heh. Hi. It's me, Tien. Do you still remember me?

I am so bad. My last post was on August 2. WOOPS! Sincere apologies!

But i'm being proactive about this rare-blogging thing Tien does, right? I mean ... i managed to sign in! Baby steps, Tien! Baby steps!

It's been awhile since i've written something, but lucky for me, I actually have three blog posts that I've written over the summer while in Seattle ... but somehow never uploaded them on here.

So, without further ado:

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The Formulaic Norm

I’m reading Eat, Pray, Love right now and it’s getting me in all sorts of mumbled jumbled anti-formula thinking.

In today’s post, I’ll only touch light into one subject. In the book, the speaker wants to live in Italy for three months to learn Italian. Why? Because she likes the Italian language. Easy as that!

Now, commence my thoughts.

At this point, the average American will robotically think the following:

1) No. Going halfway across the globe to live there because you want to makes no sense. No. My formulaic thinking does not comprehend this nonsense.

2) What’s in it for you? Is it money? Are you working there? Visiting relatives?

3) WTF –why in dear god are you doing what you like?! No.

4) WHY ITALIAN?! Why not learn Spanish because its obviously much more practical and it’ll benefit you in so many ways!

I can go on and on, but I’ll stop.

So I’m reading and thinking, why must everything be a practical solution? Why must all your actions be a duty? Why must it benefit you in one way or another?

It’s like what Allan Watts talked about (btw he’s an awesome philosopher, if you have time, google him), we’re all about goals. In high school, we get that 4.0 and do all those extra-curricular to go to that top University to graduate with honors to get that high-paying job to meet that quota to get that high-status position in the company to earn all that cash and when you get there, you look at yourself and you’ve wasted 40 years doing nothing but just advancing, to benefit yourself and to meet that goal because well, that’s what society dictates.

Congratulations, you’ve wasted 40 years of your life not living and loving and enjoying your life. In a sense, our goals are blinding us from what were really suppose to work toward -- to do what we like and to live a life we love.

Bottom line is, do what you want. Do what you like. You don’t need a justifiable reason for wanting to do what you want or liking what you want. You don’t always have to be a diligent soldier and live your life as if it’s a strict diet you have to follow.

Be free.

Liberate yourself.

Do things that bring you pleasure.

Don’t worry, it’s OK!!!!