T2 meeting

I reluctantly stepped out of the building to the cold-but-lovely-dry London - the beginning of winter.

It’s a pity I couldn’t stay till the end. Having known the quality of Betty’s writing last time, I seriously considered it as a big loss.

However, my love for writing and my strong desire for friendship had to give way to … my little niece. Being home late not only means losing our good night hug, but might also disrupt her sleep with noises from the doors. Oh, such an uncle I am! (Only, never being out later than 9 pm, no doubt why people (especially my mom) are expressing serious concern about my relationship status. I guess that’s why more than anyone else I’m looking forward to Sammi’s dating series!!!).

...

Walking to the bus stop, as usual I reflected a bit about the meeting. A smile’s unexpectedly brought to my face.

• Is that because of this first meeting with Mengyao, something I was so looking forward to after reading her story of founding T2. Oh, but, what did we talk about? This whole web3/blockchain and what it could do for writers, T2’s plans and all the exciting upcoming improvements, etc. – all the things I care about and wanted to know. Did I ask Mengyao anything about herself, being aware of the fact that she’s just come all the way from Shanghai? Haizzz, such a selfish friend, such a socially inept nerd I am!!!
• Is it because of that great conversation with a couple of new friends, where João revealed more about his writing process - with 70% of the work is about editing (while for the rest 30%, he’s tried to keep writing 2000 words a day. Luckily he didn’t look at my face when saying it, I who is struggling to keep the little 300 words per day right now); where Saffron shared her great memory of the trip to South-East Asia without much of a plan, and how, impressively indeed, despite having to take the tube at rush hour every day, she’s still very much enjoying London.
• Or is it because of the way Sammi proudly and charmingly read aloud her personal queer story that, exactly like Betty said, is so touching and inspiring. It did make me want to share mine as well (only, after a second thought/reconsideration few minutes later, that desire was forgone easily due to lack of interesting materials).

...

Even though Mengyao said it’s been 4 years already for T2, it’s still a small community (at least for in-person meeting), and I’m really glad I’m here for that.

Only, there're a couple of things I think we can make it better for the future meetings:

• It’s quite a frustrated feeling that I couldn’t really follow some of the readings there, either because of my poor English or my slow-processing brain (no, I'm lying. It's both). I guess it would be helpful if next time people can share what they want to read beforehand, so we can follow it on the screen as well. You know, using 2 senses is always better than 1 (especially for some excellent writing like that, that you don’t want to miss a thing from).
• And, I guess it would be great if we can have a bit of discussion about writing itself, like what people have learned about writing recently, or even what the act of writing has taught them (no doubt it will be very inspiring), or anything they want to improve about writing. I think it would be very beneficial to all.

...

However, I couldn’t help but feel inspired by looking at the team – the smiles, the energy, the shining light around you guys that we don’t often see in people nowadays. I guess it’s that additional benefits of “following your passion” people sometimes talk about, especially when it’s about creating a product for the community.

It actually reminds me of a lovely paragraph in “The alchemist”: