Category: Overdays

When I started doing calligraphy it was looked at with some suspicion or surprise. I showed no inclination towards being a designer or artsy — I knew enough Photoshop to crop,or do some ‘dramatic quote + picture’ spec graphics for clients, but it was nothing I seriously pursued. I am spontaneous and I work with my chaos. I guess that’s why teaching grammar to kids and adults makes perfect sense to me, but agonizing over that one pixel off doesn’t.

It was a Tita who asked, point blank, “What does calligraphy do for you?”

I started calligraphy because of discontent. I was working in advertising and digital marketing. I was what they called a “young creative”, but I was older than the other young creatives who had more experience in the field. I was struggling to reconcile what I knew of writing with how to sell ideas that sell. I was writing for other people, staring at a screen for several hours a day, and was not entirely sure if I liked what I was doing.

There’s a part of me that felt guilty about it. I had a household to worry about, a dog and cat to feed, how dare I have a hobby for me? But I needed something for myself. What I enjoyed — writing and teaching — were services I did for pay. I didn’t entirely mind, but I was getting tired. I needed something I didn’t ‘have’ to do.

I said about that. I was probably more dramatic.

Tita, being Tita, only nodded and said something about seeing where it goes and keeping at it even if I never dared make a sense out of it because, “That’s where your soul lies.”

That was two years ago. I still do ad work, and I’d like to think I’ve gotten the hang of how it should go. I teach now, and I plan to take masters in teaching. I am happier and a lot less discontent. I have just figured out how to do freehand calligraphy without it looking like a five year old playing with markers. It has made me as happy as a kid playing with markers. No, I won’t do branding or wedding invitations unless they’re for friends I really, really love and not want to kill at their worst.

This makes me happy. That’s all there is to it.

The internet I first ventured into was like this password only club. You had to know the “code” to work around it. There was also some sense of honor, while there were instances of internet shaming it felt like it was more exception than the rule – that was the case on my end of the net anyway. Or maybe it’s because mine, as well as most of my friends’ parents, were smart enough to stress, ‘Never ever post your picture online’.

Weird how now it’s even the parents that post the pictures, or overshare on a social media profile.

I think where once, as a tweener, I felt that I had so much more to share, as I grow older I have less to share. I have recognized what problems not to share. I have started to value only sharing my deepest, darkest, most disturbed secrets to the people that actually get me. That doesn’t leave much for posting on the blog.

There may be less words to be found here, but I promise, whatever word you’ll see here – I will make it count.

Here’s a thought for today which led me to this entry –

I panicked in 2013, in 2014, I learned to take a deep breath and figure out what next.

In 2015, I do the thing. If you’ve watched Legend of Korra, “The Thing” is that one little thing – whether a tool, or a clever turn of events, that make all the difference. The Thing is speaking up. The Thing is going with your conviction, whether it’s out of passion or practicality. Just do The Thing and be fearless about it.