Or I can keep procrastinating until I set off for China again, where I have no time to work on a comic, and a language pledge that prohibits me from using English to boot...
Which is pretty much what happened.
I did have this idea to make some comics in Chinese which I might or might not be allowed to provide translations for, but I never thought of a story, so that never got off the ground. I did start writing a short story in Chinese, but it was not comic material.
Anyway, so I spent the semester studying in Harbin in northeastern China, as well as visiting some other places (photos here!). At first, I was so bummed about not being able to read or write in English or communicate with my friends or bf that I just studied a lot to try and get rid of my depression. Then I realized that the workload was so humongous that I really did need to study 24/7 just to get close to getting everything done (I think this is because I always had tons of reading. Reading for literature class, reading for newspaper class, reading for my one-on-one research project class...and consulting the dictionary every other word in the beginning...) Then I made some friends and started this bad habit of not studying and staying up till 4 in the morning chatting. And then during finals week I hardly slept at all and did badly on my oral, but the continuous party (and the sound sleep on the train to Beijing, lol) more than made up for it.
So that's what I was doing instead of working on my comic. Now I'm home, taking two classes at GU this summer and starting work next week. Work will be a doozy if I have to go in to the office every day, as it is ~2 hours away from my house by bus and train and bus again. That time could be put to use for comic drawing if it weren't for the constraints of rush hour public transportation; as it is, considering what my work will be (translation) I doubt I'll even want to read by the end of the day...
That pretty much leaves weekends and late evenings for the comic. And class time, of course! I always find I'm most inspired and motivated when I'm in class, for some reason. I've theorized before that it has something to do with the forced idleness of my hands and mind. Any other time I could find something else to do (and usually do), but when I'm stuck in class, with only half my brain occupied by what the teacher is saying, there are few things I can do to occupy the other half, asides from writing or drawing. Ironically, this kind of distraction helps me pay attention, as it keeps my mind from wandering too far or from just shutting down altogether and going to sleep.
So, teachers, please don't take offense! If you see me drawing, it's not because I find your class boring--quite the contrary, I love it and so want to make sure I stay awake! Just like I have to listen to music when I study (or paint, for that matter), I have to keep my mind occupied in class as well; I just get distracted too easily!
Well, with all that said, it seems like there is hope that some comic pages will finally make it onto paper and eventually onto the web. As long as my linguistics class is not too enthralling, lol.
No comments:
Post a Comment