Why write?
My name is Doru Alexandru, but my friends call me Doru. I am a 22 year old, Romanian-born guy who has been living in Montreal, Canada for the past 17 years. This is my first blog post ever and I’d like to introduce my reasons for writing.
“If you wish to be a writer, write.” said (and probably wrote too, I mean look at those forearms) eminent Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus in 2nd century AD.
Could it all be that simple?
I believe so! If you think about it, we became good at everything we did in life not because of studying everything we could about the matter in question, but by practicing very few things at first, until when rehearsed enough, they became second nature. We then, gradually, added the rest. Once we reached mastery or a certain expertise in our domain, we then let flow our individuality through our unique self-expressing style.
Back in the summer of 2019, I was flirting with the idea of learning how to cook. I thought it would be convenient if I could save some money on the food I’d love to go out and eat and be able to survive if I would live by myself. I had two options. I could take classes on how to cook, which would cost me significant dollars and my time, while not guaranteeing me the choice of what I would learn how to cook.
Enter option #2.
I set out to spam applications for cooking jobs at small restaurants in downtown Montreal. Eventually, I got hired at one specializing in asian food and sautés with a wok. This led me to a 6 month paid ‘internship’ into the world of line cooking.
It was really stressful at first as I was the new guy who didn’t even know the basics. What is the water to rice ratio? How do you make the food flip on itself while in the wok with one hand? How do you hold a knife? How do you make certain sauces? I cut my nail and part of my finger off during the first month with the chef knife and had to stay on the sidelines, while I healed my pride (and my finger). But eventually, I learned to move faster, cut precisely, plan quantities ahead and actually enjoy cooking. With time, as I gained experience, I even managed to lose my fear of fire. Yes, even after seeing a guy’s beard catch fire. I got paid for learning a skill I wanted to learn and that I am now passionate about, ate awesome food for free and even made new friends.
That day my philosophy towards learning became learning by doing,when possible.
Back to writing.
I fully believe that if I write consistently and allow myself to make mistakes and learn from them, I can achieve my dream of self-publishing books one day. The best I can do today, is start. Hopefully, I’ll learn along the way everything I need to know to become a compelling writer.
What will I write about?
The most important question, right? There are so many things one can write about, and I’ll let time tell what ideas I will prioritize.
In long, I aspire to write (in no particular order) on a wide range of subjects that I am passionate about: philosophy, religion, neuroscience, psychology, personal finance, personal development, language learning, sports, books, cooking, nutrition and music.
In short, I’d like to write about anything that can enhance people’s enjoyment or quality of life.
Why do do I want to write?
1) To learn to organize my thoughts into coherent ideas.
I don’t recall the exact number (on average) of thoughts that we have per day, but I recall that its in the thousands. Many of these aren’t premeditated and just pop out in our brain as observations or commands to go and do something. I noticed that I sometimes can get overwhelmed by the amount of elements I can think or have to think in a day. I would like to learn to structure my thoughts. Once I do that, I would love to keep track of and build on the most important ones. This would allow me to turn them into ideas and effectively share them with people, making me a better communicator and improving the quality of my thinking.
2) To leave memories behind for future times.
We have arrived at time in history where we can immortalize pretty much any moment we want. We can record a video, take a picture or write something on the Internet that will remain for as long as we want it to. We can only be grateful for the technology that we have. I can’t stress enough how wonderful it is to be able to preserve moments and leave them behind so that we later can look back and relive the occasion.
For quite a few years, I’ve been storing memorable videos on my 2 YouTube channels (that you’re welcome to check out!).
The first one (Doru Epure) is my main lifestyle one, while the second one (Romanian CDM) is dedicated to learning to DJ and music.
How great would it be for my future kids and grand-kids to be able to get a glimpse of how I was thinking when I was their age? It would be stupendous, in fact, so much that it is imperative for me to do start this blog leave something behind so I and many people can re-live the evolution of my worldview some time down the years.
3) To Inspire people to share their own ideas
This third point is probably my most important motivator to write.
My favorite modern rapper, Nipsey Hussle, (R.I.P.) famously said that “the greatest human act is to inspire.”
Ideas that I’ve acquired throughout my life from the people I’ve interacted with, directly or indirectly have improved my life. These ideas exponentially made me a better, healthier and happier person by helping me work on my beliefs, my weaknesses, find new strengths, happiness and passions.
The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
My goal with this blog is to simply pass on the torch, to the next person.
I categorically believe the right ideas can change people’s lives as they changed mine and I want to expose you to as many as possible, for free. If I can help even one person by writing, all of this effort will be a massive success and absolutely worth it.
I think that’s it!
I’m looking forward to this journey.
Thank you for reading, take care and may God bless you!
