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Issue 2:
Exploring Imperfection

We are all works in progress. Perfection is utopic; it is unattainable. Despite it, we thrive in our imperfection. Our rawness. Our emotions. Our morals. It is what makes us human.

With Our Diary's second issue, we explore the idea of unfinished work. Unanswered questions bouncing off the walls like echo chambers. Unaccountable actions and their consequences. Unawarded and quiet achievements.

We strive to remain unbashedly honest. Enjoy Issue 2.

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Kai Oszlai

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Existentialism and the Curse of Being a Teenager in the 21st Century
by Kai Oszlai

Being a teenager today feels like an ongoing existential crisis. Between the pressures of social media, figuring out our future, and facing a world in chaos, we're constantly questioning our identity and purpose. This essay explores how existentialism captures the modern teen's struggle to find meaning in an uncertain world.

Created on October 18, 2024

Published on October 19, 2024

Being a teenager in the 21st century feels like living through an existential crisis on a daily basis. Existentialism, with its focus on figuring out who you are and what life actually means, couldn’t be more relevant to how I feel. I feel like I’m stuck in a room with a ticking time bomb, hands sweating over a pair of scissors wondering which wire to cut. It’s like we’re thrown into a world that doesn’t come with any clear instructions, and it’s up to us to make sense of everything—while dealing with intense expectations, emotions, and revelations from every direction. Social media and technology make this crisis feel even more overwhelming. Instead of simply existing and finding our way naturally, I find that we get constantly fed images of how life should look—perfect bodies, perfect friendships, perfect achievements, that one kid who somehow got an internship at NASA… The list goes on. The pressure to create a version of ourselves that’s “Instagram-worthy” adds to this feeling that we’re supposed to be something specific when, in reality, we don’t even know what that something is. What does it mean to be complete when perfection is unattainable? Existentialism talks about how we have the freedom to create our own meaning, but in this world, it feels like everyone else is telling us what meaning to chase. Additionally, the inevitable future approaches rapidly every day. Existentialist philosophy tells us that we are free to choose our own path, but for teenagers, this freedom is almost like a double-edged sword. How am I supposed to have my career, identity, and direction figured out at 17 years old, when I’m still trying to figure out who I am in the first place? The uncertainty of it all—the looming pressure to have a clear plan for the future while knowing that everything could change—is maddening. Not to mention that there’s the larger existential dread that comes from the state of the world. Climate change, economic instability with inflation on the rise, political chaos—how the hell am I supposed to buy a house when I graduate? The future is uncertain, and the systems in place aren't exactly designed to help us feel secure. It’s hard to stay optimistic or even believe in traditional goals like success or stability when the world feels like it’s falling apart before our eyes. This existential weight isn’t something past generating faces in quite the same way, at least not with the constant reminders we get. In the end, being a teenager today is about navigating these deep existential questions while trying to find some sense of authenticity. It’s a curse because there are so many forces pulling us in different directions, but maybe it’s also an opportunity. If existentialism teaches us anything, it’s that we have the power to define our own purpose—even if that process feels chaotic and uncertain right now. But for most of us, it’s hard to shake the feeling that we’re stuck in a constant limbo, searching for meaning in a world that’s constantly telling us what we’re supposed to be.

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Portrait sketches
by Anonymous

Series of traditional portrait drawings.

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Created from 2022-2023

Published on October 18, 2024

Painting
by Arisha Zaman

Painting of a woman.

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Created on July 28, 2023

Published on November 5, 2024

Portraits
by Anonymous

Series of digital portrait drawings.

(Click to expand photos)

Created on August 7, 2023

Published on November 5, 2024

one good thing every day
by Anonymous

A series of diary entries, 2022-2023. A disorganized but somewhat coherent flurry of thoughts about people - how much you can hate them, fear them, love them, and how much it hurts when they leave - all through the eyes of a pseudo-optimist fifteen-year-old girl.

