16/ When you go through one door

You close the others

I suppose you’ve heard of this popular saying - “When one door closes, another opens”.

Well, here’s my take on it - “When you go through a door, you choose to close all others”.

Choosing is forsaking.

And that is terrifying. To me at least.

Recently a couple of close, dear friends slapped a hard reality check across my cheek. (Shoutout to Dhanya and Akshay for this!)

“You might close other doors if you choose one, but if you don’t choose at all you’re standing still on an empty grass field. You need to move in a direction — and plant flowers.”

A very pretty way to explain it, yes?

That’s why I’m here. Taking a step. I want to get better at writing, maybe even write for television someday (fingers crossed for an internship under Reshma Ghatala or Greta Gerwig). If you’re going to dream, dream big?

I’m hoping to send out weekly updates on the experiments I’m doing, the itches I’m scratching, and this week’s itches are -

1. I started swimming lessons as a prequel to my eventual goal of learning to surf (Mulki, here I come!)

2. I started taking a free filmmaking course by Nathaniel Drew in the hopes of writing small scripts and shooting small videos - something touching, abstract and artistic. I’m making 10 minute videos everyday as practice.

3. Writing atleast 300 words everyday. Tumblr has some incredible prompts.

4. Learnt camera basics from a dear friend (s/o to Aashik!) who brought his camera, taught me the basics and took me on a photowalk.

Here are some pictures -

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On adulting

I went to the dentist recently for a cavity. She suggested filling it, and I asked, well - “ So then it’s cured?”

“Not exactly. You can try braces though.”

“Okay, so then it’s cured?”

“No. It’ll make it easier to maintain hygiene.”

That’s when it hit me. Life is about maintenance, not cure. (And also aesthetics apparently. You don’t really need braces!)

Be it mental, physical, emotional, and most importantly - dental (bad joke I know, but it rhymes!), life is about maintenance.

There’s no be all, end all solution for anything. I am going to get bored, want change, get stuff repaired, go to gym, change my clothes, my hair, my personality(?), even my career (hold on, that’s happening right now).

Maintenance is hard - both as a verb and as something to spell. I had to look it up twice.

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Well, that was 400 words and I believe I hit my goal for today.

Until next time!

Confused, meandering, but trudging begrudgingly forward in a direction,

Miks.