No Time to Waste Like the Present

Hello friends,

The deadline to finish the stories for the book is around the corner. I am working extremely hard on top of my existing responsibilities to complete the remaining three chapters of the book. The last three chapters are the most important chapters that I have to write, which connect my past in Malaysia and my current life in New York City. This is where the young innocent naive me transformed into someone who would later be destroyed by the fire of addiction.

Chapter six which I finished last week talks about the "lost time" that I spent between Petaling Jaya (PJ), Malaysia before I ended up in Raleigh, North Carolina. The reason I call it "lost time" is because this was a very confusing time of my life, where my future was uncertain. I was unable to obtain my visas and life was a little chaotic. Thankfully, I was able to hold the fort together while spending some time at school knowing that I will be leaving the country at any time. I went to a graphic design school and started to make new gay friends. Being friends with them helped me accepting myself for who I am. Their friendship and support gave me the courage to come out to some of my high school friends.

As I begun to get comfortable with my own sexuality and used to going to school in PJ, my visas went through and I have to leave the country before I turned 21. Right before I left the country I stayed overnight at my cousins. She took me to a mall and we ran into a monk who happened to be a fortune teller. He foresaw that I will experienced a catastrophism at age 24 and predicted a few things that will happened in my life which most of them already came true.

On another note, I met with my publisher in person last week for the first time and I have some exciting news to report. Afdhere and I discussed getting the book published in multiple languages with worldwide distribution in hardcover, e-book and softcover. He also explained to me what needs to happen during the editing process in the next six months. Social media, which will be a big component of the success of my book launch, was a big part of the discussion. Afdhere also didn't want to overwhelm me with all the details right now but to focus on my writing instead.

I am still in shock about the meeting with Afdhere partly because the reality is a little surreal for me. Everything that's happening to me this year has been nothing but extraordinary. I am forever grateful to every opportunities that were offered to me this year. I am definitely living life beyond my wildest dreams. Whatever my higher power has in store for me, I am going to honor it and respect the process but living it to the fullest and showing up wholeheartedly.