Created from 2022-2023

Published on October 18, 2024

Thursday, December 8, 2022 - i’m getting bitter aren’t i i think i’m done with people. i have no more patience. everything pisses me off. stop holding my hand. i hate the feeling of your cold hands sliding across my arm to meet mine. it’s disgusting. don’t tap me on the arm. don’t touch me. don’t fucking touch me. i hate it when you tap me to get my attention. i hate it when anyone does that. am i getting bitter why does that guy think he can hang around my friends? why does he think he gets to be in the same room as me? the earth would be better off without him there wasting space. i hate people so damn much. why does the teacher repeat every word she says even though we’ve already shut up? i hate her. i hate people who unnecessarily waste their breath. my best friend - he’s someone i still have positive emotions for. even though he comes to me with his problems all the time i don’t feel as annoyed as i thought i would be. it’s genuine concern that comes through. i think i really do pray for the best for him. he just needs to know how to let go. i just can’t help but sugarcoat things to let him down slowly. i’m so done with letting people down slowly. why am i sitting in a mcdonald’s bathroom when i could be in the gym of the school having fun like everyone else? what am i even doing? the music is loud in here. there’s a group of loud girls. i’m praying that they leave. every time they come and shake the door i get cold chills. what if they find me? what if they see me? i don’t know what i’m trying to accomplish. i just need more time by myself like this. i feel calm. it’s cold in here. Wednesday, December 28, 2022 - i think i suck at love i wonder if people ever get sick of letting me down. it’s really funny how people are so blind. i would do anything for them. would they not do one thing for me? one ounce of effort? why am i still excited to receive a text message? i don’t want to go outside and meet him today. i can’t express all my feelings over art so i have to resort to words. i hate words. they’re so difficult to understand. i want to lie in bed and do nothing. it’s so cold today. i don’t want to get out and study. i want to sleep. i don’t want to wake up. everything is worse out here. i hate people. i don’t want it to get to the point where i start making excuses for him. i thought he was such an amazing person. i thought he had no faults. after hearing stories about him i don’t know what to think. i don’t want him to be another letdown. but it seems to be the only emotion anyone else can hold for me. it’s so wonderful to be in love. i don’t have enough emotional capacity to take it. Friday, January 20, 2023 - when was the last time i slept through the night? i stay awake at night because i’m unsatisfied with how my day went. i can’t keep my eyes open anymore. i’m so tired every morning. i don’t want to burn out already. i can feel my grades slipping from stellar. my average is going to drop. i can feel it. but it’s ok. as long as i have one good thing that made me happy today i can’t say that i’ve had a bad day. at least not completely. he made me happy today. he got me a cookie from subway. he gave me good luck on my culminating. he seems out of it these days. i’m not sure how to talk to him. our relationship is bonded solely and utterly by video games. are we really so shallow now? Monday, February 6, 2023 - one good thing every day is it weird that i want to be vulnerable in front of him? but he’s going to get tired of me crying all the time. why did i say those things when i should’ve been silent? i can’t say anything because my stories aren’t my own anymore. one good thing every day. one good thing. if there’s one thing that made me smile today, it’s a good day. i can’t call it a bad day if i smiled. i just need one good thing every day. i didn’t even notice the months passing by so fast. has it really been so long since we met? i flip through the pages of the diary and see how many months have passed. have i known him long enough to be allowed to want to be his favourite? Thursday, February 16, 2023 - i am never indifferent it makes me laugh how i sometimes wonder why i’m emotionally unavailable. don’t you see my sister’s outbursts? doesn’t she think it’s embarrassing? one of us is too emotional so the other has to be the opposite. it’s really funny. she cries over every little thing. she goes to our mother for help and comfort. she cries in her arms and says everything she wants to say. she doesn’t know what it feels like to be missing a voice. she doesn’t know what it feels like to not be able to go to anyone in tears whenever she’s sad. mother might even call me emotional if i had gone to her all the times i cry alone. Wednesday, March 15, 2023 - how can i stop loving someone who will never love me back i’ve been letting him into my dreams. i think about him every waking and sleeping moment. let me rest for even one day without thinking about him. what do i even love? what has he ever done for me? the little things make me happier than you can imagine. a sentence long response puts a smile over my frown. three or four make my entire day. all he’s ever done is remind me of how susceptible i can be to those who i love. i love him so much it hurts. and so does the knowledge that he will never reciprocate these feelings. i’ve transcended love. i need his affection. i feel endlessly hollow otherwise. i need to see him. i need to talk to him. he can’t keep appearing in my dreams. none of it is real in the end. i’ve never been more devastated to wake up. Saturday, May 27, 2023 - i just can’t find someone who can heal me how have the days passed so quickly already? two weeks ago i was still lamenting. one flip of the calendar and it’s june. next i know it’s july. will things be the same? things are moving so quickly i don’t have enough time to go and catch everything. so many competitions are coming up. my muscles feel weaker than ever because i’ve been sick for a week. exams are coming up. i’ve forgotten everything already. i remember how badly i wanted it to be june when it was january. six more months. i told myself that it was six more months. half a year. has it really been