Twitter / X

A man of few words... on Twitter... or X? Seems like a decent combination.

I created my Twitter account in January of 2013, so more than 10 years ago now. I probably made it to fit in with the crowd and follow the birth of the social media trends. I don't remember all my usernames, but the few that I remember are "micfreshh", "iancruz" , "midoublec" and finally, "saboramic." In fact, this may be my second Twitter account - I might have deleted my first account for the same reasons that I am choosing to delete this account. I know I did that with my original Instagram account. I've had my current Instagram account deactivated for about a year now.

I never was one to try to too hard to accumulate followers. I also never understood how some people could follow so many other people. Though I did unfollow a lot of people who I found not beneficial to follow. There were a lot of "subtweets" that occurred during highschool. These were the tweets that were indirectly towards someone. I hated these as I felt like the tweeter could just confront the person in real life about it. I suppose that Twitter provided that "hidden voice" which allowed people to express themselves. I'm probably guilty of a few subtweets, but I really tried to avoid it. I feel like WhatsApp statuses are the closest things to subtweets for me nowadays.

Out of all of the social medias that I have been a part of, Twitter is the one that I was least active with (I even used Tumblr a fair bit before). I probably checked it quite a bit at the start but my interest died down over the years. I remember having the app on my first phones, but it did not carry onto my later phones. I pretty much stopped using Twitter after highschool. I tried to pick it up again and follow people who spoke other languages to inspire me but I didn't really get into that. There is a lot of noise on Twitter, a lot of false news and facts, and really toxic content if one is not careful.

Nowadays, the fact that my account exists occupies a space in my subconscious. It's a buried temptation that I would check on the darkest of days. That is why I am choosing to delete my account to be free of one less existing distraction. Before I do so, I want to share with you a few of my more memorable Tweets. I'll probably surprise myself upon reading them as I seemed to have this untapped wisdom sometimes. I wonder where I got it from.

I've decided to share a screenshot of almost all of my 216 tweets. I'll point out the ones that stick out to me the most. Keep in mind that I wrote these tweets over 10 years ago. I think I had a Blackberry phone at the time. Also over the years I have deleted some tweets. I don't recall many of them, but my mom just reminded me that one time I tweeted about my frustrations with my father and he found out. These kind of things can come back to bite you.

My first tweets. All three of them still resonate with me in some way, related to my identity. I feel like I might have deleted my first tweet and that one in the picture is just the oldest one standing.

Well there's some wisdom here, or at least some darker reflections.

"It takes a smart person to realize their own mistakes, but a strong person to fix them." Wow, just wow. What was going on in my life back then?

Shout out to Holly for being real. I still believe in that idea. Why waste energy complaining when you can do something about it?
"One day I'll look back at these days and laugh, but I'll be thankful that I went through them to get to where I'll be."
I like this one, but unfortunately I didn't journal at all back then and I can't pinpoint exactly what was going on in my life at this moment. I was in Grade 11, I think Basketball Season was just about to start but I didn't gel well with the team. I was still dating my first girlfriend at the time. Thinking back to random moments from highschool, I do laugh, though I remember highschool being a dark time for me.

The first and the last tweet from this screenshot still ring true to me today. These reflections probably helped form me into who I am today.

Well I always had that grind mentality...

I wanted your presence not your presents. 
I remember the context of the tweet from January 14th, 2014. I was on the first bus on the way home when one of the kids from my grade laughed at someone else with pure judgement and I didn't like that. I feel like I tweeted right away on my Blackberry when I witnessed it.

The first tweet is definitely when I officially broke up with my first girlfriend.

Ah yes, highschool basketball. We did something quite significant which was not expected of us at all; we made provincials. I still have dreams of that grade 12 team from time to time. I have regrets of thinking too much on the court and playing with fear. Maybe if I had the mentality that I have now back then, I would have contributed way more to the team and we may have had a better shot at winning the entire thing. Also, Boreham was a father figure for quite a few of us for awhile. Probably messed with my psyche a bit, I still hear the expressions "Baseline" and "That's not good enough!" ringing in my head in his voice. 

The second last tweet I quoted in Spanish in my previous blog post. It looks like I had finally watched Frozen and I decided to quote the movie and turn it into a darker thought.

I wonder what happened with the other Michaels. My second tweet here shows just how "important" it was to get into a high reputation university. I didn't even end up going to SFU. 
I probably wasted a lot of time in my life, so I'm trying not to waste anymore.
That time doing paintball might have been with David, Alex, and Bryan and I had a blast. I seem to remember laughing my *** off at Alex that day for doing something stupid.

Yeah, I really was a hopeless romantic back then and I really wanted to bounce from highschool. Well, at least I had the hunch that the world was much bigger and there was a lot more to offer in life than just ND.
I used to "love them deep talks" back then. I feel like I still do, but I don't have them as much as I did before. Maybe that's why I'm depressed a lot of the time. I have a lot to unpack. At least I'm doing that now with this blog post.
"Peace." This was definitely my last day of highschool.
That Filipino tweet... still relatable, it's a great example of my identity crisis history.
In the last tweet you can see my fanboyism for Derek Jeter and Kobe Bryant.

Thankfully my mom and I got to travel to Hawaii together a few years later.
In the 3rd tweet, I reveal my post-secondary institution destination.
I agree, I am growing too fast.
Apparently I did the Grouse Grind in 1h6m, wow. I remember my calves being so sore after that first time. I went with former friends from highschool for sure that time.
I still love My Neighbour Totoro. That was my childhood, going to Oakridge library when I was younger and going to borrow that movie every time. I hope to do the same with DJ.

