Caught in the middle of Christmas traffic? Try writing. It can help soothe your nerves and pass the time away. I don’t refer to the literary kind here. Someone has written about it so very well in a previous article. There are other things one can write about which can have practical benefits in your life. These are just a few suggestions:
1. If you suffer from a mediocre memory, write down lists
Make the usual things-to-do-but-never-really-got-around-to-doing lists. Let’s see how much you can tick off by the end of the week. Make a list of all your friends and their gift preferences so you can save up for their birthdays. But also make a list of all your enemies and why they are so. This lists would come in handy when someone asks favors from you in future. Of course, now is the season for forgiving so I suggest you start this next month.
2. If you are a whiner, you have plenty of time now to draft that letter of complaint
It could be about that service staff who kept getting your orders wrong and kept calling you ‘tita’ when she looked like she had grandchildren of her own. Really! When you just had your face lifted and your hair rebonded, how can she? And while you’re at it, make another complaint about that rude salesperson who kept eyeing you as you went about in a Louis Vuitton store. Tell them you can afford to shop, not shoplift.
3. Write about yourself. Write about your favorite phobias and how you plan to overcome them
Or if you don’t plan to, how you can minimize the pain and difficulty they cause your loved ones. Write about how it sucks being 40, 50, 60, 70, 80. Save these articles and read them every decade. At 80, you’ll realize that all those things you complained about at 40 are crap. When you’re still able to read at 90, you’ll find that 80 wasn’t really so bad after all. Everything is relative. You can also start a memoir. Just leave a notebook in the car and pick it up and write everytime you get stuck in traffic. Of course, your other passengers might casually pick it up when you’re not looking and learn your darkest secrets. Well, you can always reveal theirs along with yours to make them think twice about gossiping. When you’ve run out of things to write about yourself, you can write your last will and testament. Specify clearly who inherits your dog and gets a pension along with it. Leave your ancestral home in joint custody of relatives who hate each other and amuse yourself from beyond as they argue and bicker. I believe it has been done before.
4. Lastly, we should not forget about writing down our list of New Year’s resolutions
Forget about the boring ones – diet and exercise, saving more and spending less, being kinder to your in-laws. Go for more creative and hard-to-achieve goals like resolving not to take a selfie or food picture for the whole year, refraining from wearing black to a dinner party or learning unusual skills like taxidermy. You only live once so you should strive to make each new year to be an improvement on the old one. Have a great year ahead!
Illustrations: Bank Jaruthammakorn
MORE WAYS TO DEAL WITH TRAFFIC:
– Stuck in traffic? 6 ways to exercise your brain
– Stuck in traffic? Tell us a joke
– Stuck in traffic? Bring and train a pet
– Stuck in traffic? Sleep
– Stuck in traffic? 6 ways to give your car TLC
