The grand scheme of things

It's so easy to get caught up in the tiny dot that is your life, and conveniently shut out everything else that is relevant about the world. It's the simplest thing ever to focus on the narrowness of your own world. We do it a lot, and we do it often.

Time to step out. Smell some sunshine.

Condescending Growth

The line between condescending and concerned is rather fine. It's important to welcome elements of condescending comments into your life though. It's probably the greatest way to grow- it pushes you to your limits and helps you realize your full potential. Without those few people in your life that don't throw advice onto you in a seemingly condescending manner (honestly, if they're trying so hard to help you, it's unlikely that they're genuinely being condescending), it's easy to get comfortable with your abilities and with your life in general.

So welcome it, take it as positively as possible, and grow.

Ideas are cheap

While discussing potential novel writing dreams with a friend, I voiced that my main barrier was the lack of a concrete novel idea. I have a bunch of these small ideas floating around, which would be great, for, say, a five line long blog posts. Short stories, and even scarier- a novel? Don't think so, buddy. But this friend, being the inspirational angel-like figure that he is (read it and rejoice), said that 'ideas are cheap'. This is an interesting statement; whether I agree entirely or not is another matter. I do believe that ideas are overused though- with so many creative outlets, I'm not sure if there are any original ideas left. And if this means that ideas are cheap, then I stand by the statement. Execution and implementation are the much harder steps in this process. It's so difficult to achieve flawlessness in these two areas.

A good idea wouldn't hurt though, however over/underused it may be. An idea with the potential to build out and to ultimately lead to that perfect execution, and that perfect novel.

Owled

Owled but not wise.
I think I've finally decided on the title of my novel.

... Now for the content.

NewBeginnings101

As much as I amuse myself by referring to life right now as an "unemployment" phase, the more sensible people in my life always remind me that I'm simply "between jobs"; though I would rather say "between countries" (figuratively, of course). Definitely a more dignified way of looking at things, and probably the right way too, seeing that the whole process of resigning and leaving Singapore was relatively smooth. Of course, leaving behind five years of adult life was hard, but let's say I've conditioned myself to not think too much about that. I give myself a cookie when I don't. Classical conditioning ftw.

I wonder if life is just a series of new beginnings, all strung together with random time gaps. Maybe it's how you look at it. For me, a new place is equivalent to a new beginning. I've had to make such a huge leap in the past only for academic pursuits; and now for work. There's never knowing where life can take you, I guess. If anything, I've learnt how to take things as they come. Or so I believe. Haha.

I'm not saying that you should cling on to people, or latch on to them when you're going through your darkest moments. I admire the fact that you prefer dealing with it alone. I don't admire the fact that you completely shut out the world in the process.

But i'm still waiting for the day when you let someone into your life, completely let go of your inhibitions and accept that it's okay to lean onto someone for comfort. To burden them with your worries. To let them help you. Because, more often than not, they want to help you. Often, they're here, just waiting..

Balancing act.

It's important for your opinions and actions to strike a balance between the things you were taught growing up, and the things you teach yourself as a grown up.

Undefined

I think religion is a sensitive topic. To be honest, I'm not particularly religious. I love and respect my culture, but I don't cling on to it, nor does it solely define me. The reason is mainly because I believe that every religion has it's good and bad. I refuse to completely believe in everything that one religion stands for. You could say that I'm a bit undefined in this aspect.

Agreed, this may not be the best approach. After all, religion is important as it links us to our roots. But doesn't it make so much more sense to just take the good of all religions, or rather, the parts that appeal to you and make the most sense to you, and then incorporate these things into your life? It seems so much more well thought out, and so much less blind. It's like, you're actually giving every thought, every idea, every practice and every belief a chance to be a part of your life. You're not blindly rejecting something that you could believe in on the sole basis that it isn't under the scope of the religion that you were born into.

I genuinely feel that cultures will have true progress when they are able to see this, and to accept every religion for what it is, and to understand that their own religion isn't the be all and end all. It's all about acceptance, openness and the basic understanding that there's so much that you don't know about, so much that you could be wrong about.