Now, where the f* should I start? How about some free writing.
Here I am committed to sitting down and writing my first steemit article non-stop for an hour. The key to free writing, as I was taught back in high school, may sound easy. Don't stop, no matter what happens, even if a bird shits on you or if a chicken was about to cross the road, you’re supposed to focus on just writing on and on. Yes. Ignore the internal shit that goes on inside your complex little brain, oh wait, don’t ignore them, write them down on a piece of paper - your thoughts, feelings, emotions or words - whatever your monkey brain speaks to you. Oops, I apologize for typing but I guess you got my point.
Hi Steem-ians. Forgive my randomness.
You can call me Sherab Jin. That’s my yogi name. Quick bio: I was born in Penang, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Planet Earth. Scratch that. I was born as a human being on Earth. Wait, scratch that again. I am just a being.
A being who:
...was introduced to Steemit by my brother @aaronteng and motivated by another fam member @chloecartoon.
…was born into a Chinese immigrant family in Malaysia and received formal education in both Chinese elementary and middle school.
…graduated from a Canadian International High School with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) and after failing to get a scholarship into my desired Canadian university, decided instead to "pivot to Asia".
…at this point of life still a senior year student in the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, Japan! hulala land of the rising sun.
Liberal Studies? What the hell is that?
Whenever people ask me about what I study or about my future career pathway, I often find it hard to encapsulate everything in a single sentence. Because in a liberal arts education, we have the freedom to choose any course that we’re interested in from a huge range of discipline. Over the years I’ve taken random classes on architecture and warfare, seminars on post-war Japan, Utopian literature, lectures about journalism, sociology, psychology, religion, anthropology, politics etc. The list goes on.
During my junior year, I did a one year double-degree exchange program in Peking University, China where I learned about International Relations - the history, social, economic and geopolitical factors that influence relationships between nation states and regions. After that I did a one-month off internship program with Stanford University's Rural Education Action Program (REAP) in Shaanxi Province, where we went around rural villages testing IQs of babies. It was one of the most interesting experiences in my life.
So in short, I tell people I major in International Relations and Philosophy or Education (because they are kinda vague anyway). My graduation thesis that I’m currently working on, however, is related to the concept of “flow”, a psychological term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to describe a highly focused optimal performance state or 'the zone' that people get into when they engage in certain activities. I will talk more about that in the future.
All in all, I am interested in learning, learning to learn and learning anything that may possibly enrich my life. This is done so for the purpose of personal growth and contribution, a goal in and of itself.
What do I want to pursue in life?
In Japan, I work part-time as a yoga teacher and a language tutor. Sometimes I freelance as a translator or a copywriter. But ultimately I see myself as an aspiring educator - to have life-long learning experiences that I can continually share with others. I envision myself acting as one of the thousands of wonderful channels in this universe, receiving, synergizing and channeling knowledge, love, and wisdom to other channels in this great union channel. We are one!
Scratch all that bullshit. I am just a being... trying to connect with you here. Yes! on Steemit!
So what should you expect from future me or ‘Sherab Jin’?
1) Random thoughts and rambles. I’ll try my best to ensure that Sherab Jin does his best to create useful content.
2) Cross-disciplinary ideas. Connections of dots between different branches knowledge and presenting them in a new light.
3) Spirituality and Body-hacking. Stuffs about ermmm meditation, yoga, martial arts and tea.
4) Analysis and General Knowledge. I may write about current international affairs or curate a series of posts on a certain subject for say "Beginner’s guide to understanding Chinese Politics" or Western Philosophy.
5) Lifestyle posts. My personal life in general.
If you’ve come so far to the end of this post, I hope I can request one tiny little favor from you: Share your thoughts and advice with me. Interact by commenting, up-voting, re-steeming or following! Thank you in advanced ^^Arigatou Gozaimasu!
I look forward to growing this community together.
Namaste,
Sherab Jin