half a year since january? at this rate i’m going to become an adult before i know it. i’ve already grown as one. cooking and buying my own groceries make me feel so giddily responsible. my sister thinks i’m a kid. she thinks she’s so much older and responsible. she doesn’t know anything. her scrapes and scars have perfectly healed over because she’s always had someone to cry on. what about mine? they’re still bleeding. they’re covered in dirt and grime because of all the people who step over them. who is going to let me cry on their shoulder? i wish he’d let me cry on his shoulder. but if i were him i would hate that. of course he would hate that. anyone would hate that. i had an opportunity before. that time i managed to move myself to tears in front of him. if other people hadn’t been there i might’ve been able to scrounge a hug from him. or even a wrap around the shoulder. he gave me those light and fleeting head taps of his. it showed that he cared but didn’t know what to do. anything he would have done would have made everything alright. he doesn’t understand how in love i am with him. as if the hearts in my eyes could be more obvious. i’ve grown soft. and weak. Tuesday, June 13, 2023 - they leave and they leave but i will always be here. they can always come back to me. I never thought the day would come where I would be having this conversation. My best friend - the one person I thought I could rely on ended up pushing me away anyway. He said he still loved me and he said that his emotions for me had never changed. So why did he abandon me for her so quickly? I cry every time I think of it. We used to say that we were best friends. Two halves of a whole, emotional twins. I miss him, but not in the way one would expect. I miss my half. He's gone to look for another one. I have rarely ever felt such platonic emotional duress. I am constantly under the impression that those I hold dear to my heart will never leave. Now it feels like I've lost something I've loved for so long, even though he is there within arm's reach. How did it come to be like this? Why couldn't the three of us coexist? I love both of them so dearly. But clearly, I'm the odd one out. I'm the one that either of them would abandon for each other. The best course of action would be to remove myself from the equation. I just can't believe he would do it so unhesitantly. I don't believe that he hesitated, even for a moment. If she just said the word, he would do it. I just thought that what we had was deeper than that. In the end, it all comes down to me being discarded once my role as the therapist tool was served. I helped him through his tough times. I skipped meals and abandoned work for it. What do I get as payback? The loss of someone I used to call my best friend. He discarded me because I had helped him get what he wanted. They don't even do it intentionally. Because I'm so nonchalant, they think they can do whatever they want and I'll still be happy. I'm so sick of punching bathroom walls just so that my knuckles would bruise and someone would notice. No one ever notices when anything is wrong unless I make it obvious to them. I wanted to cry so bad on the first day of Nationals. I wanted to break that door and cry. I wanted him to notice that I wasn't okay, and I wanted him to come comfort me. I was hoping too much. I should've known that it would have turned out this way. If people treat me like nothing, why am I so desperate to prove that they are something? All I want is a shoulder to cry on. All I want is for someone to undoubtedly be there for me. I genuinely thought that he would be the one I could always rely on, and I never expected that we would ever have that conversation. I miss him so. But he would choose her a thousand times over. In every universe, he would choose her. It would always be her. And I would understand. I wouldn't do it myself, but I would understand. I'm so tired of understanding. Why do I allow myself to validate the actions of others that harm me? I want for him to see me vulnerable. Not online, but in person. That's so incredibly selfish of me. He said he didn't know what to do. What I truly wanted him to do was compromise. Compromise with her and talk it out. I didn't want to be left behind. But of course he wouldn't think of that. Never in a million years would he think to approach her with an idea that could harm their relationship. I still can't believe he would throw me away so easily. He said that he wasn't going to forget me, he said that he wasn't going to throw me away. He said that we would be this close forever. Now he says that things have changed. I want things to go back to how they were. I'm so sick of feeling like this. I've shed too many tears over this situation. I can't keep talking to him about it because I'm sure he's tired of it. Sadness doesn't come in my friendship package. I'm supposed to accept anything and everything that comes my way, no matter how harmful. I pick up and move on. Why can't I move on from this? He means so much to me. I love him so much, more than I could ever love myself. And it's not even a shallow, romantic love. I cherish him like I cherish my own life. If our relationship strays so much from the way it was before, I would be fine if the car crashed on a rainy highway. Death would be better than an existence without him. It's difficult to think that I don't mean any of this romantically. He is truly like my other half. If I don't have him, I'm incomplete. I truly miss how things used to be. He used to tell me he loved me every time we said goodbye, and he would ask me how I was every day. We would finish each other's sentences. We would make plans together for just the two of us. Whatever happened to all that? Why am I still happy for the two of them if it causes me so much pain? I can't help but feel glad that neither of them are upset anymore. Their happiness is my happiness. My true emotions don't matter. Wednesday, August 30, 2023 - i fell out of love (it happens) there is truly no one to talk to anymore. i don’t know what to do before sleeping and my words aren’t coming out. it’s been a long couple of days the moon is so bright tonight it looks like the sun dark can make darker light

