Tag: slice of life

5 Gift Ideas for the Writers in Your Life

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It’s that time of the year again. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, there’s got to be something to look forward to during this end-year.

I personally love December.

Not only do I get some time off from work, but I also get to spend my days celebrating the holiday season with my family. There’s just something magical with end year gatherings—you know, with all the scrumptious food and decadent desserts. And since I didn’t even try to hide my jittery excitement towards the end year, it may come as no surprise at all when I say that above all that, I also love giving presents to my family and friends.

I love giving presents.

But I couldn’t say I love receiving them.

Not because I don’t love receiving them, of course. But it’s more because people rarely give me presents I actually want. Of course, I know I have to be grateful for receiving any presents at all, but when you’ve spent your whole life getting socks and t-shirts for Christmas presents, you’d eventually get sick of it.

So here’s a list of 5 Gift Ideas for the writers in your life. If you know an aspiring author or even an established author, I’d hazard a guess that they’re probably getting tired with all the uninspiring, run-of-the-mill, boring presents they’ve been getting all their lives. Granted, these are more like my own personal wish-list, to say the least, but I think writers like me would appreciate these items just the same. Continue reading →

Why I Started Blogging & How I Blog Regularly for Over a Year

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With the coming of December, this means I have been posting regularly on my blog every single week for one whole year.

Okay, maybe more than a year.

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Photo by Emma Matthews on Unsplash

Back in 2017, when I challenged myself to be more active in this blogosphere, I half-expected myself to quit halfway through, just like how I usually do my new year’s resolutions. In fact, looking back, I am astounded by my own persistence in writing blog posts, to the point where I started questioning why I started doing it in the first place. Continue reading →

How to Decompress during a Busy Week

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Lately, I’ve noticed that my schedule has been getting more and more congested. While I could manage to write blog posts every week in the past, nowadays it feels like I’m straining my brain in order to produce words.

And I can’t really blame it on myself, can I? People get busy; some of you might be having exams at school. Some others might just land on their dream jobs and are currently working their best in the new environment. Some might have even reached parenthood.

Whatever stage of life you’re in, there’s bound to be something that is draining your energy.

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Photo by Aaron Sebastian on Unsplash

I am no exception.

Lately, I’ve been involved in two increasingly demanding projects that I have to babysit every single day.  I even had to come to the office during weekends to ensure the deadlines are met. This is certainly not an ideal situation for me to channel my creative writing passion. Continue reading →

Of Downed Flight, Grief, and Flowers

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The other day, I saw the news about the JT610 plane crash. This wasn’t the first time a plane crash had happened, of course, but as I scrolled the feed on my Twitter and Instagram, I had come to realize that more and more people were posting news about the incident.

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Photo by Milos Prelevic on Unsplash

I found it fascinating, that instead of the cold, monotonous, professional tone of a newscaster voice that dictates how many people died, how the engine failure happened, and what the airline company promised to compensate, there were more and more people commenting about the victims’ lives.

Inside that airplane, there were more than 100 people aboard. Some of them were newlyweds. Some of them were expecting to be married. Some of them were going to see their family and friends—only to end up in an unfortunate accident.

I shuddered when I thought about being inside that very airplane. What if I were in there? Who would be the last person I contacted before I took off? What would I have said? During the time when the plane fell, would I even stop to think about something—anything? Continue reading →

Growing Up with “Failures”

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The good thing about growing up, I think, is that we become more and more accustomed to failure than we were during our pubescent or childhood. Just hours ago, for example. I was in a small room with 4 others; 2 of whom could literally decide the fate of my professional career.

Yes, I was in a meeting. It’s a very laughable situation where I had to present a proposal I’ve been meticulously preparing for weeks to a member of the board, only to have this person point out every single mistake I’ve made, even denoting that “I haven’t done a thing worth mentioning” in regards to the proposal.

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Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

The meeting itself was cut short, as you might have predicted. The end result? A humiliating rejection from the board member, and some dissatisfying remarks I will probably carry with me for the rest of my professional career. This includes unpleasant vocabularies such as “worthless”, “mistaken”, “unneeded”, etc.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel disappointed. As a matter of fact, I knew I could get a much better outcome than just a plain rejection. I knew for sure that I’ve already prepared all I could, and even rehearsed the presentation because that’s just how paranoid I can be.

But still, this thing called “failure” stalks from outside the window; bidding its time until it finds an opening to creep in. And despite your best efforts to prevent it from happening, it always catches you off-guard.  Continue reading →

Observing Serendipity

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When the last of the raindrops smothered the wailing earth that day, she thought everything had been lost. No, not in a bad way. In fact, she was content. There was no better day to celebrate—yes, she decided to celebrate it rather than grieving over it—her loss than today. After all, she had come all this way and lost too many things to even count with her mind.

Continue reading →