Sim Storyteller Spotlight: Ning
Hi guys! I’m Ning from collidingwithme. :D I only have one story, Colliding Stars, which is in progress now.
1. Tell us about yourself. (What you do for a living, your interests, where you live, your non-sim hobbies, etc.)
*inhales deeply* Self-intro. I suck at self-intro. >_o So, a picture first, okay? (you don’t actually have a choice, lol.)
(zomg hair is messy!) This is THE most recent photo of me. Serious. I only just took it (specially for you guys ‘cause other than my passport photo, I can’t find a normal photo of me alone XD). If I look very tired, that’s because, I am very tired. I slept only 3 hours last night and it’s already 6am 7am now. I'm actually listening to the morning radio show now and the birds outside are chirping their lungs out. (Anyone knows of any way to make eye bags go away?) Moving on!
But hey, here’s a better photo:
LOL!!! I just had to add this in. It makes me laugh every time I see it! XD This was from a couple of years ago. I was at the zoo with my boyfriend and have no idea what I was laughing so madly about. (I’m changing spectacles soon, by the way. Excited! :D )
Okay, now the fun facts: I am 20 years old, a Singaporean and live in Singapore (where it’s so hot and humid you perspire just by sitting down). I’m a Chinese, just really tan. Some people mistook me for a Malay and even spoke to me in Malay before, haha. (By the way, Chinese is my race, not nationality. I don’t know why a lot of people automatically think that Chinese = China citizens.) I’m currently a Year 2 undergraduate studying Environmental Science and Engineering. I love physics, by the way. :D I love how it explains how the world works and I always feel so in touch with nature when I learn about a physics law or something. *nerding in progress*
Actually, I'd totally eat Newton for breakfast if I could. =_=
I like to swim and jog and am picking up skating (mostly the stunts, hehe) from a skate clinic in my University. It’s really fun, except for the part when you fall down. (I love to peel scabs though. :P /random) I was from a choir in my secondary school and in a Taekwondo club in junior college.
I fell in love with digital art years ago when I chanced on Linda Bergkvist’s website, furiae (do yourself a favour and check it out!), but I never got the chance to explore that interest until I got a graphics pad end of last year. ^^ I really love to paint, but so far finished only one painting. Lol, phail.
Oh, my family sell clothes and I sometimes draw some shirt design for printing too. :) It’s a huge torture to have to stick to the maximum of 5 colours per design though. :\
2. Do you have other creative pursuits that affect how you tell your sim stories? (Such as photography, creative writing, etc.)
Hmm… not really. The things I draw are usually not related to sims nor shape the stories in any way at all. They are mostly just random ideas, haha. So, yep, I’m pretty boring. :P
3. Why did you start creating and posting sim stories?
Uh, this is going to sound weird, but I actually don’t know why. O_o Perhaps it’s the wish to tell a story? Maybe the wish to share my story came about after reading other awesome sim stories? (Yea, the more I think about it, the more I feel this is the most possible reason.) I think the idea for Colliding Stars just grew and grew into such a big thing for me and… wouldn’t it be a waste not to publish it? :D I don’t know what else I can do with it anyway.
4. Do you use Maxis pre-made sims, original sims, sims based on other sources (TV, movies, books, other games), or some combination of these? Why?
I sometimes use Maxis sims as passers-by, but if you meant using them as characters with a real purpose in the story, nope. In fact, I seldom use Maxis sims, even as calefare. (Oh gosh, I just realised calefare is actually Singlish. I’ve always thought it was a proper English word! :X “Calefare” basically means “extra”, usually used to describe actors who act in very minor parts.) All the characters are original sims, with the exception of Mejaine, who is modified from Anna Browyn by brontide from GOS. :)
I didn’t use any Maxis sim as characters as they come with their own backstory, which of course wouldn’t fit into the world of Colliding Stars. The same goes for characters based on other sources; I couldn’t use them.
I dug up this old document entitled “People” from my story folder which was created way before I started publishing. It gives a brief description of all the characters I was going to create with pictures stolen taken from many sources that best represents the idea of the character I had in mind. I think it was created when I just borrowed TS2 from my friend and was still a noob in bodyshopping and haphazardly finding downloads. The document is kinda hilarious actually. I described Jaelon to be mousey and Deinja to be wizardy. XD
Zaelem (unknown source :( )
Can you imagine if the Zaelem now looks like this? XD
Mejaine (source: Anna Browyn’s thread).
