At 18 years old, staring at the ocean, never imaging I could get this far
I’ve been challenged! No, not to a duel. If it were so, then a duel of the mind and the pen. In this case, a keyboard. I’ve been challenged to write one blog post a day leading up to my 30th birthday. 30 posts in 30 days.
That doesn’t sound too bad, right? Some people make a living out of writing. Blogging should be easy. It’s often just random thoughts strung together with some photos.
I used to write when I was younger. Stories and imagination ran amok! My college years were spent on fan boards, meeting people around the world, writing fan fictions and actual fictions. I found a very dear pen pal from those late nights over hot chocolate and romantic dreams, penning down the ideal man, the ideal romance. Oh, my youth was full of such naïveté when I reflect on it but oh, it was such delicious fun!
Post-college: life just got in the way, wore me down, and sapped out every piece of my creativity for the sake of dollar bills to keep a roof over my head, food in my stomach and clothes on my back. Dreams started to get shelved and compartmentalized. Plans change. Life evolves.
I continued my writing in smaller increments instead of novels I produced once every few months. Things that seemed so simple were picked at and scrutinized at every step of the way that I grew conscious and shameful of writing. I stopped asking question, I stopped dreaming. I became more practical and life honed my shoulders to be stronger, the armor around my heart and dreams grew thicker and what once was the core of my creativity started to shut down.
This challenge will force me to let down my guard a little, to just enjoy writing as I once did, to enjoy the dreams I once had and to strive to release the youth I had locked up. It’s been 8 years since I left college. I look forward to reuniting with that girl I left behind.