ANNELISA PHUONG NGUYEN
Be the change you wish to see in others
my kind of love
Annilusa / May 20, 2025love is such a strange, sacred thing. my little self was the kind of girl who believed in “i want it, i got it.” i thought effort and desire were enough to get anything. i thought feelings would work the same way - simple, predictable, earnable. but growing up taught me otherwise. feelings - especially…
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About love. Self-love.
Annilusa / April 26, 2025People say self-love is the foundation of everything. That you can’t love anyone until you love yourself.But when the first version of love you knew was cracked and conditional, you start to think maybe you were the problem. Maybe you were too loud. Too sensitive. Too needy. Maybe if you had done something differently, they…
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Love Isn’t Late – It Comes When You’re Ready
Random thoughts / April 26, 2025A reflection on becoming whole before becoming one... I’m 26.And if you grew up hearing what I did, and that you are in Asia, you know what that means:Married by 27.Kids by 30.Happily ever after by... right about now. The clock, it seems, has already started ticking. Louder with every family gathering, louder every time…
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To You In Case You Missed the Train
Dear my future kids / March 26, 2025Dear Little Buddies, One day, you might find yourself standing on a subway platform in New York, long after the train has pulled away. The station feels colder than usual. A distant saxophone echoes down the tunnel. People rush by, disappearing into turnstiles and lives you’ll never know. And there you are - still, quiet,…
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I Am 26, And I Am A Mom Of 8 Kids (And Still Counting)
Annilusa / March 22, 2025People always raise their eyebrows when I tell them I have 8 kids. There’s usually a pause, then a "Wait, what?" followed by some version of "How old are you?" and finally, "Are they all yours?" Yes. No. Sort of. I didn’t give birth to them. I didn’t carry them in my body. But somewhere…
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The Quiet Freedom of Nothing
Dear my future kids / March 21, 2025Dear Little Buddies, A few nights ago, I found myself tangled in one of those wine night conversations with some folks studying abroad from the US. We ended up drifting into that familiar existential “rabbit hole”: What is the meaning of all this? This - life! Somewhere between sips of wine and shared pauses, we…
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About Youth
Dear my future kids / March 21, 2025Dear Little Buddies, Youth is a fleeting, mischievous thing. When I was 18, I thought the saying "Youth is wasted on the young" was just something older people said out of envy. But now, as I start noticing backaches, I understand it differently. It’s not about resentment - it’s about the realization that youth is…
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Random #1
Random thoughts / March 20, 2025Every time I travel, I find myself looking back - not just at the places I’ve been, but at the people I’ve met, the moments I’ve lived, and the way life constantly shifts beneath my feet. Places change. People come and go. But something always remains - a thread of who I am, woven through…
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The Magic Happens Outside Your Comfort Zone
Dear my future kids / March 19, 2025Dear Little Buddies, [mom at 22] One random night in New York, I somehow found myself at an intimate dinner with a fascinating mix of industry heavyweights - hedge fund titans who probably made more money in the last hour than I had in my entire career, tech founders whose apps I’d definitely doom-scrolled through,…
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Dear My Future Kids
Dear my future kids / March 19, 2025Why this session? Why this name? me at 2 having a good smile One of my favorite questions to ask people - usually over coffee, or while we’re walking aimlessly with nowhere urgent to be - is this: If you weren’t doing what you’re doing right now, what would you be doing instead? Not in…
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Who am I?
Annilusa / March 12, 2025Hmmm... Good question. Still figuring that out. My identity shifts like a kaleidoscope... each turn shaped by time, places, and the people I meet. If I had to answer, I’d say - I could be anything I want. Hmmm... Good question. Still figuring that out. My identity shifts like a kaleidoscope... each turn shaped by…
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