https://thefarahstack.com/tags/reflection/Recent content in Reflection on The Farah StackHugoen-usSun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://thefarahstack.com/posts/the-13-year-comeback/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://thefarahstack.com/posts/the-13-year-comeback/<p><img src="https://thefarahstack.com/images/posts/thirteen-year-comeback.jpg" alt="A desk at golden hour with old textbooks, a new notebook and a laptop"></p> <p>I have a CS degree. Then I stayed home, and the few years I&rsquo;d planned turned into thirteen.</p> <p>When I decided to come back, someone told me plainly: no one starts working 13 years after graduating.</p> <p>I believed them for a while. That&rsquo;s the part I want to talk about.</p> <h2 id="what-i-had-to-relearn">What I had to relearn</h2> <p>Almost everything with a version number. The tools, the languages people actually used, the way teams shipped. Thirteen years is a long time in this industry. I re-taught myself from scratch, one evening at a time, and somewhere along the way I also finished a second major, in Accounting, before choosing CS again.</p>https://thefarahstack.com/posts/from-surviving-to-becoming/Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://thefarahstack.com/posts/from-surviving-to-becoming/<p><img src="https://thefarahstack.com/images/posts/from-surviving-to-becoming.png" alt="From surviving to becoming"></p> <p>For the longest time I believed that strength meant enduring quietly. I thought love meant sacrifice, even when it slowly dimmed my light.</p> <p>I smiled through physical pain when sepsis nearly took my life, when fibromyalgia made every day heavy, and when migraines stole my clarity. I thought carrying these emotional burdens which I didn&rsquo;t even fully understand is what life is supposed to be like.</p>https://thefarahstack.com/posts/sense-of-self/Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://thefarahstack.com/posts/sense-of-self/<p><img src="https://thefarahstack.com/images/posts/sense-of-self.png" alt="Sense of self"></p> <p>Okay, so I&rsquo;ve been sitting with this idea for a bit now, raw thoughts spilling out like they always do. No neat structure, no fancy psychology jargon unless it fits, just me processing this out loud.</p> <p>Sense of self: That slippery thing we all carry around but rarely stop to name properly.</p> <p>There are three versions, at least the way I see it right now.</p> <h2 id="one-the-its-all-about-me-version">One: The &ldquo;It&rsquo;s All About Me&rdquo; Version</h2> <p>My entity. My reactions. My benefits. My comfort. My whatever.</p>https://thefarahstack.com/posts/from-shattered-to-unbreakable/Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://thefarahstack.com/posts/from-shattered-to-unbreakable/<p><img src="https://thefarahstack.com/images/posts/from-shattered-to-unbreakable.png" alt="From Shattered to Unbreakable"></p> <p>Life has a way of testing the waters, making us uncomfortable enough to push and push further enough until we break. There is only one direction left after being down that much, going up.</p> <p>My path has been full of these tests and you know what I gained? I gained how to be resilient in all the adversities. I learnt how to turn this pain into power. I learnt how to convert my limitations into breakthroughs. Here is my story, coming straight to you without any fluff &hellip; the real authentic flow of my life&rsquo;s stormy waters that unlocked the most powerful version of myself.</p>