Spongebob Window
by @alein.huang on Instagram

Drawing of a window from Spongebob Squarepants using traditional mediums.

(Click to expand photo)

Published on October 21, 2024

Spongebob Window

Flower
by Richard Liao

Snow blankets the park as I retrace old paths, wrapped in silence. Children sled down a nearby hill, their laughter reaching me through the winter air, though it doesn’t quite warm the emptiness inside. A young boy approaches, holding a single purple flower—a curious thing to find in winter.

Created from October 31, 2024

Published on November 5, 2024

The snow fell, thick and heavy. The cold, crisp wind kissed my face as I looked at the winter wonderland ahead. I strode down the snow-covered path, retracing the footsteps of those who walked it before me. The once-lush park was now coated with white, the snow like a thick, heavy blanket; it was still quite the sight, despite the bitter cold and barren trees. The majestic red and gold of autumn was long gone, with the remains of what was spared swept away by the winter breeze. I observed the frozen world silently, taking deep breaths of the icy air as I made my way toward the small hill in the distance. These days, the park was perhaps the only thing keeping me alive. Through the dark and empty void within. As I trudged up the hill, two children slid past on toboggans, squealing. I watched them slide down, their energy seemingly endless. I tried to find solace in this— how I wasn’t completely locked up in my own dark world and I could still hear the children’s excited screams, feel their warmth. But as usual, I found nothing, except the gaping hole that had settled in my chest. I climbed further up the hill, finding my usual picnic table covered with snow. I brushed off a small section of the seat and, ignoring the rest of the powdered snow, sat down. The slowly sinking sun shone on my face, and I had to squint to see what was beyond. The small town was typically quiet, unlike the big city fifty kilometres away. I could see the outline of the towering skyscrapers and busy atmosphere in the distance. The big city had always felt too crowded for me, too loud and— moving. Here, in the town, I could enjoy my free days like this—watching the sunset from the top of the hill. I tried to savour these moments of peace and quiet. So there I sat under the cerulean sky, watching the snow glisten from the setting sun. Laughter echoed from the open fields below and beyond. I closed my eyes. How long had it been since I had last felt that joy of being so free? “Hello?” My eyes opened to find a young boy standing before me, his coat covered with snow and a toboggan in hand. I spoke, my voice surprisingly weak, “What’s wrong?” “Do you like sledding?” I hummed. “I used to.” “Why don’t you anymore?” I hesitated, thinking of a way to reply. In the end, I just answered, “I grew out of it.” “Oh.” The little boy showed no signs of understanding. Not that I expected him to. Just how much would a young child understand about the world anyway? I turned away and went back to staring into nothing, willing the boy to leave. But the boy, apparently not finished, spoke up once more. “Do you believe in fun? My mommy and daddy never played. They don’t seem to believe in fun.” I sighed, the answer once again failing to reach me. “There are many things I believe and don’t believe in.” The boy didn’t seem to mind how I avoided answering his question. Instead, he held up something in his other hand; a lush, purple flower. I frowned, confused. I opened my mouth to ask the boy where he got it, but before I could, he cut in. “My mommy says to believe in yourself when you don’t believe in anything else. She’s gone now—Daddy sometimes doesn’t seem to believe in her. But I still do. And I hope she believes in herself too.” Whatever answer I had in my throat died off, and I swallowed. The flower in my hand seemed to glow, a light in the cold world around us. By the time I looked back up, the boy was gone, the only sign that he was ever there being the disturbed snow in front of me. How the child managed to get such a beautiful flower in the middle of winter was beyond my knowledge. But despite myself, I smiled. Maybe I had truly gone insane. Maybe this was what it felt like to be finally swallowed by the darkness lurking in me. And if I were being honest, it wasn’t too bad. Feeling lighter than I had for a while, I looked up to find the sky ablaze with a rosy orange, lighting up the world in all its glory. So I sat and watched the sunset, the boy’s flower in hand.

What is a Person?
by Kai Oszlai

My answer to the question "What is a Person?", an assignment given for philosophy class.

Read left-to-right.

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Created on October 10, 2024

Published on Jun 27, 2024

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