#52essays2017

I came across this interesting challenge for 2017. Created by Vanessa Martir, those who join must write an essay every week for the duration of 2017. Here’s the post if you want to see the guidelines, but do read this in depth, poignant blog by Martir on what she (re)learned while writing essays in 2016. Even if I fail at this endeavor, at least I’ll have her amazing essays to look forward to.

There’s also a support group on facebook. I’m already learning a lot through the comments and they seem overall encouraging. I definitely want to introduce myself as soon as I post this and after I write my first essay. I think it’ll be on the lessons I learned in 2016. I’ve been doing it nearly every year, but all on facebook, but I think it’s time to switch gears and post here more.

Other topics I want to write: being mentally ill, the stigma that goes along with it, writing my novel/comic book, creating other projects, being Pinay, being queer and how I explore that identity, my volunteer work as head event and donation space coordinator for The Asian American Literary Review‘s Open In Emergency: A Special Issue on Asian American Mental Health, on reading. I’m sure I’ll think of more but I want to turn out prose on a regular basis and grow a body of work. I want to see where it leads me, what depths I’ll find, what opportunities I’ll discover along the way.

Plus I don’t want this blog to rot again lol. It’ll be good to have a consistent project. I do have another one but it looks like I’m failing lol. I’ll write about it some other time. I should start doing the project again first hehe.

It’s only the third (actually fourth) day of the new year, I shouldn’t fail now

How humiliating.

eileen