#misconnection

Sooo my first short story workshop is in three-ish weeks. I’m turning in Misconnection, a lit fic story about three estranged friends who have an intense conversation after the untimely death of a mutual friend. They basically dump six years of resentment™ on each other. You can follow their thread here. Anyway, I’ve gone through two other workshops and I’ve chose some gifs to represent my general feelings when workshopping others, the dreaded time when it’s my turn, then (generally) how workshopping my stories go. Hope some of you guys can relate!

1. Signing up for the class/workshop:

2. Reading the syllabus/being given instruction to write x amount of stories that will be critiqued  

3. You pick/get assigned a time to turn in your story. You start working on it really hard, praying:

4. Reading other people’s stories that are good:

5. Reading other people’s stories that are not so good: 

6. Me trying to sit down and write the story:

7. Me turning in my story, thinking my peers are about to rip me a new one during workshop:

8. Obeying the rules of workshop and trying not to talk when your story is being workshopped:

9. People actually being nice and saying your story is good:

10. When the point out a flaw in the story that you tried to fix/hoped they wouldn’t notice:

11. Thanking your class for their kind comments and constructive criticism. Realizing that you’re a not shitty writer and will turn in an improved draft next time:

The connection between Berlin - Istanbul (TK1294) and Jakarta - Istanbul (TK56) flights failed us this dawn, June 22 2019. The first stop we made to ask was to information desk near at the beginning of Gate F. He calmly and assuringly said: “Your flight is rescheduled to tomorrow, at the same time. So, June 23, 02.20 am. We have a hotel room for you, your luggage will be there, and we will take care of the visa fee. Please proceed to our Hotel Desk, after the passport control.” So, we did.

First problem we faced was: We could only pay the Turkey visa fee with USD. It was 35 USD for each of us. Why on earth would we have USD cash with us?! The arrogant visa guy said: "Indonesian passport? You have to pay in USD!” We went to a near by money changer and even the guys there tried asking the visa counter themselves. Because they knew that the conversion would be double (EUR to LYR; and LYR to USD). Anyway, so we had to, right? For 70 USD, we had to give them 93 EUR. The moneychanger people also said that the Turkish Airline will reimburse your visa. So, we were a bit okay with it. Also we were tired. This was already 2.30am…

i meet a lot of people but seldom do i ever have a truly special encounter. And by special I mean the kind of comfort that sparks right at the first sight of them. I don't know if this happens to anyone else but when someone who stands out among the rest comes along, i can sense that there's something about that person that i want to invest in. Something i don't find in just the average person. You can call it silly or superstitious but whatever it is, be it chemistry or like at first sight; its a rarity that i put a lot of meaning into. I am easily infatuated and seduced by the shallow aspects of a person but the connections I'm trying to describe are beyond those things. A lot of times I'm hazed by lust and tend to hurt or take advantage of certain people because i can't always tell what I want. But when a certain kind of person comes along with this magnetic quality, more time with this person provokes clarity in my decisions. So anyways, the point of this post. I met a guy name Brandon. He's 21, Indian, lives in British Columbia, goes to raves, and from the time i spent with him... I want, almost feel like i need to see him again. When we lost each other in the crowd i thought that maybe i was just hazed by the atmosphere and the Molly and by the next morning i wouldn't even remember or care who he was. But coming down and a sober mentality hasn't erased him. There was something happening during that time we were together. Something better than just feeling good. Or feeling infatuated. Or rolling Molly or having fun or whatever. It sounds so stupid to say but there's no other way i can think of to explain that there was just something right about being next to that boy. Something so positive So good And I lost it And it's just frustrating knowing the very unlikely chance we'll ever meet up again seeing as he's in Canada and we never got the chance to exchange contacts. I honestly just wanna pull my hair out. And who knows what would've happened if we had the whole night with each other. Or if it were in a different circumstance, I'd like him just as much. All i know is I'm surprisingly glued to this. I can't shake him off so easy. I just wanna know. If i was just goggled by another shallow impression or if this was different. If this was the connection I've been waiting for.