In mid-May, now midday walks have become a dangerous move.
The sun is scorching, my skin is burning, and the air is roasting. At this point in time, the best time to take an afternoon walk for me is 7:30 p.m. It’s bright enough to walk around, yet there’s no skin0burning sunlight.
Now, midday walks have become a dangerous move.
I’ve been trying this for years. I don’t remember when, but it’s always been a passion (one out of my 345 million passions). I’ve always envied people who can do it, but my body couldn’t handle it. Straight to the front, straight to the side, legs splitting smoothly like melted cheese. It’s always been fascinating to see splits while watching videos of ballet, gymnastics, or Taekwondo. My flexibility hasn’t been that bad, but I’ve never been able to do a split.
Then today, while trying a front split with my left leg forward, my butt touched the floor. Wait, it touched? Oh, it really touched. It was only for about 0.732756 seconds, but the touch was real. Oh my my. It was something I experienced for the first time in my life. That feeling when my butt touched the floor, the moment of wonder and accomplishment.
It’s fascinating to feel something for the first time. “The first moment of my butt touching the floor while trying a split” will never come again in my life. I will experience it again, but never ‘for the first time’ ever again. For this reason, a first experience is always wondrous, since it’s the only time it’s the first.
(I don’t even know how much of a fuss I will make when I manage a proper split, when I’m going this crazy over my butt touching the floor for less than a second. But I am in too much euphoria here to care.)
I like the scratching sound of a pencil on paper.
Sharpening my yellow 2B pencils, scribbling and drawing, and pouring out floating thoughts on the paper clear my mind.
So I sharpen my pencils again today, for my sharp and smooth brain.
If you expect to get good at something while you don’t spend even an hour a day on it, you will only get a lot of disappointment.
Since I am almost just dangling my feet in learning Japanese and practicing piano for a few minutes every day, my progress is at a snail’s pace yet there’s some progress (very tiny and easy to miss).
If you want to get good at something, you should spend a lot of time on it, but if you don’t really have time for it, you can choose to do just a little and still enjoy doing it.
Eventually, you get what you put in, and the more you put in, the faster you get.
Sometimes, just immersing oneself in what’s really intriguing can be the answer.
Chef Kwon Sung Jun, a.k.a. Napoli Matfia from the Culinary Class Wars improved his English dramatically while watching Gordon Ramsay’s YouTube videos. With a strong desire to learn cooking techniques, he watched those videos over and over again even though there were no subtitles available back then, and one day he could just understand most of them.
It might have been more difficult if he had been watching those videos only to improve his English. Sometimes, just immersing oneself in what’s really intriguing can be the answer.
I recently realized what’s important in the process of building a habit.
It’s doing it regardless of my mood.
Whether I am in the mood for it or not, it’s important to do it no matter what.
Even when I’m not in the mood, it’s important to work out anyway. Even when I’m not in the mood, it’s important to practice English anyway.
Plus, the joy of being the master of your mood, rather than being dragged around by it, is another bonus.
There used to be times when my fingernails were about 0.5cm longer than my fingertips.
Playing the piano made long nails unwelcome guests, and weekly trimming made gel nails a luxury. I managed to maintain gel nails every 2 weeks, but I finally said goodbye to them when I started baking.
Short fingernails still feel a bit unfamiliar and colorful nails are still missed, but it’s just a reminder of the fact that there’s a price to pay for certain choices.
But I like the choices I made, so the regret isn’t that great.
The dopamine moment while writing that makes me feel like I’m the center of the whole world is when the grammar checker says there’s no error.
It’s a rare moment, which makes it even better.
When I get a compliment while speaking in Korean, I feel comfortable responding with “Oh, no no.” And in English, I feel comfortable responding with “Thank you”.
Saying “Thank you” to a compliment in Korean makes me feel like an arrogant snob, while saying “Oh, no no.” in English makes me feel like an insecure loser.
The world of language is really intriguing.
Whether I go swing dancing after a 3-year break, do some shuffle dance steps after 6 months, or have a conversation in English after 3 months, it just comes out. I thought I might have lost it all (or a lot of it), yet it’s all there. Sometimes, even the things that I used to struggle with magically got easier.
What the body remembers doesn’t go away, even if you want it to.
