Another Shrinking moment hit me.
The Latina “Anne Hathaway” (I love that that’s how she’ll forever live in my head) says:
“If you want to live in the past, that’s cool, but it’s not how I roll. So it’s your call, stud.”
It’s real. It’s sharp. It’s a little flirty.
But underneath it is something firm.
You can stay back there if you want.
But I’m moving forward.
And that line made me pause because this entire two-year journey has been one long lesson in not living in the past.
For a while, I lived there.
In old titles.
Old stress.
Old expectations.
Old identities.
Old versions of myself that felt safe because they were familiar.
We romanticize the past. Even the painful parts. At least we knew who we were there. At least we knew the rules. There’s comfort in the known —even if the known was quietly draining us.
But growth doesn’t happen backward.
You can honour the past.
You can learn from it.
You can even smile at it.
But you can’t build a future from it.
Costa Rica didn’t care who I used to be.
Nicaragua didn’t ask for my résumé.
Asia didn’t know my old routines.
And maybe that’s the gift.
When you leave the past behind, you don’t erase it —you release it from control.
That quote feels like a boundary. A gentle one. A confident one.
If you want to stay in old stories, that’s your choice.
But it’s not how I roll.
For me, rolling forward meant saying yes to things that scared me.
Rolling forward meant cancelling things that no longer aligned.
Rolling forward meant becoming Chihsang.
Rolling forward means rehearsing for Fringe instead of chasing every adventure.
Rolling forward means choosing who I am becoming over who I was.
Life is about moving on —not because the past was bad— but because the present is alive.
And if everything is going to be okay then the only direction that makes sense is forward.
So it’s your call, stud.
But I’m rolling on.
“The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.”
—The Lion King (1994)