This evening I stumbled upon an old Word document I wrote back in June 2009 – a couple of years before this blog was birthed. In it was a short list of eight things I’d learned so far that year. It’s interesting thinking about the circumstances that led me to these conclusions. Naturally this got me pondering whether I have learned these lessons – or … Continue reading 8 learnings from my younger self
I call myself a failed lawyer because I feel like an imposter when people refer to my law degree. I’m not sure how I went from not wanting to go to university at all to doing a six-year combined Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Arts (Honours). It probably had something to do with getting the marks for more than “just an Arts degree” and having parents … Continue reading Five reasons not to regret my law degree
My first name begins with a silent letter so alliteration exercises in primary school weren’t fun. “Happy Hsu-Ann” doesn’t alliterate and “super Hsu-Ann” looks like it doesn’t alliterate even though it does. Yet the silent H is a familiar and essential part of who I am. (So is the awkward pause and ensuing mispronunciation every time someone realises they’re going to have to read my … Continue reading The H is silent
It’s one thing to love writing; it’s quite another to love editing. Editing is a passion I only discovered through a university job I picked up after my time in Ecuador and before my year in Bolivia. I always knew that I had decent spelling, punctuation and grammar but as a Research & Editorial Assistant at my alma mater, I found even fixing typos can … Continue reading How to edit your life
I. It’s been one of those nights when sleep escapes and in its wake these words that race, stampeding through your mind; longing to be verse, yearning for release they cry out ink me, ink me onto parchment. Metabolise the pain, sweet heart. After all, it’s like any other bitter thing – the bile, the aftertaste, it will linger, but it will fade. Swallow, stay … Continue reading Aperture/Closure
This year, I made a few resolutions, a couple of which revolved around writing. I committed to writing weekly for the novel I’ve wanted to write since I was 13, and for this blog.
I also realised that it had been years since I’d been much of a reader – how I used to love it! – and that my writing was struggling to flow as a result. So I committed to reading a book a month in 2016. I’ve read 30 and will probably get a couple more in before the year is out.
Setting this reading goal has helped me enjoy reading again, as well as pushing me to reflect on the kind of writer I would like to be.
So for you readers out there, here are the books that impacted me this year: Continue reading 2016: A return to reading
I didn’t think much of the earthquake, to be honest. And I’m going to be very honest about this. The first time I experienced a tremor, I was sitting in my upstairs room in a rural village in the Ecuadorian sierra. It was kinda cool – cool enough to write home and tell people I’d just been in an earthquake. But it was also disappointing because I … Continue reading Just another earthquake?
The deepest level of communication is not communication but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and beyond speech, and it is beyond concept.
Thomas Merton said that and I thought: well, this is rather ironic but there you have it – that’s why I write. Continue reading Write away the words
My article about a colleague of mine Jeshika, an IJM Bolivia social worker, is on page 6 🙂 Continue reading A day in the life of … Jeshika – IJM aftercare worker
Reproduced from the IJM Newsroom/Blog: http://news.ijm.org/ijm-internsfellows-top-ten-moments-from-2014 WASHINGTON, DC, December 31, 2014 IJM teams around the world are celebrating the end of a very big year. To recap, we asked some of our interns and fellows to share ten moments they’ll never forget: 1. Sharing Harriet’s incredible story. EMILY, UGANDA: When I met Harriet and her children, they were entering a new season of hope. IJM had built her … Continue reading IJM Interns/Fellows: Top Ten Moments From 2014
⎯suansita⎯ 