This is my entry on the topic “Affirmations” for February’s IndieWeb Carnival hosted by Joe Crawford . If you have written something similar for this month’s IndieWeb Carnival, please send it to me as well.

When I came across the IndieWeb Carnival on VH Belvadi’s website, I was excited. I had written last month’s theme with so much clarity, the words flowing effortlessly. But when February’s theme by Joe Crawford— ‘Affirmations’ was announced, I had no idea what to write.

I knew what affirmations were. But I wasn’t someone who actively practiced them. I didn’t stand in front of a mirror, repeating phrases of self-encouragement. I didn’t have a set of words I lived by. At first, I thought about skipping this month’s theme altogether. But the thought lingered.

What is my affirmation?
Do I even have one?
What is something I always look up to?

Like most kids, I was endlessly curious. But I had my own quirks. My mom tells me I had a strange fascination with boxes and cartons—I’d find them wherever I went and inspect them like they held some great mystery. I also remember how much I loved taking things apart. I wanted to see inside things, to figure out how they worked.

I never had LEGO kits growing up, but I did have a Mechanix Construction Set , and it was one of my absolute favorites. The moment I saw a picture of it online recently, memories flooded back. I remembered every single part, every screw and plate. I spent hours assembling and disassembling things, not because I had to but because I wanted to understand them. And it wasn’t just toys. Over the years, I took apart clocks, mixer grinders, television sets, music players — anything I could get my hands on. If it had screws, I was determined to figure out what was inside.

As I grew older and finished school, engineering felt like the natural path. The goal was the same: I wanted to know how things worked. But somewhere along the way, curiosity started taking a backseat to practicality. I made decisions—not necessarily the best ones—based on stability and career prospects. I started playing it safe, stopped experimenting as much, and convinced myself that life wasn’t always meant to be curious.

At some point, curiosity felt less like a gift and more like a burden—making me restless, chasing new things at the cost of stability. Some found it annoying. I convinced myself curiosity was a luxury, something to sacrifice for ‘success’.

But over time, something inside me felt off. I was moving forward, yet I wasn’t exploring. I was doing, but I wasn’t wondering. I had always been the kind of person who questioned everything—now, I was just accepting things as they were.

Then last year happened. After moving cities and watching my career take a hit, I found myself at one of the lowest points of my life. Everything felt uncertain. It wasn’t that I had followed all the “right” steps—I hadn’t. But I also hadn’t been completely lost. I was somewhere in between—not particularly good or bad at my job, not failing but not thriving either. I had just been moving forward for the sake of it, without questioning where I was headed.

And somewhere along the way, I had lost something.

The curious kid in me— the one who loved taking things apart just to see how they worked, the one who found joy in learning for the sake of it— had faded into the background. I had stopped chasing ideas that excited me, stopped asking What if? Instead, I had settled into a version of myself that felt… dull.

But maybe that was the real problem. Maybe curiosity is what drives me. It always has. It’s what made me excited about work, about learning, about building something new. And maybe, instead of waiting for the “right” path to appear, I just needed to let curiosity lead me again.

Ever since I made peace with myself, things have started to look a bit more promising. As a freelancer, every project is a chance to learn something new—new tools, new approaches, new challenges. Instead of seeing obstacles as roadblocks, I try to see them as puzzles waiting to be solved.

This very blog you’re reading started out of curiosity. One day, while casually browsing Hacker News, I came across the term ‘Hugo’ . I had never heard of it before, but something about it piqued my interest. That small spark led me down a rabbit hole of figuring things out. As someone who had never programmed much before, this exploration unexpectedly made me fall in love with coding. That curiosity, starting with a single unfamiliar term, ignited a passion in me, and I’ve been learning and building ever since.

Following this curiosity has led me to sign new clients, work on interesting projects, and feel excited about the road ahead. I even restarted my newsletter , which I had initially created as a way to share the interesting things I came across in my learning journey.

I’m no Buddha with enlightenment. I still have self-doubts and anxieties. But for the first time in a while, I’m genuinely excited about the future. I don’t know the destination, but I know the journey will be interesting, led by curiosity.

I may fail. I may take detours. But as long as curiosity fuels me, I know I’ll always be moving forward.

I’ve never really had affirmations, and maybe I still don’t—not in the traditional sense. But if I were asked to pen down my affirmations, they would be something like this:

I may not know the destination, but I trust the journey.
If something excites me, I follow the thread.
I don’t need all the answers. I just need to keep exploring.

Be Curious, always!
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ:･ﾟ✧*