Finding the why of writing — Weekly Newsletter # 4
Hello Friends
I recently had a realisation, subconsciously, that the main purpose of this blog is to tell my story in a way that can inspire others and raise awareness about issues that matter to me. I was randomly scrolling through social media and suddenly had the urge to do something productive. I tapped SkillShare and my attention was drawn to a class by Roxane Gay, teaching creative writing, specifically on crafting personal essays with impact.
** This sudden bout of inspiration happen quite a lot throughout the day and I often had to say to myself to not act on it or else I would not be able to finish what I am doing. Before I had my diagnosis, I lose interest in things that I am doing quite constantly and every day feels like an uphill battle. I was exhausted by the end of the day yet felt like I have not accomplished anything. It made me feel like a failure and that spiralled down to feeling really worthless about myself. I digressed. This is not the point I am trying to make.
I don’t know this author and have never read her writing but somehow, what she said struck me right in the heart. She explains my deepest heart’s desire in a way that I couldn’t. It just clicks, which is to tell my story to inspire others who are struggling like me.
Her first lesson is about clarifying the why of the essay. She narrowed it down to three points:
- Select the story you wish to tell
- Think of why you want to tell the story. Awareness, action, perception and inspiration
- Write down reason(s) for sharing your story
The story I want to tell today is about my experience with blogs. Back when I was in high school, during holidays, I spent a lot of time reading blogs about people doing amazing things. The one thing that I like about them is how normal it is. One of the blogs talks about the author’s life as a pharmacist student at Cardiff University. She was a Malaysian who is on a full scholarship and she told the story of her experience. Her writing inspired me to study hard at school so that I too can study in the UK.
I suppose the reason for wanting to share this story is to inspire my current self to overcome the struggles that I currently have and be the person who writes stories that I wish I could read back when I was struggling with my career choice.
Another reason for sharing this story is to remind myself that I was once ambitious and did not let anything get in the way. Just like how an author of a blog wrote about her houseman ship experience as a doctor in a Malaysian public hospital. It was tough but it energised me. In the last nine years that I am in the UK, I think I have lost that energy and I want to get it back.
Till next week.
The sound of a jet’s engines
I missed travelling, especially flying in a jumbo jet. I desperately want to reignite the feelings that I had when I was travelling from Malaysia to the UK for the first time and listen to the album, “Airplane Travel Training For Babies” on Apple Music. I shut my eyes and imagined that journey all over again. It was quite inspirational and I ended up being quite productive after that.
Advice from a barrister about the number of mini-pupillage that aspiring barristers should do before applying for pupillage
You can check out the original post here.
Detective Conan aka Case Closed
Because I want to be more serious about my goal of becoming fluent in Japanese, I decided to only watch Japanese anime and drama for entertainment. The reason is to pick up the way 日本人 speaks Japanese including all the nuances of the language. I know that 日本人 don’t talk like anime characters do, but this is useful infotainment in my pursuit of Japanese fluency. Plus, some anime is really good and have a deeper meaning which inspires me and gave me ideas on writing about my own personal experience.
Here is an attempt at transcribing what the characters said to improve my listening skill.
僕の名前は江戸川コナン、高校生の しにち が … (I couldn’t quite catch what he was saying after this but something about him being forced to ingest a pill that shrinks him into a grade school student. If anyone knows how to say this in Japanese, I would be grateful.)
Bye,
Syafiq.
Originally published at https://www.syafiqkay.com on September 20, 2021.
