An Awakening Call

     "I'm from France." The White guy answered me with a smile.

     

     With that simple line, the conversation opened up with exchanging of words and laughter. He offered me some potato crisps and we continued to share more of our travel stories.

     "But I live and work in Seoul," he said. Aha...then he reassured that statement by uttering few Korean words to me.

       Then, it's boarding time and seems like there were still lots to be talked about between us. Unfortunately, we were being assigned with different seats on the plane; so, our conversation stopped there.

       One and a half hours later, the plane landed safely at LCC-T, Kuala Lumpur. He waited for me and together we walked into the terminal. After collecting our luggage, he asked: "What's your plan for the day?"

     "Going home," I said. Then I asked him, "Maybe you would like to have a drink before catching your next flight?" (He will be flying to Langkawi, his next holiday destination)

     "I was about to ask that," he smiled.

     So, we ended up sitting in Starbucks, continued on our conversation. "What do you do?" he asked me.

     "I'm a writer, and I'm now working on my first book," I told him.

     "Aha...that's interesting. Where do you normally get your inspiration from?" he asked.

     "Well, me and my publisher sat down and brainstorm on the subject to be written, then we done our research and interviews to come our with the manuscript," I said.

     "That's marketing. You are a commercial writer," he told me in my face.

     You’re a commercial writer!

     Aaughh… That statement really hit me in my face!

     As much as I want to deny it, but I simply couldn’t; I’m a commercial writer.

     Since young, my passion has always been in writing, I did writings during my free time and contributed it to the magazines and newspaper. Now, eagerly wanted to have the first book of my own, instead of writing from my heart, I slowly turned myself into a commercial writer, without me noticing it!

     “You should write from your heart, there might not be a lot of people will read what you write, but the point is, you write from your heart,” he continued to share his view.

     After giving me a hug, he flew to Langkawi and Penang for his holiday. While taking my shutter bus home, a question kept surging in my mind: “Do I want to continue to be a commercial writer?”

     Arghhh… and the weather seems like not too welcoming…gloomy…