Wow, I am having such fun doing NaNoWriMo! I wish I had done this in high school, it would have definitely livened up my life. Back then I had a bit more of an imagination. But it's never too late to start doing NaNoWriMo, and I can still dig out some imagination from somewhere, as witnessed by my 30,000+ words I've written so far.
NaNoWriMo has let me reengage my creative side. It also helped me remember the joy of writing, of putting my inner sarcasm and humor, the rush from achieving simple goals, and the fact that I am crazy but I'm not the only one. NaNoWriMo has kept me away from boredom, away from depression, away from feeling failure. It has been an absolute wonder. It has also reminded me that despite my loserness and the fact that I am terrible at making friends, I can still be happy and find people who share something in common with me. I feel like I'm going back in time, back to high school where I would be reading and writing and sharing in the joy of the written word, the joy of sharing sentiments and opinions with other people, the feeling of not being alone in a world where people try to act more and more "normal" and repress their crazy sides and wanting to break free.
Also, I love how artsy Seattle is. I just need to find more of these people, though it's hard when you are a graduate student in the sciences. I really haven't forged any friendships with people through NaNo, but just going to a write-in and seeing other people crazily typing on their laptops, randomly bursting into conversation about their characters and their plots, and also (especially with the university ones) finding people who don't judge you by how you write, but instead applaud you for trying... I just love it. And yesterday, going to the protest and marching down from Volunteer Park to downtown Seattle, demanding my right to marry whoever I chose with about 6000 other people. Seattle is a lonely place but still wonderful.
Of course it would have been easiest if I had joined a program not located in a city, or with people desperate to make friends with each other because they had no one else, but it wouldn't be in Seattle. My need to achieve my own selfish goals outweighs my need to achieve those "normal" ones of forging friendships, contacts, success in my job. The one downside of NaNo is that I find myself less motivated to do schoolwork or labwork, but it distracts me from the frustration of it. Thus I've had a bit of a rocky November in the lab, but it's not dampened my spirits. I hate my project but I like the lab, and perhaps my professor will appreciate NaNo in the end because I won't think so badly upon this lab rotation despite my struggles.
I do hope someday to make some friends here, but I always do things slowly, so I will not worry about taking my time, being picky. I have close friends who care about me even though I'm thousands of miles away, and that's all I need. Well besides food and sleep and fun things to read!
I don't think I'll be updating much more this month because of NaNoWriMo, which means that I'm happy and occupied. Especially with the NaNoWriMo forums...they are such a drug.
No comments:
Post a Comment