This story is not working. I thought recycling was a good topic, but I was wrong. It doesn’t excite me at all.
When I was about to toss it out, I had second thoughts.
Maybe I need to see it from another angle, like my back pain?
Six months ago, back pain attacked me without any notice. I felt like my body had started falling apart. The pain was excruciating. Considering my posture was relatively good and my abs and spine seemed decent enough to support my back, I’ve never dreamed that I would get this type of pain. How did it happen? It had to be aging. It must be.
I could blame on aging all I wanted, but I needed to do something about the pain because I couldn’t function at all. Even brushing my teeth was challenging. I went to a chiropractor, but a CT scan didn’t find anything wrong. After two weeks of treatments, they concluded that there must be something terribly wrong with my spine and I needed a serious treatment plan.
I agreed that something was wrong, but I didn’t think my body could have worn out so suddenly, even if I was aging! So I went to an acupuncturist next. She said, “If you feel a difference after one treatment, your spine is fine without their suggested plan.” And it was! A few weeks later, the pain was gone and I went back to my normal life.
I was good for a month or so…until the pain came back. It wasn’t as bad as the first time, but bad enough to carry on my routine. For the second time round, acupuncture and a holistic treatment saved me, but even when I recovered, I had a feeling that the next pain was on its way. I just knew. I couldn’t concentrate on my work or writing for months.
Do I need to repeat this pain and recover routine for the rest of my life? Aging is too hard to deal with!
Then, I pondered…what if my age wasn’t the factor? Any external cause? Could it be the mattress? I changed my sleeping location. Voila! I became a new me the next morning. Who knew an old mattress could cause such pain? Okay, maybe you do. In Japan, I didn’t use a bed, so I’ve never thought of its lifespan. Reality was different from my assumption.
After taking a long look at the not-working story, I realized explaining the facts and lessons made the story boring. Even reading it bored me. There should be another way to pass the information. I need to tell it, not explain. So I rewrote it until I could enjoy telling it. In the end, the boring story became an informative yet hilarious story.
If something is not working, probe it from a different angle. You may find a jewel there.
