Whenever someone asks me about where and how I get my ideas from, I always say that it’s a random thought. For the longest time, my tagline was: A mix of realities and daydreams, inspired by random musings and memories. As you will see, inspiration can come from anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re a creative or not. It matters how you see the world around you.
The only thing I love about commute…
Before the pandemic made way for a full work-from-home setup, I traveled to work on weekdays for at least 2 hours. Emphasis on "at least" and "to work”. That means my travel time is roughly 4 hours back and forth. On worse days, it’s more than that, including the waiting time.
As you know, commuting in the Philippines is not always convenient. But, the waiting time and heavy traffic allowed me to just be inside my head and reflect on many different things. I especially loved window seats because I had a view of people, cars, the sky, and the skycrapers. I can be nostalgic about city lights and sunsets.
And there are countless times that I just choose to sleep, hoping that I’ll be home when I wake up.
Once, I thought about the essentials that commuters, like me, need — A Commuter’s Starter Pack! Oh yes, we all need that bag of pacencia (biscuit brand on one hand, patience on the other hand).
Commuting is especially difficult when it rains. Hardworking Filipinos still brave the storm and heavy traffic just to go to work. Employee commuters (and college students) are wackily called immortals because of that. I still love rain, though.
This is one thing (maybe not the only thing) I love about commute: it grants me the privilege to look around, experience life, daydream, and spark ideas. And most of the time, the results are a mix of present and past experiences.
Puns intended…
We've seen puns everywhere: in advertisements, on the internet, and even in your dad’s jokes. It's usually the comical wordplay that we see. I find puns amusing. :)
If I could put into words my thought process on puns, it would be something like this:
Think of a thing, a food, an event… anything.
Try saying it and think of a different word that sounds similar. It can be in English or your own language.
You can also try finding a new meaning for the same word (like in the leche flan drawing above 🙊).
Here’s another example. You know what Vicks is. How about “Biiks”? Biik (pronounced: bi‧ik) is the Filipino word for piglet. Add “s” at the end to make it plural, and voilà!
Quote, end quote…
Quotes are another thing that I am always drawn to. Yes, the clichés and non-clichés, and the deep, meaningful words. Quotes are somewhat easy to remember when you relate to them, right? Or maybe you just love reading it or find it funny. Either way, quotes can be a great source of ideas.
Stay Tuned for Part Two!
I didn’t expect this to be this long. 😂
For the meantime, I hope you find sense and humor in your daily grind — maybe, something beautiful will come out of it. ♡
‘Til next time,
Abi