Johanna: Inquisitive Nature

Born an islander, raised in a house on a cliff, she woke up to find her grandparents drinking coffee and sorting pigeon peas at the break of dawn — a quiet task she would often help them with while simply enjoying the sound of a new day coming to life.

Around her preteen years, she would assist her godfather on his handyman tasks, only because her curiosity to learn new things landed her the job, which fostered her fast learner attitude early on.

Now, as a database system analyst she plays detective, finds errors and lands on programming fixes for a big company in the metropolis. After reminiscing earlier days, the present stands out as more bizarre than ever.

“Today is Sunday, October 4, 2020, so there has been nothing typical in my days for months now.”

On a quiet day, if she wakes up before her partner, she will indulge in reading a book on her tablet. This activity helps her pause for a bit, putting a halt to her wandering thoughts — it isn’t strange for her to end-up reading the same passage over and over again because her mind delves elsewhere.

On a workday, she would dress up and get to work, whether driving to an office location or remotely from home, despite 2020, just as it was before. There, she is the go-to-person for many. She knows it or she will get you on the path to find the answer. Her love and ease for systems and data stems from her tireless inquisitive nature. To herself, she ponders why people trust and confide in her so naturally, something that can feel heavy at times. But at work, she has embraced that trust as an advantage, becoming the first link of the chain to successfully coordinate her team. She finds her relationships in the workplace fruitful, as she can delegate for support and speak up when things are not in marching order.

People tap into her wealth of knowledge and know she can trigger action at work, but in her personal life her superpower shows in a warmer color.

Since she was a kid, her listening skills were deeply intertwined to her essence, as a result kindness and loyalty have a notorious place in her worldview. She enjoys mingling with open-minded people, who can have goofy conversations or intense ones alike. Whenever family is going through a difficult situation, she is known to find her strength, step up, keep her cool and lend a hand. However, while she is a proud member of the pack, she rather keeps to herself.

“I’m a lone she-wolf in a world full of people.”

If you flip the coin, when she is not on the receiving end, it is hard for her to let anyone in. Acknowledging when she needs a helping hand or a trustful ear, doesn’t come easy. While going through a rough patch, as frustration sets in what she calls a stubborn mind, she must remind herself that there will be an unpleasant bursting point. She knows she can’t keep it all in.

“I am blessed to have someone that knows when I’m struggling with something. Someone who helps me analyze and look for a solution.”

How funny when our biggest gift to the world is the one thing we struggle to get for ourselves! Realizing where we stand, is key in opening the door to becoming who we want and can be. With that in mind, Johanna has been focusing on her well-being and self-acceptance for the past few years. Taking care of elemental things like her eating habits, going through — in her own words — an orthodontic “braces torture” for two years or getting her allergies under control, became the starting point for her self-care journey. By seeking to understand ourselves and nurturing all that makes us what we are, we can start walking the path to get where we want to be.

This year, as many of us, she had many plans. Plans that translated to a series of postponements, from getting a new tattoo, traveling to Europe, visiting her young nephew and cousins, and buying a house, among others, to what feels like a bubble in time. She has been fighting through this limited contact and movement era with more planning, shifting priorities and focusing on quotidian things like cooking new dishes. Shifting the order of ingredients and steps to perfect a breakfast recipe has never been more fun.

Talking about food, using the MoSCoW method, she discovered that she must have BBQ perpetually in her life. Since then, a myriad of ideas for indoor and outdoor BBQ kitchens inform her favorite project at hand: configuring her dream house.

It must be a place where she can host at least four guests at a time, so finding the optimal bunk beds arrangements for adults and kiddos is also part of her ongoing exploration.

Dreaming of a location with forest vibes nearby so she can wake once again to the sounds of nature, she has been spending time and good thought to shape up this uplifting home experiment. Making something functional and efficient feeds her hunger for knowledge and preparation.

The ultimate goal is to be ecologically self-sufficient as well. As an architecture-lover since high school, a geographer by training, and a professional having worked in the health and financial data industries, Johanna’s desire to be more human by harmonizing with nature has never dwindled.

“I’m a simple person: silence makes me happy; nature makes me happy.”

As obscure and convoluted as life may seem at times, while we may feel the desire to run away from a chaotic reality and find ourselves searching in our own eyes, it is nice to come back to these inner truths — whatever they may be — that keep us going no matter what.