Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you “Dexterity.”

I…am a very lazy child. I’m rather inconsistent in the projects I choose to undertake, and we should all probably know by now that I possibly, probably, most likely, aspire to be an author. I’ve been telling myself I’ll write a book for two years. But HGIC eh…this bubble of a school…in fact, let me stop here, before I type something I won’t like to read later.

I’ve written a few stories in the past, but they’re horrible, if I do say so myself. At least I managed to stick to my projects then and create twenty-thousand word stories. I want to build that kind of dedication in myself again.

So…I began to write Dexterity. The idea came to me when I was stranded at church in South Africa because my little cousin had given my aunt’s car keys to a pastor, who had taken them home by mistake. Sigh. Anyway, it is inspired by The Spider King’s Daughter, by Chibundu Onuzo and Q&A (also known as Slumdog Millionaire) by Vikas Swarup.

I was actually just there thinking about how I, and others in my social class, cannot possibly mimic the dexterity of a hawker, who can run, pick some object up from the top of their heads with one hand, while the other hand simultaneously fumbles in a tool belt for the appropriate change. Hawking is kind of an amazing job, if you think about it. I thought about the effect of other overlooked hobbies on people, like how video-gaming speeds up your reflexes and how being a cashier could also make you very quick-minded and efficient. So I was like: hey, which activity is best for making you, in a sense ‘smarter’? And then I was like: It would be awesome if I could pick one of each and put them against each other to see who fares best. And finally, I was like: I can’t make that happen in real life. But I can make it happen in my head.

And so Dexterity was born.

The idea really does fascinate me, and so I have decided to create a blog dedicated to it. The URL is dexterityseries.wordpress.com. Forgive it for looking boring. But we all know I’m a monochrome lover, right?

It should work like a storybook. The homepage will be a kind of content page, where you can select the part of the story you’re at, and it should have a hyperlink to that part. I’ll be updating it as frequently as I can, what with the ideas now coming to me, and trying to balance writing with this annoying programme called the IB…plus school’s extra-curriculars and stuff.

However, I have a knack for bringing trouble upon myself, and this is a classic example of me doing that. I’ll tell myself that doing these things make me happy, and I’m not lying, but chale. The stress. Anyway. I can just release a tirade on an unfortunate party and move on with life, when life gets too much for me.

But yeah. Dexterity. Watch that space. Y’heard? YOU HEARD?

(I’m nervously hyper as I write this. I have a physics test I really don’t feel prepared for. Then again, I never have been…)

-Yours in Stress and Artistry,

Ivana.