine.
The email here still works. These days I blog on my personal site.
