Just as how people are divided into the dog vs cat camp, the divide applies to the words vs numbers parameters. I obviously and definitely fall into the former category. I can deal with lots of words, but when it comes to too many numbers and formulas, my brain just can’t handle it. I had no choice but to take two science-based modules – Ecotoxicology and Atmospheric Aerosols – this semester at university, and all those chemical and statistical equations are doing my head in to say the least. A smarty pants of an engineer even pointed out to me that what I was calling “maths” was in actual fact “statistics”. Whatever.
Writing has been one of the constants in my life; my parents gave me an A5 size hard cover Hello Kitty diary when I was six. That was my first diary and I still have it with me. Back then, I had written about my family members and had drawn some stick figures. Looking at it now, I have to say it was cute. The next time I return to Singapore I need to snap a few pages and post it on this blog to show the stark contrast of my writing 30 years on. I believe my love for the written word is due in large part to the fact that my parents brought my sister and me to the library every other week. We always had lots of books to read at home and my mum would read bedtime stories to us. She would also invent games such as reading a passage from a book and making us guess which book it was from.
Anyhow, in my teens I had also kept a diary, writing about my day, worries, crushes, and dreams for the future. In my late teens and early 20s I didn’t write as much, but I would keep a travel journal whenever I went on a holiday. In 2003, while studying in Sydney, I jumped on the blog bandwagon and started this blog which turns 12 in July 2015. This blog has accompanied me through the different phases of my life in Sydney, London, Singapore and Hong Kong. I think if I had been more “hardworking” with this blog and kept up with the food blogging, I might have become a famous food blogger of sorts.
Oh well, I’m no famous blogger, but starting this blog has been one of the best things I’ve done in my life. It has brought me experiences such as going for free food tastings, but more importantly, it has brought me many friends. Several fellow bloggers and readers have become real-life friends and I feel so blessed to have these friendships. More recently, it was through my writing on this blog that led me to renew some family ties on the paternal side of my family.
Somehow, writing also became my livelihood. Every job that I have applied for, I’ve had to take a writing test. No kidding. I’m telling you I have become a pro at taking writing tests. Though what I deal with has evolved from English language textbooks to business proposals, the basic skill of writing is still core to the jobs I have held. That I have managed to find jobs in London and Hong Kong because of writing still amazes me to this day. After all, I’m no banker, investment analyst, lawyer or teacher – the professions that are most mobile in my opinion.
Writing is cathartic for me; it’s the medium in which I channel my thoughts and emotions. I write when I’m happy. I write when I’m sad. Often on this blog, it’s a stream of consciousness kind of writing. Through writing, I have expressed feelings of affection, love, gratitude, anger, sadness etc to different individuals. In return, I have received both words that soothe and comfort, and those that cut and hurt.
Anyway, it looks like this semester I need to reconfigure this word-centric brain to a number-centric one. I feel as if my brain synapses need to be rearranged to learn to think in a different manner. Am just hoping to pass this semester with decent enough grades. *Fingers crossed*
