Michael Ban

I'm a writer, apparently. Funny to say that, since I only started this a while ago. Full-time writing, that is. Up till now, I've hidden within the comfort zone of a salaried job, working in the legal profession and the public service, with a short stint in the arts sector managing a theatre. This is, for me, a great leap of faith, to venture out and try to create stuff that people will look at and hopefully appreciate.

I've always been the creative sort, drawing comics when I was a kid and writing articles in my class newsletter. I wrote poems and short stories, I designed my own computer game when I was eighteen, made several card games while still a teenager. Somehow, though, I never had the courage to use any of this as part of my career. Perhaps it was my college days as a law student that led me towards thinking about a "proper" job. Perhaps it was the years spent in the public service, none of which I regret at all, that gave me such a rich and enjoyable experience that I never really thought of doing anything else. Perhaps it was just the inertia of doing whatever was next that the company/organisation required.

But at some point, you stop and ask yourself, when will you leave all this behind to pursue your passion? Not just do what you're good at, but what you really find joy in. The way I was going, it looked like it was only going to happen at my retirement. Some people play mahjong or poker, some people buy a boat, I would have started writing.

And that's when I said, NO. That makes no sense at all. If I'm going to pursue my passion, what's holding me back? The fear of the unknown, mostly. The idea that you have to take each day by faith, hoping that what you do is going to be good enough to allow you to put some food on the table for your family.

Here's where a supportive and loving family comes in. I can't stress enough how grateful and amazed I am that my wife completely understood my decision and was willing to be the sole breadwinner for as long as it took for me to make this work. And my kids, they just loved the idea of it all, mostly because they don't really have a clue about how the world works. They're just so happy that daddy is around the house a lot more.

So this is where it all begins. To just write, and to leave it in the hands of you folks, my readers. I can't please everybody all the time, and I don't really aim to. I just hope that some of what I write resonates with some of you, some of the time. And if that's what happens, I'll be content.