Thursday, 8th January, 2026.
Flashback to yesterday.
Even though others kept telling them, they had already known, after all, they could always feel it.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick....
The seconds were trickling through.
Tock, tock, tock, tock, tock, tock....
The minutes were trotting away.
Clock, clock, clock, clock....
The hours were clocking out.
Unitl seemingly suddenly....
Qong!! It clocked past midnight,
and the day checked out!!
Live Today
.
.
.
....
"What do you mean?"....
The writer asked; seemingly to no one in particular.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?"
This time they roared out loud.
It was such a shockingly foreign experience that they simply couldn't comprehend.
Before they started, they had already failed.
It didn't make sense, how could this have happened?
Yesterday. They unmistakeablly determined that they would publish their first chapter yesterday. They were fully intent and seriously set on it. After all, they worked deligently to accomplish it.
That's why this situation didn't make sense!!
Riddle me this;
1.They didn't make it in time. The Qong sounded & unhesitatingly shoved them into the next day.
2.They couldn't stomach the thought at first and just made elaborate excuses that it was just a normal mishap due to fatigue or the like, setting a new mark to publish the first Chapter today like nothing happened.... But here they were!! Only a few hours left of the second day!! Still unpublished!!
3.The time in relation to the tasks at hand was not enough.... would they fail a second time.... BEFORE they even started....
Their heart sank at the thought of this predicament.
Naive. That must be it. How could there be any other explanation? We must have been naive.
Sniff.... sniff....
Sitting on their desk with hands shaking, the writer kept sniffling & wallowing in sadness as a lone tear streaked down the side of their cheek. And the gloomy mood dragged on.
....
Crash!!
The writer got up so suddenly that they might as well have jumped, considering how roughly they toppled away the chair that it nearly broke.
They just had a stroke of realization & insight.
They had figured it out.... this riddle was a trap!!
It was never meant to be solved or fixed, one just had to snap out of it....
Perfectionism
This was the root cause of their predicament.
Putting in more effort, no matter how refined, is a flawed approach that would never resolve this fool's errand.
The key factor was to let go of controlling the outcome's perception, and await feedback that would help them improve but never letting the anticipation of said feedback hinder them from expressing themselves freely.
Because as a creative artist strives to express something through their work, they must understand that their work itself also stands to express the artist through their imperfections & quirks.
Hhh~ A sigh of relief escaped their lips, surprising them too.
"We must have been really nervous about this" Thought the writer.
This was a rather nasty hurdle to stumble upon right on the starting line itself, but thinking on it in hindsight, they were actually feeling grateful for the experience.
Because beyond the hurdle itself, they gained valuable insight.
That perhaps there was some truth to them being naive..... after all, they weren't the first nor would they be the last writer.
Books. Movies. Dramas. Poetry. Music...etc
Those were all composed by creative artists who came before us.
.... Artists who must have navigated similar tribulations & more than such.
"Hmmm"
The writer is humbled by the realization as they follow that thought trail. They had stumbled amateurly on their very first step. If this was about someone else, then perhaps it might have been funny. But no, this lesson hit its mark and they were undeniably part of the intended camp.
Uncountable creative artists have always been sharing their art with the world, but they were living among us, and thus we took them for granted. The reason behind this is evident; we had always been the consumers that ingest, admire, appreciate, criticize, and judge the creative artist's work however we liked.... It was the only perspective we ever considered.
Only now that we had set foot on the other side of the moon and took up the mantle, we are able to truly appreciate creative works that we casually took for granted before.
That's why the writer felt much gratitude for today's experience.