Your life is defined by this

There are some days where you think the world is at your feet.

Other days, it seems like you’re sinking into quicksand.

It feels like the struggles that you face are insurmountable, that everything that you do day in and day out all amount to nothing. There’s no point in you doing any of the things that you. Your bank account is shot, your house is a mess, and your family doesn’t seem to know you exist because they’re all buried in their respective screens as you run around like a headless chicken.

It’s one of the hardest things to handle in life, and unfortunately, it’s just the way it is.

The manic roller coaster ride that you’ve managed since puberty hit decades ago has only added more tracks and more loops.

There are release valves available if you just reach out to grasp them. These vary in shape, size, and function, and no two people will enjoy the same set, but every single one of us needs it.

Here are some of mine.

Gaming

As far back as I can remember, computers have fascinated me.

It’s not just because they’ve become the access points to the world, it’s the fact that they can do countless things faster, more efficiently, and more effectively. They’re just machines based on a ridiculously simple principle of “yes” and “no”, up and down, one and zero. The fact that trillions of binary operations can be used to facilitate incredible things such as enabling us to go to the moon, communicate with people across the world in real time, or immerse us in fantastic fictitious worlds of our own making is a monument to our species.

It’s the latter that compels me the most.

I’ve been a gamer all my life. From the time I could watch “Sesame Street” and “Mother Goose Rhymes” on my father’s Apple IIc, I was transfixed to the green and black screen as Cookie Monster held his mixing bowl and made cookie dough. Those were cutting-edge graphics back in the day…and all on a 5-inch floppy disk to boot.

These days, I have barely any time to play games anymore. That doesn’t stop me from scooping up deep discounts on them when Steam has its sales. Someday, I want my kids to know the joys of the games that I completed, not just because I want them to be computer literate, but also because I want them to appreciate it as an artform and the fact that the greatest stories don’t necessarily need great graphics or the best gear.

I shave off an hour or two here and there to move a storyline forward to be inspired and to be reminded that there is still magic in the world.

Martial arts

I started practicing martial arts when I was five years old.

Even before that started, it was something that I was interested in because my parents loved to watch them, and they were a part of the Chinese soap operas. Anything involving the Warring States period had some extensive choreography involving flying through the air on wires, wielding all manner of weaponry, and characters that looked like Pai Mei spouting the wisdom of the ages.

I started out in Karate, moved to Tae Kwon Do and earned a second degree black belt by the age of 14, and started practicing Tai Chi around that time as well. I was incredibly fortunate to live in the same neighborhood as a master who gave me private lessons for ten bucks a session…

I didn’t know until after he passed away just how much he could have charged.

In college, I continued both Tae Kwon Do and Tai Chi, but ultimately decided to continue focusing on Tai Chi because being in the Tae Kwon Do club came into conflict with dance team practices. I ended up continuing to practice after graduation with my late master who passed last September.

More than anything else, lifelong practice of martial arts has maintained my physical fitness, flexibility, and some semblance of sanity throughout the ups and downs of my life.

The arts in general

While martial arts and gaming have dominated my life over the decades, I’ve also moved through each artistic medium.

As a child, visual art and drawing were my main focus when I wasn’t tinkering with computers or throwing kicks and punches. I’d draw diagrams of the solar system, all the ninja turtles, and the symbols of Superman and Batman. I also enjoyed drawing landscapes, my parents, and various other objects that I came across in my explorations.

When I started grade school, I also started playing the piano and the violin. I got involved in the youth symphony orchestra and the after school music programs and performed at a variety of venues around town. I even competed and won on the state level, eventually attending the SC Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities as part of the inaugural class.

It was at that school that I was exposed to theater, dance, and writing.

My young adult life was defined by dance and theater as I somehow managed to land an audition and get accepted into a multicultural dance team in college. I ended up being a part of that group for eight of the nine years of my college career. Upon graduation, I moved back home and took a position as a tenure-track professor and moonlighted as an actor for a few years. I got involved in swing dance after accepting my dream job in the tech industry. From the time I started that job to the time I was laid off due to site closure, I danced up and down the East Coast.

That’s how I met my wife.

Now I’m here, tapping away as a writer.

A life defined by art

The truth is that every single one of us is heavily influenced by the arts.

It doesn’t matter if it’s useful or not or if it earns you money or not. Art is simply us expressing ourselves in any way that we feel is appropriate. Some gravitate more towards the physical, some more cerebral, and some to the emotional aspects. I’m lucky to have explored all three to the extent that I have. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have all these experiences to draw from to share my own process of figuring out what it all means.

Writing is the foundation that shapes all of them, though. It took me my entire life to find myself taking an interest in it. The ability to communicate effectively can’t be overstated, and there’s a part of me that wishes I had taken it more seriously or realized its importance sooner than I had. However, I also realize that my skill sets would have developed very differently had I done this in any other order.

It’s only because I had the foundation of music and martial arts that I could leverage them for dance.

It’s only because I had a love for games with deep narratives that I could appreciate theater, not to mention that I was only able to break into it because of my martial arts background.

It’s only because I spent a lifetime steeped in the other artistic areas that I now have endless ways to talk about the challenges of creating a digital footprint in the face of AI.

You never know how your background and past will shape your present and future.

My outlets have sustained me through some tough times, and they will continue to do so in the ones to come.

What are some of yours?