Hope is not a soft word. It is not naïve optimism or blind faith. It is the fire that refuses to die, the force that carries empires through collapse and ordinary people through nights that feel endless. Where fear cripples and despair paralyzes, hope moves. It is invisible, but it changes everything—it steadies trembling hands, strengthens weary hearts, and whispers of possibilities long before they arrive. Those who underestimate hope see it as weakness; those who understand it know it is the strongest weapon the human spirit can wield.

If I were asked what my favourite word is, I wouldn’t even hesitate—hope. At first glance, it might seem too simple, too ordinary to carry so much weight. But for me, hope is more than just a word. It is an anchor, a lifeline, and often, the only light I’ve held onto in some of the darkest chapters of my life.

Hope is what steadies me when everything else feels uncertain. It has been with me during seasons of transition, like when I left my home in Cebu to cross oceans and begin a new life in a land that felt foreign in every way. Back then, I didn’t know what waited for me—I only had the courage that comes from hope. Hope told me, “You will find your way.” And slowly, step by step, I did.

It has also carried me through grief, through the quiet ache of losing people I love. Grief can make the world feel cold, heavy, and endless, but hope has always been the whisper that love never truly leaves—it transforms, it lingers in memory, and it strengthens the heart left behind. Hope doesn’t erase pain, but it gives me the strength to live alongside it, to believe that the ache will soften with time.

In my everyday life and work, hope is what keeps me going when exhaustion threatens to take over. When I am on my feet for long shifts, when challenges pile high, when the weight of responsibility feels almost too much, hope is the reason I keep showing up. It reminds me that even the smallest effort matters, that even one act of kindness can ripple into something bigger, and that perseverance always plants seeds we may not see bloom yet.

The beauty of hope is that it doesn’t demand perfection.

You don’t need to be strong all the time to hold onto it. You don’t need to have everything figured out. Even the faintest spark is enough. Hope can live in a tired sigh, in a whispered prayer, in the decision to get up and face the day even when you don’t feel like it. It is humble, quiet, and persistent.

And that’s why it’s my favourite word—it teaches me resilience. It reminds me that life is not defined by one failure, one heartbreak, or one loss. There is always another page waiting to be turned, another dawn waiting to break. With hope, we learn to walk forward not because the road is easy, but because we believe it will be worth it.

💡 Lesson of the day:

Hope is not the absence of struggle; it is the presence of courage in the middle of it. It doesn’t solve everything, but it creates the possibility for everything to change. And that’s why, no matter where life takes me, I’ll always carry this word close: hope.