Lately, I begin to realise about the importance of de-stressing. Face it, life sometimes gives us headache. Things do not go as planned and we are disappointed at certain project results. We have bad days, hard days. So what should we do?
We should de-stress.
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I feel like my short attention span is killing me slowly.
I was doing my research paper when I decided I’d take a break and read something good. I wasn’t sure how, but I ended up at Mitch Albom’s website and I began to read some of this writings. Then I came across this: Mitch Albom’s advice for journalists and writers on writing.
If you’re like most people, you’d give up after skimming the article. If you’re an aspiring writer or journalist, you might try to actually read the article. After you reach the first subheading, you’ll get the urge to flick through Facebook first before going back to read it again, as there’s a …(1) notification.
I was tempted. So tempted. But I forced myself to stay with the article and read it at my good read pace, not at my skimming’s pace, until the end.
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The movies. They may say they are based on true stories but that’s just it – being based on true stories does not mean that they tell the whole truth.
Probably just partial truth, or some of the truth, but not the whole truth.
The books. The articles. We may read pages and pages of how a person has lived their lives. But you know what? They are edited. The stories are edited. They may resemble the truth. They may be close to the truth. But they are not the whole truth.
Our Facebook posts. Our Instagram photos. They are only part of the truth. No one posts a photo when they argue with their partners. No one posts a status when they are undergoing depression. Only a part of the truth. Edited.
As a writer and editor, the other day I find myself thinking about this: how nice would it be, if I can edit my life.
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I think I have known this for a long time: I am a highly sensitive person.
The other day I was browsing Facebook as per usual and I came across this article by Wall Street Journal. It’s titled, Do You Cry Easily? You May be a ‘Highly Sensitive Person’. Seriously, I feel like this article is written for me.
I cry when watching almost every movie. I cried during the first five minutes of Up. I’m pretty sure I cried when watching the latest Avengers movie, although I don’t really remember which part. I cry when reading stories, and every time my sister came home from her palliative care job, telling me about how that patient died and how the patient’s husband had, lovingly, created a pair necklace with ‘forever loving you’ engraved just before she passed away, I cried a river.
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I think once in a while, and perhaps more often than not, we feel disappointed.
We are disappointed at our family members, who at that particular weekend was not as nice as we expected. We are disappointed at our friends, who cancelled a meeting at the very last minute. We are disappointed at our partners for being late.
And we are disappointed at ourselves.
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It’s been seventeen years, but I remember.
I remember sleeping with my sister with the lights off, because lights of any kind during the night is dangerous. I remember my Dad went out every night to patrol the neighbourhood with the other dads, while the moms and children stayed at home, and waited.
I remember the aftermath. The blackened buildings, the smoked houses on the corner of the street – waiting to be rebuilt, waiting to be touched. I remember the shattered glasses on the street, and the feeling of hopelessness. Of chaos. I remember my grandmother holding my hand and said, ‘I’ve known a man who falls to his knees and wept – for he has young daughters, and they are raped.’
I remember.
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How many of you are worried, or already thinking, about money?
I presume a majority of you, if you’re nearing my age or older.
Everything in this world needs money – food, home, holiday, education, rent, bills – and sadly there will be times when we live from paycheck to paycheck just to pay the bills. We look at our wallets and bank accounts and we wonder when would we be able to afford and finish that mortgage. We worry.
Or maybe it is just me.
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1. Do a group project together. By the end of it, you’ll so sick of each other, you’ll not want to even sit at the same table during class.
3. Travel together. Do not, and I repeat, do not underestimate the power of seeing each other 24/7 with no refuge of being alone. (Right, friend? Hint hint nudge nudge.)
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Before anyone gets any fancy idea, I just want to state that no, I’m not doing a PhD. That said, I’m contemplating whether to do a minor thesis for the second half of my Master’s degree.
The reason is simple: I’ve run out of good subjects to do. And between doing a subject that I know I will hate and being in my pyjamas while researching all day long, I think the latter does sound better.
Oh, I’m also attributing this insane idea to my job. Working in a research department where almost all my colleagues are doing PhD does something funny to my poor brain.
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Because I’m curious, I go to Google and type, ‘turning 23 checklist’. It turns out that there’s absolutely nothing written on how accomplished/shitty your life should be when you turn 23.
Like, there’s one on turning 19. There’s an article about ’25 things you should do before turning 25′. There’s a checklist mentioning what you should have done with your career before turning 30. But 23? Yada.
Probably being 23 is not something important. No one’s doing anything big at 23 – it’s not usually the age when you get married, nor the one when you have a career breakthrough. Basically, being 23 means that you’re either still in university (like me) or you’re slaving away in your first job. You’re either still innocent and full of wonderful, grandeur dreams or you’re fed up with how the world turns out and absolutely hate the fact that you need to grow up.
Or perhaps you’re somewhere in-between.
Twenty three. Not a big deal. It’s the year in-between.
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