I Peeled My Own Orange 🍊
I recently finished watching When Life Gives You Tangerines after putting it off since it's release. I remember trying the first episode and immediately knowing: nope, I have to wait. I wasn’t in the right headspace yet. I could tell, just from that beginning, that this wasn’t a show I could casually consume on the side while scrolling through my phone. This was the kind of story you had to sit with. Feel deeply. Let it bruise you a little. And that’s just how I am — I get attached to everything I consume. Shows, books, songs, poetry, places, even people I meet briefly but leave an imprint. They all live inside me, like extra rooms in my heart. And I knew this show was about to take up residence there. When I finally dove in, I was right. I bawled my eyes out every single episode. Something about watching women want so much for themselves, and then passing down those dreams to their daughters — it cracked me wide open. As a daughter myself, it made me see all the invisible sacrifices that must have shaped the women in my family. My mother, her mother, and the ones before them — each of them peeling their own oranges in ways I’ll never fully know, but that I get to taste the sweetness of today. Now every time I see an orange, I think of that bittersweet story. That reminder that everything I do for myself, I deserve. I’m allowed to relish in the joy and sweetness of the life I’m building. It feels like a full circle moment, especially because at the start of this year —before When Life Gives You Tangerines even released— I pasted a sticker on my gratitude jar that says “I peeled my own orange.” Life is funny like that. It gives you little clues, little glimpses into what you’ll understand later. Maybe that’s what being alive is: collecting those moments, holding onto them, and reminding yourself that being grateful, pursuing joy, and letting yourself actually enjoy it—that’s what it’s all about.
- Growth
- Joy
- Gratitude