A Fledgling Bird

"Was the little birdie more upset over the fact that he couldn't fly well, or was it that he had to leave the safety of his mother's nest?" 

Well, well, well... It seems like writing has been reasonably cathartic to me. And hence, I'm back again... just like my old posts that contained reminiscent of my past self. Catching glimpses of the young me in my writing has been refreshing. Hence, I would like to record instances of my younger days for the old me to read. After all, I'm the sort of sentimental person who likes to think about the past. 

Also, the feeling of knowing no one will read this dead space is fairly liberating for me. I can express myself whenever, and however, I want without judgement. 

This idea has been stewing on my mind for quite some time now - I want to write and publish my own novel! There I said it. It has always been difficult for me to quieten my thoughts and I usually have so many creative ideas in my head, but I never work on them. I attribute it to my perfectionistic tendencies - I write a few verses and hate them already. Making it ever so difficult to put my thoughts on pen and paper. 

Yet, this nagging doubt I have in my head of a million "what-ifs" have made themselves squatters in my mind. Now I can't chase them out. Also, I am a believer in serendipity. And these four instances are: 

1) The Golden Point Awards 2021 - the deadlines have closed, but seeing these promotional ads around have motivated me to actually type a very brief summary of how I want my story to pan out. Not gonna lie, the high monetary rewards were an extra motivation as well. 

2) A museum exhibition on cheongsams at the Sun Yat-Sen Museum that recently opened, and I dragged my mom along to visit the gallery. I wanted to soak up any inspiration I could possibly have and produce a cogent piece of work. I feel inspired to link the story back to the history and politics of that era. 

3) An Asian Creative Writing Program that just opened for registrations! I have to type a 500-word writing sample to qualify for the program. The deadlines are on the 10 August, which gives me 6 days left to produce something decent. 

4) A Singaporean Communications graduate wrote her own novel and she was paid millions of dollars for publishing rights. Yes, I know I keep talking about the monetary incentives, but hey, starving artists should learn how to fend for themselves. 

And there you go, all the signs are pointing in the direction of, "Go do it, Unice". And hence, I will go do it. 

Honestly, ever since I was a little girl, I loved reading and writing. It wasn't until I got older, I started realising that people despised these skills. Naturally, I wanted to disassociate myself as much as possible from these endeavours. But I always felt this yearning and emptiness to return back to my roots. Now that I am a bit older, a bit more mature, I have learnt to treat myself with more respect, more grace and take stock of what really matters. 

Cheers to growing up more and learning to treat myself better with each passing year! 

Lots of love, 

Unice