Tag: The Year of the Brave

Thank you, Singapore!

Tina 4 Comments

I’ve had this post in my drafts for a while now, but I got a bit lazy fixing it and almost trashed it. Then I read this new post in one of the blogs I discovered over the weekend, and I realized that I shouldn’t just let this post fade into oblivion because I’m busy. This is a personal milestone, a check off the bucket list! This should be written down!

So here we go. :)

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The first time I went to Singapore was in 2007, when my dad had a conference and the entire family tagged along. My only mission I had for going there: buy a MacBook. Because, well…I needed a new laptop, then, so that was all what I wanted to do. (I was very gadget-centric back then.)

I did see a few things back then: Sentosa, Ikea in Tampines, and I also got to visit the Arts House to meet some of the NaNoWriMo participants in Singapore. I also got to roam around in Chinatown for a bit, but that was because that’s where we bought our first dSLR for my brother. But there’s not a lot of things I remember after that, because there weren’t many sights to see or places to go within that short span of time that I stayed there. Heck, Universal Studios Singapore wasn’t even there yet.

A few months ago, I was chatting with a friend about how I was feeling restless, and how I wanted to go somewhere. I want to pack up and leave. Go on a trip. There were no immediate trips to look forward to, and I needed something new. Something different. Something, oh, I don’t know, brave? I told my friend that I want to go somewhere, and she said, “Go.”

Pretty much everyone who I talked to about this told me to go, what’s stopping me, and it should be fun, yadda yadda yadda.

But I’m not that impulsive. And where could I possibly go? I’m not sure if I can afford it. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Still, the idea of going somewhere on my own was very attractive. And I felt like I badly, really needed it. And I figured that if I want to go to New York City someday, I better start practicing now, right?

So I gathered the courage and asked some friends if I could crash at their place if I decide to book a ticket to Singapore. They said yes, and then I gathered more courage and booked a ticket. (Complete with trying to book my flight several times and finally taking a deep breath before clicking that button that confirms my flight.)

Ta-da! I’m going to Singapore!

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My Singapore trip, in a nutshell:

  1. Midnight arrival, and enjoying the internet speed at the airport. (It’s fast, my friends. Very fast. :D)

    Hello, Changi!
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On Courage and NaNoWriMo

Tina Leave a comment

I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo this year because (1) I am too busy and (2) I needed a rest from writing 50,000 words every year since 2005 (count that: that’s almost 400,000 words for the last eight years. 433,000, if you count my 2004). So now I’m not the region’s Municipal Liaison, and I found there’s something different with not doing NaNoWriMo for November after almost a decade (!!!) of doing so.

But that’s not to say I won’t support this wonderful group of writers. So I wrote a pep talk for them this year. I wrote a lot more pep talks in the previous years, but this is the first time I’m writing outside of being an ML.

And as with everything in the past year…I wrote about courage, of course. :)

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I started 2013 with a word. I started this word thing in 2012, really, but my word for 2013 came to me before 2013 actually rolled around. So it feels like it was an extra-special word because it found me.

My word for 2013 was COURAGE.

It became a catchphrase that my friends use for me: The Year of the Brave. In a lot of ways, 2013 has been that kind of year for me — a brave year. It’s hardly ever easy, because courage is never easy. Just some of the brave things I decided to do this year: travel alone, seek a mentor, read books I never thought I’d read, have difficult conversations and write a novel.

Oh, I’ve been writing a novel since 2004, the year I joined NaNoWriMo. But this year, I decided to really buckle down and finish something I started, because I’ve been having 30 days of literary abandon for years only to end up abandoning the thing I wrote soon after I reach 50k. So th is year, instead of doing NaNo, I decided that I will try to be brave and actually finish that darn story, and actually send it out to the world. (Wish me luck on this, I’m almost done revising!)

I digress, and I will stop talking about that, and go back to NaNoWriMo.

When I first joined NaNoWriMo, I had no idea what 50k really meant, in terms of writing everyday and all that. It wasn’t 100k, anyway, so I figure, why not. And then I failed miserably and I didn’t think I’d do it again, but I came back in 2005, ready to get to that 50k because I wanted it. I kept coming back, because it was fun, even if sometimes I had no idea what I was really doing.

My real point is this (because I’m actually quite rusty in writing pep talks now, really, so excuse me :D): whether it’s your first time to join NaNoWriMo or the nth time, I hope you believe that this is a very courageous thing to do. 50,000 words may not seem a lot, but sometime later this month you will probably wonder why you decided to join this in the first place. Or why you decided to join again. You will hit wall upon wall, you will get busy with work or school, and every little thing will distract you from writing your novel. It will be one heck of a crazy ride for November, and one of the key things for you to get to that finish line is to be brave.

It’s probably not the kind of courage that you see with warriors in a battle, but it’s still courage. I believe that deciding to write that novel, taking on that challenge and finding out where your stories and your characters will take you is a brave thing, and I hope you hold on to that for the whole of November. You are a brave writer, and I hope NaNoWriMo helps you become that brave person you are made to be. :)

And if you hit a wall, or many walls, or if you feel like throwing in the towel, I will give you one more advice that has helped me in the first ten months of the 2013: take it one brave step at a time. One word, one page, one day at a time, my dear writers. :) You’ll get there, and it will be a sweet, sweet victory.

And I will be one of the loudest to cheer as you cross that finish line.

Here’s to you, and all the wonderful brave things you will write this month,
Tina

Pick Your Battles

Tina 2 Comments

Two weeks ago, I went on a week-long trip to Guam for our dad’s birthday. It’s the first long trip I’ve had since Europe in 2011, and packing for a trip that long is a little bit of a challenge. But since I had nothing to do that weekend (aside from the fact that there was a typhoon), and in an effort to get more organized with my packing and reduce pre-trip stress, I made a list early Saturday morning of all the things that I need to bring for my trip.

It worked, sort of. I was able to finish packing most of my things that night, and then I had little stuff to worry about by Sunday. But for some reason, my bag seemed to be a little heavier than I expected. Perhaps I over packed? But I didn’t think about it much, because hey, what if I need to wear a dress sometime that week? I was planning to go for a run everyday while I was in Guam, so I need to bring work out clothes. And then, since I was bringing a dress, I would need shoes, right? Oh, and I can’t always wear flats, so I need sneakers, too.

My luggage was well below the allowance, so I figured it’s all good. Maybe it’s just my bag that’s making things a little heavier. Either way, I was ready to go.  And I didn’t even stress over any of my stuff.

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I was writing my review of Allison Vesterfelt’s Packing Light: Thoughts on Living a Life with Less Baggage the other day on my book blog when I had a little epiphany of sorts. Her book was all about baggage, and what it does to us, and why we need to let go. Why packing light is a good thing because it makes the journey just a little easier. Not a lot, mind you, but a little. You don’t need too much stuff when you go on a trip, really. Just the essentials. It’s just that sometimes, we mistake the non-essentials for the essentials, because we can’t help but think: What if I need this? I’m pretty sure I’d wear this at some point. I really need three shoes for this.  Or, how we always need to have extras for emergencies, even if that emergency is always so far off. We just want to have options, really, so it would be easier to make a decision because we have a lot to choose from. There’s something safe about having options, right?

Image source
Image source

But what if being safe hinders you from enjoying your journey?

Options make decisions really hard and really messy.
– Packing Light by Allison Vesterfelt, p. 72

And then I thought of those little lessons I’ve been learning in the past months, especially after I got back from Singapore. I wondered if that thing about packing light also applies to that, too.

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