Writing Challenge 2021 - 30 mins activity, target 400 words

 I believe there is a degree of innate talent that every human is born with. There is an argument that with consistent practice and effort (re 10,000 hours by Malcolm Gladwell) one can be an expert. I agree to an extent but the environment of your upbringing and surrounding opportunities affect a person's life spectrum. This fluid of moment is constant and the moments that pique your interest are your gifts. You carry, harness and sharpen these gifts for life as they are the fulfillment tokens. 

I have several gifts I carry in my belt.

1. Articulation of Speech in English
   I have an interest in story telling since childhood. I remember practicing with Kakak for the Malay storytelling competition in primary school. The intonation and projection piqued me.
   As I grew older, the late night of reading out loud Enid Blyton books and participating actively in MUN were moments where I sharpened my speech. The moment I realised this was a gift was post-graduation and potential employers said I spoke very well during the interviews.
2. Affinity towards Art & History
   I consider this a gift as it is a rarity. I take pride in appreciating the effort for artists to meticulously create their work. There is a sense of mutual respect and fulfillment admiring their piece.
   History also plays a huge role. I somehow feel fulfilled and stimulated after understanding more about how the world became it is today. Recently though I came to an understanding that narrative of every history was written. What this means is events that were recorded were all written from the interpretation of the historian but what actually happened might be different. There is no way of knowing unless one returns to the past. I still have great interest in history and will take it with a pinch of salt to feed into my current narrative. It is a gift.
3. Ability to Adapt to Change
   This intangible gift saves me when I am overly driven by curiosity. I find it easier to adapt to external changes versus internal. Perhaps I have not travelled/ adventured enough to experience the rough terrains or streched my abled body to its limits. The most physically demanding trip I did was the hitchiking trip across central Europe for a week. Even then I find the cold more challenging than dealing with uncertainties during our trip. Is this the trait of an explorer/ wanderer? A person who understands cultural nuances are complex hence learning to accept rather than resist or impose.
4. Create Meaningful Relationships & Conversations
   When I realise a relationship gets to certain stage of trust, I thank the universe to have blessed my life with that person. Perhaps it is the lack of stickiness I have with my parents. In my 20s I notice people I meet some will confide thier hardships/ feelings with me. Could it be I seem walled up that they trust me so much? I might be blowing my own horn here but there were many instances where I realise people would confide in me and in there would contain information that I could use to compromise their position. It is more obvious in the workplaces, for example the conversations I have with Andreas, the new TGIF GM at that time, were information that was above my pay grade. But I could sense he trusted I would not speak of it to another soul. Similar situation happened with my line managers after - Pial, Chandran, Karim, Olivia. I think another factor is they don't view the relatoionship as pure transactional. There is a mutual respect and agreement that our interests/ topics were aligned hence having the space to confide. These conversations are not often work-related but also their personal worldviews which in this very judgemental world can often be misinterpreted which compromises their leadership position and perception. I am thankful for the relationshpis I've cultivated and now I am looking for ways to move beyond that and bring it to action instead.
   
5. Desire to Contribute positively to the environment and future generationns
   I thought long and hard if this qualifies as a gift. It is a personal interest I find increasingly important given the current state of the world yet I observe it is not in others. I stopped questioning Why as it can be perceived as arrogant/ being assumptive that others will share the same concern. Yet there is a pressing need now to shift mindsets if humans are to live in earth for the next century. This desire/ personal interest is difficult to argue that it is a gift. I am not proclaiming it is good but the desire to make the world a better place was innate within me since young. It could be the strong influence from the Dhamma teachings or my parents moral compass. I feel however that these few decades are pivotal are the human race to identify ways of living to cohabit with nature rather than exploit it. It will reach to an irreversible point and the majority will suffer. This applies not only to humans and species around the ecosystem.

These are gifts I have identified with and it will change as I experience more. I don't think gifts are technical either for humans use their brains to function hence it comes from an interest/ desire to consitnuously improve that knowledge for them to achieve great technical skills. When achieved, that is when we feel fullfilled and fulfillment is the epitome of human happiness.