A Personal Challenge
More than a decade ago, I decided to quit my job in the city, giving up a relatively reasonable compensation package in exchange of a laid back lifestyle of the province. I wasn't really sure of my next career move then but all I know was that I want to reduce my carbon footprint. I want to work where I could just use a bicycle as a transportation. I tried applying in our municipal hall because I thought, well I want to change the world, perhaps I should be in an institution that has direct power to make changes. How naive eh? So I submitted my resume but I never heard anything back. Then a relative informed me that her former employer, which was a state university, was looking for part-time instructors in Psychology. At the time, I was skeptic at the whole idea of me teaching. I had no teaching experience and I remember having very little patience in tutoring my peers back in high school and college. But I had nothing to lose so I gave it a shot anyway. I submitted my resume and went through the screening process. For some reason, the people in charge of faculty recruitment got convinced I can be a teacher so I got hired and started teaching college students the next day.
Despite the meager wage and the high level of stress associated with the job, I found teaching to be tremendously fulfilling. It's not just about helping kids reach their dreams through formal education, after all, I'm not the nurturing type of person. But I felt a newfound sense of power stemming from the strong influence of educators to the youth, the future shapers of the world. I realized that I play a very important role to achieve our collective dream of a better world, a better society. So I stayed for good in the province to teach. There's just one problem though. I couldn't secure tenure because I couldn't finish my masters thesis. It's not that I'm stupid or lazy, but for some reason, I can't seem to focus my neural energy to accomplish a scientific undertaking. The research topic I'm working on is something I'm passionate about, utility cycling. The transport sector is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases and I believe that a significant shift to sustainable transport modes, including cycling, will be a gamechanger in tackling climate change. So I have that deep objective to finish my research. But whenever I'd open my laptop and work on my manuscript, at a certain point, my mind would just go blank. Why is that? I asked myself every idle moment of my waking hours. I refuse to believe that I'm not cut for technical writing and critical reading, I thought, perhaps I just need a nudge to rewire my neurons.
Recently, I saw the movie Julie & Julia on Netflix and just like any Nora Ephron romcom movie, it made me feel good. But at the same time, I sort of felt connected to Julie Powell before she started The Julie/Julia Project. During the scene where she was having lunch with her friends, you know that feeling whenever you'd see your accomplished family and friends flaunt their achievements on social media while you seemed to be stuck in the entry level of your career ladder for eternity. Well I've kinda felt that way when I think of my unfinished masters. And the more I think about it, there are a lot of things that I've left unfinished. But it did make me think about starting a project that I could finish, I thought to myself, perhaps if I put up myself for a challenge, the way Julie Powell did, then perhaps I could move on, either with where I left off, or perhaps it will give me an epiphany to quit because I could be meant for something else.
And just like that, I thought of challenging myself to write stories about something I love and believe can change the world. Cycling. It's not just gonna be any story, it will be my story. I'm challenging myself to showcase the power of bicycles. I will be sharing personal anecdotes to demonstrate how doing things outside our home can be made better with the use of bicycle. So I'm calling this project as "Blank is #BetterByBicycle".
Every week, I need to fill in that blank, and I need to do this in a span of one year. So that gives me 52 blanks to fill in. Why the hashtag? To make these stories searchable in social media. It is already an ongoing movement being pushed by advocates of active mobility/active transport, and this project is gonna be my small contribution to this important movement.
Now, with so many things I've started and left unfinished, I ask myself, can I really pull this off? There's only one way to find out. Once I hit the publish button, there's no turning back. My time starts now. 🚴
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