I actually wanted Mejaine to have tattoos, but didn’t know how to make them at that time and soon forgot all about them. :P
Gwen (source: Peggy)
Evelynn (source: MTS: joshmorrow1)
Jaelon (source: Illusions of Grandeur, which I can’t find the link for :\ )
Jackie (source: Shock-shame [http://shock-shame.net/downloads.html]. The site seems to be down now.)
Fun fact: The hairdresser was originally named Jessie, but I got to know a friend Jessie and didn’t want her to feel weird, so she was renamed as Jackie. ;) )
5. How long does it take you to create a new CAS sim for a story? (If you create original sims, that is.)
Lol, that depends on whether I will take pictures of them up close. If it’s just minor characters (e.g. Chairon’s relatives) I usually create each sim in about 5 minutes in the game itself. I don’t care about their personality, attraction and aspiration at all. In fact, I choose weird attractions on purpose so that they don’t heart-fart each other all the time. (Fun fact: Annie heart-farts Chairon. *shudders*)
Main characters like Kismette (♥!) took me… a few days in bodyshop? It’s not that I literally sat in front of my computer for a few days, but I kept going back to look at them again to tweak a little bit here, a little bit there. It’s hard to be satisfied. D:
6. Do you have one sim that frustrates you more than any of the others?
*taps chin* I want to say Kismette, because her height makes everything so difficult (she don’t “fit” properly with other sims and sinks into the floor if you use poseboxes on her, which is why you see shadows when I prop her up with a magisplay tray. Irritatingggg.)
But! She makes me grin so hard all the time! ^^ Everything she does is just so endearing to me, so while she frustrates me the most when posing, she makes me laugh the most too.
7. Do your sims have their own theme songs?
Haha, I told you I was boring, didn’t I? Nope. I’m not the kind who brings their ipod around everywhere they go. Heck, I don’t even have an mp3 player. And I don’t feel like I need one at all. :D
I can say that every sad love song reminds me of Zaelem though, LOL.
8. Do you like using aliens, vampires, zombies or any other non "normal" sims?
Well… star holders aren’t “normal”, are they?
Haha, okay, I get the question. Nope, I don’t use sims that have abnormal skin colour or eyes. Again, it is only because it doesn’t fit into my current world. I actually like aliens and vampires a lot. :D
I especially love alien babies! Awww! (This was from one of the very rare times when I actually played the game for the game itself. :( )
Zombies kind of creep me out though. I don’t like their twitches. :S
9. Do you usually create backstories for your sims?
Absolutely. Okay, um, maybe I should hold my tongue (or finger, haha). Only main characters have backstories. Characters like Janice and Dollie? I can’t be bothered. XD
I think backstories are just as important as the story itself, especially if two or more characters are supposed to know one another before the start of the story. It makes everything more realistic, I guess. A character’s past can justify his/her present actions or decisions.
10. If it were possible, would you carry out "romantic interactions" with any of your sims?
Eeuck, no! Hahaha, despite having a couple of hot guys in my game and I grin like mad everytime I see them, they are my babies. Really, it makes me sad when they go through heartbreaks, even though I was the one who put them in it. *split personality* Plus, they have predestined partners already. I wouldn’t want the break the hearts of their special someone. ;)
11. Have you ever cried when a sim died? How emotionally attached are you to your sims?
Gameplay-wise, nope. I rarely play until my CAS sim gets into adulthood anyway, lol. If you haven’t noticed, I don’t play legacies. :P
CS-wise… I am quite attached to my characters. I don’t know if I will cry when I get to that part when someone dies… ‘:(
Hmm what? I didn’t say anything. 8)
12. Do you have a favourite character/family?
KISMETTE! :D And, um, a certain guy whom I shall not name to keep the game fair for now. *sigh* Life is so hard when you have to keep your mouth sealed.
13. Are there any stories in particular (sim or non-sim) that have inspired your storytelling?
I can’t say that anything I saw or heard inspired the birth of CS. I mean, maybe all the stories, sim or non-sim, (or maybe even lyrics or poems or anything I’ve read) mashed together in my brain to give me what I have now, but CS wasn’t an “ah-ha!” thing. It wasn’t spontaneous. I didn’t just have this idea one day and decided to write this story out. It was a small seed that grew as I accumulated from my experiences and the things that I read or happened around me. If you want me to name a specific story that influenced my story heavily, I can think of none.
