Sleepless in DC

I am here amidst the coldness of autumn (not in New York, but) in Washington DC. After a grueling seven hour flight that from LA to Baltimore, with a change flight in Salt Lake, a bus ride and two train hops, I finally made it here. Alive!

It's already evening and I'm here at the second floor of a backpackers hotel – like where I always stay in my personal travels – along with the company of a Korean taking his PhD in Japan, a group of Japanese teenagers, a Chinese, and an American who just arrived. Whew! Talk about the United Nations!

It’s almost midnight here and I decided not to push through with my previously conceived plan of wandering around DC to find where the White House and the Capitol is. I instead just asked the Filipina receptionist downstairs who, by the way, invited me to attend the Filipino Young Professionals’ get-together on Tuesday on how to find the world famous edifice.

Tomorrow’s another day, but I previously expected that today will be a long one…

I don’t know but my eyes are about to close and my body is feeling the pain from my heavy bag and the long walks that I had the entire day. Am I getting old or what?

It has been a long while since I last travelled on my own and did backpacking. However, this time was a different thing. For some reason, I find myself not too excited at all. It’s hard because tomorrow’s going to be a very long day, and Tuesday’s my much-anticipated day – the very purpose of my trip up here in DC.

Somehow I find solace in the company of foreigners. Albeit the inexistence of conversation with any of them. I am not even looking at any of them. In fact, if today were just any of my usual days, I could have been annoyed by the noise of these insensitive young Japanese who seemed oblivious of the presence of the four other nationals who looked very academic (than hip) in their own respective typing and surfing.

I don’t know…I may not be able to sleep at all…I don’t know…

Me a writer? Nope, Not Quite!

I don’t really consider myself a writer. Personally, I think I do not really possess the right ingredients to become one. I do not have the focus, the discipline, and even the time to write compositions. I sometimes envy the news, features, and even the opinions writers for having the gift. I was never gifted in this area, to begin with.

I had some writing stints at the onset of both my academic and so-called professional career. I was actually first employed as a researcher, coordinator, and writer in a coffee table book project of a non-governmental organization, its branch in the country is the oldest in this part of the world! Very short stint though. Low pay!

Back in secondary school, I used to be a features writer and then editor of the same section of our school newspaper, I was originally appointed as news desk editor but I had to decline because I believe that I am better in writing feature articles, and news at that time bores me.

We had creative writing as a subject back then. I was so into it that I aced each and every essay assignment that was given to us. On the contrary, I never joined the annual contest that searched for the best essayist. To everyone’s surprise, I was in the search for the poet laureate competition. And I guess I was good at it because my entries topped the tilt for the two consecutive times that I joined.

Post graduate studies lured me to technical writing. Boring? Methinks that subjects concerning the social sciences seem to appeal me. At the onset, my being drawn to it was more of a requirement than anything else. Indeed, my post graduate studies harnessed it. Grad School was all about research, reading, analysis, and technical writing. I’m not sure, but I found technical writing more difficult, not to mention boring (both its product and the actual writing itself) than say features or news writing. It requires a certain discipline and a whole lot of time. This form of literature surprisingly has brought me to places. My paper was actually accepted in conferences in the US and here in Asia. Was I good? Not really.

Most of my closest friends, with whom I go way back, know that I am a very impatient person. The very ironicalness of all these is also the fact that I am presently working as an auditor. Auditors are supposed to be very much into the details of the littlest of things…and well, patient.

But I am here now, writing this blog to practice a frustration that I long wanted to pursue. I still consider myself lacking in this department. Maybe a few trainings would help to harness skills that I may have. The style, execution, and the technicalities of writing maybe learned, but who cares? I am just here, wanting to write the things that interest me. This is me…it’s beyond you! I write not because I am a writer, but I write because I simply just want to!