Thanks to my good friend Intan for being such a great, uhrm, tour guide! haha peace! I owe you a lot!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Perfect Pair
Your Malaysian adventure would not be complete without you having a taste of this perfect pair:
Thanks to my good friend Intan for being such a great, uhrm, tour guide! haha peace! I owe you a lot!
Thanks to my good friend Intan for being such a great, uhrm, tour guide! haha peace! I owe you a lot!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Some Lessons Learned
Airplane Rides
Some friends told me that it took a lot of guts to go to another country all by myself. I mean, I traveled alone (think of three airplane rides and the tormenting hours of waiting), and I do not have any friends or relatives in my country of destination. This may be an overstatement, but they were "amazed" at how I was able to manage all the traveling alone and living independently in another country stuff.
But there is nothing amazing about it. It is not like you are going to walk and rely on clues and maps (although that would be much more interesting). You take the right plane, then another right plane, and another right plane, and lo and behold, you are in your country of destination.
Life's Lesson on "Readiness"
Now, I don't believe in not trying something out because of that "I'm not yet ready" cliche. I've learned that you cannot be ready for anything. What you can do is decide to go for it or not, and deal with the regrets that go with the decision later. It's like when you badly want to blog about something, but you just don't know where to start. You say, "No, I'm not ready to blog about this." But, you cannot be ready until you start typing out the first word or first sentence or first paragraph of your entry.
Choosing to live very far away from home is like writing that blog entry you think you are not ready to write. Was I ready for it? All I knew was that I was not obsessing over thinking whether I was ready or not. What I knew was I wanted some change to happen in my life before the year ended. When an opportunity came, I grabbed it without expectations of sorts. I did not know whether I was ready or not. And it paid off.
Some friends told me that it took a lot of guts to go to another country all by myself. I mean, I traveled alone (think of three airplane rides and the tormenting hours of waiting), and I do not have any friends or relatives in my country of destination. This may be an overstatement, but they were "amazed" at how I was able to manage all the traveling alone and living independently in another country stuff.
But there is nothing amazing about it. It is not like you are going to walk and rely on clues and maps (although that would be much more interesting). You take the right plane, then another right plane, and another right plane, and lo and behold, you are in your country of destination.
Life's Lesson on "Readiness"
Now, I don't believe in not trying something out because of that "I'm not yet ready" cliche. I've learned that you cannot be ready for anything. What you can do is decide to go for it or not, and deal with the regrets that go with the decision later. It's like when you badly want to blog about something, but you just don't know where to start. You say, "No, I'm not ready to blog about this." But, you cannot be ready until you start typing out the first word or first sentence or first paragraph of your entry.
Choosing to live very far away from home is like writing that blog entry you think you are not ready to write. Was I ready for it? All I knew was that I was not obsessing over thinking whether I was ready or not. What I knew was I wanted some change to happen in my life before the year ended. When an opportunity came, I grabbed it without expectations of sorts. I did not know whether I was ready or not. And it paid off.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
How about this for a first blog entry?
Why I Write
One of the questions that I dreaded answering when I was still in college was, "Why do you write?" Or, "Why Creative Writing?" I should say that this question needs a lot of thinking, but your teacher needs an answer right then and there. So you come up with an answer like "to keep a record of memories". (It's a cheesy answer, I know.)
There's no money in writing. Everybody can write. So you plan to write novels?
These are just some of the comments that creative writing students may have to deal with. And, more often than not, people do not have time to listen to your explanations. So you learn to shut up.
Going back, why do I write? Now, I should say that I write because I hate being apathetic. I write when I need to feel pain, happiness, excitement, etc. It is only when I write that I feel so human, so vulnerable to the drama of this so-called "life".
It is when I write that I live the happiest, most painful, and most exciting moments in my life.
One of the questions that I dreaded answering when I was still in college was, "Why do you write?" Or, "Why Creative Writing?" I should say that this question needs a lot of thinking, but your teacher needs an answer right then and there. So you come up with an answer like "to keep a record of memories". (It's a cheesy answer, I know.)
There's no money in writing. Everybody can write. So you plan to write novels?
These are just some of the comments that creative writing students may have to deal with. And, more often than not, people do not have time to listen to your explanations. So you learn to shut up.
Going back, why do I write? Now, I should say that I write because I hate being apathetic. I write when I need to feel pain, happiness, excitement, etc. It is only when I write that I feel so human, so vulnerable to the drama of this so-called "life".
It is when I write that I live the happiest, most painful, and most exciting moments in my life.
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