14. How do you decide on names for your sims?
Hahaha, I like this question. Kismette was derived from “kismet”, which meant fate/destiny. (I swear I didn’t know that there already are people called Kismette. You can bet I thought I was clever. XD)
Here’s the more interesting part: Wanna know how I came up with Zaelem, Mejaine, Chairon, Deinja etc. and even the names of the countries and cities?
I simply tried saying aloud some sounds which I thought was cool and tried to make them form a word. I’m serious! They have absolutely no meaning in them! XD
15. Do you use hacks in your game? If so, which ones? How do they affect your stories?
I have a feeling this question is more applicable to legacy stories. I mean, given the nature of my story (where sims don’t affect how the story turns out), of course I use hacks and they don’t affect the story itself too. They only affect how well I can get the poses I want, haha.
(Actually, strictly speaking, what is a hack? Are they mods? Are poseboxes considered hacks too, since Decorgal names her paintings as Talk Hacks?)
Erm, excluding pose/animation boxes since they are too many to list, the major ones that I cannot not have are the larger household mod (can hold up to 50 sims per lot), no stars when slapped global hack, no ZZZ when sleeping global mod, no red pause lines mod, sim transporter, coat hook hack, fourth wall. (I just realised my way of organising my downloads folder sucked, haha. Oh man. :S)
16. Do you have a favourite EP/SP? Which expansion adds the most to storytelling for you?
Considering I only have Double Deluxe, University Life Collection, Open for Business and Seasons… I don’t know. I really would love to have Bon Voyage. *sniff* I LOVE beaches (in real life, that is) and that awesome tall tree and that grand piano.
Haha, I guess I don’t really have a favourite EP/SP as they all add very different dimensions to the game. If I can only choose one, then maybe it’ll be Nightlife (which is included in Double Deluxe). Cars add so much more fun. :P
17. Do you make your own custom content?
Yup, I am happy to say that I do. ^^ I am obsessed with Kismette’s hair colour, lol. And Zaelem’s, of course. Couldn’t possibly expect to find bluish black hair everywhere right? I wished I figure out how to do all the simple recolouring of objects much earlier though. I could have had so much more fun, hahaha. I love hiding Easter eggs in the story.
I recolour mostly flat objects only though, like Kismette’s red blackberry, Mejaine’s advertisements and Zaelem’s dogtag. Oh, I make eye masks too. Most of the eye rolling was cheated with those masks. :P
18. Do you have a favourite sim outfit or hairstyle?
I love Chairon’s current hair. (Download Bobblehead (the hair) by Avaluna from GOS!) I think it looks great from all angles. Zaelem’s old hair is awesome for the “mysterious man” feeling and looks good from all angles too, lol. (Er… I can’t remember if Zaelem’s hair was recoloured from SnowWhite’s version on GOS or from Peggy. :P) His new hair, sadly, doesn’t really look good from behind. :\
As for outfits: not really. Clothes are easier to like, I guess.
19. What are some things that you wish were included in the Sims games (2 or 3), but aren't? (For example - social interactions, the way sims interact with objects, etc.)
I wish TS2 had the same level of customisation we had in TS3. :( The ability to choose different shoes for same bottoms or the same textures for all matching furniture would have been great. Other than that… I wish I can grab those fireflies with moveobjects on. I loooove them!
20. How long does it usually take you to prepare a story update?
Haha, nice question! Let’s see, there was once when I noticed that I took 45 minutes just to get ONE PATHETIC SCREENSHOT. I don’t know if I’ve ever taken even longer time to get a screenshot though, coz I don’t usually look at the time. XP And that’s excluding editing the image in photoshop, which takes about 1 or 2 minutes per picture. Thank god I have most of the words ready, or at least have the ideas ready so I don’t have to think too long about what to write. :P So an update every fortnight is pretty taxing for me already.
I think I should take this chance to explain why I need 1 or 2 minutes per picture (and couldn’t use the batch action thingy in photoshop), since I’ve received questions in the past about why my pictures look so clear. I usually simply say that I sharpen my pictures. That’s not the whole story, but I don’t know how to explain it in words.
