Breaking up is hard to do

So far, the best piece of writing advice I have probably ever received is,

“Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.”

— Austin Kleon, Steal Like An Artist

Well that was more of a life-motivating piece of advice, but when I saw it in the pages of that book I immediately resonated with it, printed it out and it has been on my office wall ever since.

My tiny little wall of words is decked with phrases and quotes that are meant to motivate me — or rather, keep my brain twerking and my fingers moving if they ever felt like straying from a piece of copy I would be doing at that time. Every time my brain gets distracted and the copy stops being written, that quote tells me that no matter how bad the writing sounds like, or how shallow the ideas are, all I need to do is keep typing, keep pushing on the little buttons of my keyboard. Surreptitiously, the words will flow out. And once you’re on board the Flow of Thought train, well. Choo-choo-ka-choo. Works like a charm.

I must say that my current profession as an advertising copywriter in a local agency in Malaysia provides me the perfect platform to truly find myself in my writing. The environment, the people and especially the vision of the company was the reason why I decided to leave my previous PR stint. The company is really driven towards the creation of the big idea, and doing good work that stands out from the sea of advertising sameness in Malaysia.

It was invigorating to have jumped in to the land of bigger, bolder creations when I came from the more structured, single-minded, results-driven conditions of the traditional PR world, where what matters most is getting journalists to buy into your client’s story and hopefully publish it on the cover of the most circulated newspaper/magazine (I’m sure the PR ballgame has vastly changed now).

But like every good surviving relationship, there must be an end goal, or at least a cause for the relationship to blossom.

Jim Carrey used this quote in his Maharishi University of Management commencement speech which I will hold dear until the day I die :

“Your job is not to figure out how it’s going to happen for you, but to open the door in your head.

And when the doors open in real life, just walk through it.”

And one day I just.

Decided to walk through a door that opened up.

Without a doubt, walking through the ‘doors’ of advertising has been an amazing journey so far. Eye-opening, thought-provoking, physically and intellectually-liberating experience. I believe I’ve absorbed as much as I can during my time here, but at the same time it feels sad to leave.

Sort of like breaking up with a boyfriend, with whom you know you had a good thing going on, but when things got rough, you just couldn’t see what the relationship will bring to the table if you had decided to stay.

And so I got a bit emotional as I ‘broke up’ with my advertising tenure here at LC Sdn Bhd. It’s been goofy, imaginative, fun, awe-inspiring but overall challengingly strenuous. Sorry to leave so soon but I’m open to reminiscing our relationship over a warm cup of coffee in the (not-so-near) future.

I’m gonna go switch on some jazz, grab a Lang Leav poetry book (Must-read: Memories ) and standby a box of tissues now.