Sean, I hope you're doing well, wherever you are. We were best friends back then and we have a similar background with our fathers. 
"Lately I've been remembering random moments of my life and laughing to myself about them."
Well, I am looking back now at some moments from the past, but I don't think I'm laughing as much as I did before :(

Not sure if this was my first NBA game. It was a preseason game. Still to this day, I have not watched a regular season game.

Enter BCIT days, which were just as dark as ND days. I dropped out of BCIT after the second term, it was too intense for 17/18 year old me. Apu Dada was also on his way out during this time, too. 
"Everything happens for a reason"
"Once Halloween has passed, Christmas comes just like that" - Yep. We're one month away here in the future (Nov 25, 2023).
"Garageband too fun... Expect me to drop a mixtape ;) #jk #hahamaybe" 
Funny enough, I ended up releasing music using Garageband not too long after posting this tweet.
The last tweet is some corny quote from my friend Elijah. We were quite close, especially after highschool.

In the first tweet, the link takes the user to "Survivor - Beyonce"
In the second tweet, I either failed a midterm exam or I tried to talk to a cute girl and failed. I really like Asian girls back then.
In the third tweet, I was quoting the song "Confident - Justin Bieber". I remember I put it on repeat for a week stretch when I first heard it.
Ah, Julia. I'll have to dedicate a separate post for this one I think. There's probably some trauma there considering that we were best friends who lived together and then stopped communicating all of a sudden and cut each other off completely.
My sleeping pattern never really improved. I definitely don't have a great one right now.

This was probably the point in time when I was REALLY into the NBA. Kobe was still playing, John Wall, Rajon Rondo were relevant in the league, etc.

Ah yes, the one time I got prank called by Jade and her friend. The guy did look a little bit like me.

You gotta book an appointment, sorry.
The last tweet can be true for me on my darkest days.

"Family first. Always." Yes.
"As soon as the phone rang, I knew." RIP Apu Dada. I wonder what he thinks of me now, from up there?
In the 4th tweet I'm pretty sure I was subtweeting Matt... sorry Matt! You gotta answer all the questions!
I was depressed at this time.

The last two tweets...

I kinda do miss those trout lake days of going to the basketball open gym after highschool days and meeting kids from other schools. I used to "own" that gym.
Yes, to be number one, you have to be odd. I'm pretty sure I quoted that recently too.
"May patience is always being tested." Yep.
"When I overthink it just gets so ugly." Yep.
Olidoe... this was definitely when he interacted with H20BRNDL for the first time.

"No matter how hard you try, you can't keep everyone happy." -Words of a people pleaser
This is when I really started to get into Childish Gambino. 3005 and Telegraph Ave. Nearing the end of my BCIT days.
"You don't know what you do to other people until someone else does it to you"

This was the start of my more hip-hop phase. I also was a big Lebron hater.

That retweet is the truth, though I can't say that I follow it religiously.
I wonder what I knew all along. I can't remember.

Thanks HMV, I hope you're doing well.
I don't like Will Smith as much as I did before.
"Easier said than done."

I was a big fan of John Wall before.
"A Survivor is born." I wonder if I got that quote from Tomb Raider?
The last tweet is so true, haha. Not that I go to many Filipino parties nowadays.

Here is the start of my "music career". When I thought that I would make it big for my music. I had the style of Childish Gambino mixed with J Cole.
My Telegraph Ave cover was the first track that I publicly released on my 19th birthday. The Forbidden Apple was released right at midnight on New Years 2016.

Tan Messiah & MIC.
"Confidence"
I changed my twitter handle around this time to Ian Cruz.

The grind. My second released track. More quotes from music lyrics. My first tweet in Spanish.
I don't think I'm awkward anymore, I just didn't jive with those certain people.

"Vancity is pretty wack to be honest" - Yeah, I feel that, but there still exists some great things about it (multiculturalism, community centres and libraries). Other than that, it's expensive and full of pretentious / privileged people.
"Perspective"
Baseball days... I miss those.

Here is where I really stopped using Twitter as you can see by the gaps between my tweets. I like the first tweet and how I addressed myself. Then I tweeted on Kobe's last gameday and then his death. RIP. I also copied and pasted a tweet from my friend A from Bolivia when there was a coup d'etat.

I retweeted.a video of Kobe Bryant speaking Spanish.

I would probably cry if I were to watch this Oscar winning video made by Kobe. But I will rewatch it sometime in the near future to help inspire me to raise DJ.

Unfortunately Kobe wasn't made as the new NBA logo. At least they named the All Star MVP trophy after him. 
I returned to Twitter on March 21st, 2001. I tried to use it for language purposes but never followed through with it. I immersed myself in the Spanish language using other methods, so there is still hope for my Portuguese / French and eventually Japanese.

INTI Academy. I'll have to write a separate post about this sometime. I already did on my LinkedIn, but I think that teaching at INTI Academy during the pandemic really helped me to grow and especially improve my Spanish. 

My last tweet, promoting the video that I did for my job at my university.

~

As you can see, I didn't resort to tweeting every single day. I know that some former classmates did. Well perhaps if they were to look back at their tweets they would remember more details from back then than I do. I also didn't accumulate a lot of likes nor retweets, maybe because I wasn't too popular in highschool and you'd have to post something really cliche/relatable/hippie for it to get attention. See "Chivalry is dead", "#IMPULSE2015", "Hell yeah boys #IrishLiquor212."

Perhaps I'll do the same with the rest of my social media (Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook). I feel like those platforms will take me longer to go through, and even going through Twitter took me awhile. 

I'm already cleaning out my old email addresses, and I've actually deleted my very first email address. I want the things in my life to have a clear purpose and intention, otherwise I don't want it to occupy a space in my realm. That's why I don't have Tiktok nor do I plan on creating an account for it. That way, I can really focus on what's important to me and love to the fullest. God knows I'm trying.

Anyways, thanks for reading this post. Time to delete my Twitter... or my X.