You see, when I first published, I knew I could sharpen my pictures but I HATED the white lines you’ll get at the borders (omgawd I suck at explaining, so, pictures below):
I also hate how crunchy the hair looks. Totally unacceptable! *tsk tsk*
After playing around with photoshop, I came up with a few steps to remedy this. Basically:
1) Resize image
2) Adjust (if needed), then duplicate another layer (shortcut: ctrl + J)
3) Sharpen only the top layer and you’ll roughly get this history:
4) Set eraser to a soft rounded one with 50% opacity:
5) Erase the top layer at wherever you see the evil white lines!
(Erasing the same spot once makes it 50% opaque. Erasing the same spot twice makes it 25% opaque instead of 0%.)
If I hide the lower layer, which is untouched by “sharpen” and erasing, I’ll see:
You can see that the eyebrow part is almost 0% opaque, because the white line is very strong there and I erased the same spot many times. :P
The result?
I’m sure you can tell which one was simply sharpened and which had a minute of my time. If you can’t, I’ll be very sad. (._.)
21. Show and tell: Please show us your workspace (a photograph, if possible, or just describe it), and tell us about the conditions you prefer to work in. Do you have any bizarre habits or rituals?
I’m not working yet, so I guess my personal computer will do? :D
Uh… hha *awkward* it’s kind of messy. This photo should be self-explanatory, yes? :D
I bought this computer at end of 2008, when I graduated from junior college and get a sweet 8-months holiday (from December to beginning of August) before University starts. I’ve been meaning to play TS2 since it came out in 2006, but decided to wait until the prices drop and stuff like Double Deluxe comes out. Yea, I’m a cheapskate. :P
Conditions to work in: human temperature. Gosh, it can get so damn hot in the afternoon that I just had to go away and do something else. O_o Singapore is going to melt into a puddle someday.
Bizarre habits? Not that I know of. :P Placing my graphics pad on the box it came from and putting the whole thing on my lap instead of simply placing the graphics pad on the table isn’t weird, is it?
22. Do you usually have your sims act to a pre-written script, just follow what they do, or some of both? what comes first - the text or the image? Is one of the elements more important than the other to you, or are they about equal?
Oh, I was going to show a photo of my notebook for Q21, but I’ll save it for this question. ;)
I have a pre-written script. The text is always written first, or I’ll have no idea what to shoot when I’m in the game. That’s not to say that I don’t change some things after taking the screenshots (mostly minor actions e.g. like changing “lying down” to “sitting upright” to fit the pictures better if I can’t get the sim to lie down correctly.) The main story/events will not change though. I think it’s safe for me to say that I never follow what my sims do. :P
For me, I already have the story; I just need the sims to add pictures for the story to come alive. So in some way, you could say that this isn’t a sim story. :\ But then again, does that really matter? I still do need my sims. The story wouldn’t work on its own, ‘cause sometimes, pictures convey a stronger emotion/message than words can. ;)
So here’s a typical page in my notebook. XD It’s just a random notebook (we have hundreds of these free notebooks lying around) and I will write out roughly what I need to for each picture. I write out the descriptions for a few pictures, alt+tab out to check that they’re all okay before moving on to the next set, hence the renumbering. I don’t follow my notes religiously though. It all depends on what I can do with my sims. :)
If you’re trying to read my notes, “CU” means “close up” while the circled ones are those that fail my quality check and had to be retaken. XD
23. Can you give us any hints about what is coming up in your stories? (Oh, come on...)
Oh, come on… Why would you want me to spoil the story? You wouldn’t be happy if I told you how it’ll end, right? :P
*fidgets uncomfortably and checks toes* I feel bad for being such a wet blanket. Oh alright, let’s see… the Viken heir will be married and the blue-haired man will not be there to stop it? :) Spoiler enough? (Grr!)
24. In your opinion, what makes a good sim story? What do you like to read in other people's stories?
I’m not very sure what gets me hooked, but I guess there should be excitement in it? (Argh, this is so vague.)
Um, I guess I like to read stories that are easy to read. That means good English with proper sentences and punctuation. It obviously doesn’t have to be perfect, but definitely not lolspeak. Oh, and pictures that are relevant to the text. Awesome sets are major plus points. ;)
Story-wise… it has to progress. I mean, it’s probably gonna be boring if you beat about the bush and end up at the same spot without much explained after 10 chapters or something. Heh, I don’t know what else to say. There are too many genres, so I can’t specify what is good.
25. How often do you check your flist to see if your favourite authors have updated?
I check my flist whenever I have the time to… which is very hard to say in terms of how many times a week, haha. I recently found out about the “track” feature of lj, though, so I don’t need the flist for my favourite authors. ;) Those on blogger have the “follow” feature too. I check forum threads for updates too.
26. Storytelling aside, what first drew you to The Sims? What do you like most about playing The Sims?
Ah, I don’t think I’ll be able to stretch my memory that far back. I’ve been playing since I was in primary school! I guess it’s the ability to create your own people? XD Their autonomous reactions to the things around them or other sims around them is probably what I like best. (Hehe, I suck at interviews, don’t I?)
27. How long have you been playing The Sims? Have you been playing since Sims 1?
Yup, since TS1! At that time, I didn’t even know you could download things off the internet. I was pretty surprised to see TS1 downloads when I was searching for TS2 downloads, lol.
28. Do you only play the game with stories in mind, or do you also play just for fun? Do you record everything with photos anyway?
I rarely play the game nowadays. :( I simply don’t have the time to.
When I first started though, before CS even came to mind, I remember having stories for the families I played. My stories are mostly the same (LOL), revolving around a certain girl who had to fight for a guy with her evil stepsister (LOL!). The household will always be split into “good people” and “bad people”. Too many fairytales, I tell ya. XD I do record them with in-game screenshots at that time, though they’re all gone now.
29. Do you have a self sim? (We'd love to see him/her, if you want to share a pic.)
Yea, I do!
It is really easy to make her face: just flatten everything. XD
I do play the piano in real life, by the way. :) I love to play it to de-stress during mugging periods.
30. What advice would you give someone who wants to create a sim story?
Whoa, this makes me a little apprehensive. I can’t tell you what’s the best way; I can only tell you my way. You have to find the best way yourself. :)
Caution: My way is more relevant for fiction-type of stories, not for legacies or those types which depend on your sims’s choices.
I actually started writing Colliding Stars for more than 2 years (maybe even 3) now. I already wrote out the ending and most of the in-betweens before I even published Chapter 1. It kinda made me feel secure that the things I write from the beginning will most probably match what happens at the ending, but most importantly, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t lose my way. (I’m guessing the “getting lost” or “don’t know where to head next” is one of the main reason writers abandon their stories halfway, other than “don’t have time for it anymore”. :( ) I know what happens next and I can’t wait to share it and see how people react.
And I’m in love with the story. I think about it almost every single day. I daydream about my characters a lot; I even talk to them (I have this weird habit of imagining conversations with real people in my head. :P ) and know how they will react.
I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t rush it. Take your time to know your characters well, mark your route out clearly and know your destination. And fall in love with the journey. :)
From stelara: What was your inspiration for Colliding Stars? Any scifi/fantasy novels that influenced you to create this series?
As I’ve mentioned, I can’t point my finger on specific things that made CS what it is now. It’s all fragmented small ideas, but I’ll try my best to recall as much as I can now. X)
You want to know how it all started? (Warning: totally unrelated to CS)
It all started from this little girl. I didn’t plan anything big for her; I simply wanted a cute toddler to name Kismette.
LOL at the fingers! That was waaaay before I bought myself a personal computer.
I loved her to bits, but she didn’t even get the chance to grow up. I can’t remember why I stopped playing her, but her story was supposed to be that she was adopted. The blonde woman was her adoptee mother who couldn’t conceive for years, but after adopting her, got pregnant suddenly. Kismette was to be treated harshly (Cinderella anyone? XD) but still outshines the new sister in terms of studies and everything else and gets the hunk. Yea, I used to write stories like that. That was supposed to be Kismette’s grand scheme in life, lol.
I don’t even remember how the main idea of CS came to my mind, but the image of Kismette repeatedly surfaced in my mind. I couldn’t get over how cute she was, hahaha. So, uh, I guess that’s how she became the main character. XD
The movie “Stardust” made me think of using stars to represent people. (I LOVE THAT MOVIE!!!)
“The Other Boleyn Girl”, “The Boleyn Inheritance” and “The Constant Princess” by Philippa Gregory made court life seem extremely exciting. I think that made me add the royal/noble element to CS, though it is kind of underdeveloped now. Oh crap. ( ._.)
From wanderingjasper: Have events in your own life ever influenced your story?
Definitely. :) I don’t add in the whole event itself (it’s kinda impossible to add it in wholesale anyway), but I take little bits and pieces of it to put into CS. In fact, some of the conversations in the story were conversations I had with other people. Some of the things I wrote were things I observed or were said by my teacher, haha.
Also, I feel like every character has a little bit of me in them. They are all different sides of me, or me during different stages of growing up. (I was a really difficult teenager, by the way. I wanted to run away from home when I was about 14.) The ways they react or behave are sometimes my own reactions in similar situations, depending on my mood. I also draw a lot of ideas from the people around me and fit their reactions to some of my characters.
From scribal_goddess: 1 Do your characters ever draw inspiration from real life/historical people?
2 Have you written any other stories (published or unpublished, online, in print, or just lurking around your computer)and if so, how do you feel about the difference between online publishing and print?
3 Have you ever collaborated on a story with anyone?
Nope, not nosy at all, Scribbles. XD
1: If you meant whether I base my characters on someone else, nope. However, like my reply to Jasper above, their behaviour is sometimes shaped by what I observe from real people. I don’t fix one person to one character, though. E.g. My reaction to one thing can be used to write for Kismette while my reaction to something else can be used to write for, say, Gwen.
2: Whoa, that’s a dark secret. Haha, okay um, other than the silly ones which revolve around a single girl, I have just one more story that is lurking in an isolated folder in my computer. I just suddenly felt like doing a mystery a few weeks ago and began thinking of ideas to twist the story into a mystery, LOL. Random much? I have no idea why too. Kismette was prancing along just fine in my head when the mystery so rudely barged in. o_o
I have never made it to print before though. Did you seriously think I’d make the cut? XD
3: Before CS, I was an unknown. Literally. I don’t even have an online identity and didn’t joined forums or take part in the sims community in any way at all. XD So why would anyone collaborate with me?
If you’re thinking of the time after I started publishing CS, I still didn’t collaborate with anyone, mostly because CS took up my whole mind. I don’t have ideas for something else. (I have no idea where the mystery story came from!)
From jillyson: 1) Your sets are so elaborate - how long does it take you between seeing it in your mind and completing it to "picture ready"?
2) This story has so many twists and turns - do you have a firm plot in mind, or do you "go where the story takes you"?
1: I find that I like details very much. :) (Maybe that’s why I love to take close-up shots so much, though I’m trying to reduce it now, ‘cause I realise it’s hard to understand what’s happening when people don’t get to see the surroundings, haha.) That probably helped in the decorating part. But that results in me taking one whole morning just to finish one set. (I can sit in front of my computer for 12 hours a day, save for toilet and quick meal breaks. Horrifying, I know, but I still find that I don’t have enough time.) If I have to guesstimate, it’ll be an average of 4 hours on a normal set like the bar Zaelem visited in Chapter 39. It doesn’t help that I like to do things slowly too. :S
2: I do have a firm plot in mind and most of it written out already, but an idea occasionally hits me and if it’s plausible, I add it in. ^^ These last-minute add-ins are usually just an extra scene though, not plot twists. Most of the twists are already fitted in. Come to think of it, the twists are kind of too major to be added in last-minute, unless I'm really that lucky for it to fit nicely. It's very difficult to fit new things in when the story is already planned out till the end. *hangs head* I'm not a very flexible person.
31. Is there anything else you would like to add?
About this spotlight… I’m not gonna lie: I wished for this when I first published Chapter 1 of CS. I then joined my first forum ever (which I’m not going to name so that this doesn’t turn into an ad) with the hopes of getting higher readership. But as time went by, I’ve made some really good friends there whom I would totally want to meet in real life. And when I look back, I realised that I’ve already forgotten about wanting the spotlight. They made me forget about how I wanted to be recognised. They made me enjoy myself and simply love being part of this sim community. I just want them to know that they are irreplaceable in my heart. :’)
Also, I need to say that the support and encouragement you guys gave really made a big impact in my life. My parents were never proud of me for doing this. In fact, my mum frequently complains about how much time I’m spending on it (which is partly why I don’t play during school time: I said that if I don’t play during school time, I should get to play during holidays). What saddens me the most is that time and again, she would say something like, “Why is your story so long? Quickly end it already.”
It was only until today (okay yesterday, since it’s another day already) that I told her I’m working on an interview that she got a shock and finally understood that this isn’t something silly or small. Yes, I will move on from this in future, but I’m not giving this up now. And I feel so blessed to have all of you who kept me going and made me feel appreciated. Thank you so, so much.