Dream Walden

This blog has retired as of September 2019. Please go to https://dearwalden.wordpress.com/ to visit my new blog, Dear Walden.

I am 36, female. I grew up in Singapore and speaks English, Mandarin and Cantonese. I live in Hong Kong but it is my dream to move to Australia. I started this blog to record my journey and progress. You’ll also find pictures of my travels and cats. I also blog about autism because I am autistic and I’d like to contribute my part to raising awareness and understanding of autism. However, these are my own personal views and do not represent the entire autism community which is made up of unique and diverse individuals.

You may have heard of autism and know that people with autism struggle with social communication. Another characteristic of autism, which is less likely to be mentioned but no less important, is sensory sensitivity. My heightened sensitivity especially to sounds has restricted my capacity to interact. If you think I could be desensitised by exposing myself to prolonged period of noise, you are mistaken. I am already living in one of the world’s most densely populated city: overwhelmed by the sounds of busy packed streets, the incessant chatter and hordes of traffic, bombarding my senses from all directions; people oblivious to the concept of personal space, and noises that I can’t block out. It is a struggle to navigate the narrow streets without coming into physical contact with other pedestrians. The city is slowly draining my brain and mind. Even the country parks are becoming more and more populated. In short, I am desperate to get out.

About my dream

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Henry Thoreau, Walden: Life in the Woods

Finding out I am autistic has prompted me to re-evaluate my life and career choices. I was a city girl by default but it doesn’t have to remain this way. I dream of moving to Australia or somewhere where I could enjoy space and solitude. Where I used to think that life beyond the city seems unimaginable (having been born and live in a small city/country), life seems bigger in Australia. I am attracted to the country’s vast open spaces and skies that stretch as far as the eyes can see. I love the views of the countryside, visiting quaint historic towns and villages, admiring the vistas and rolling plains, taking a stroll in the woods and to be embraced by nature. My Walden is a place that affords a comfortable amount of space for living, for walking, for socialising, for solitude. I have no desire to live in the city and if I do have the chance to move to Australia, it is the suburbs and rural areas I am interested in. Finding employment is however a major hurdle because I’m not sure which jobs would be suitable for me with my qualifications (I have a background in law but I’m not a qualified lawyer). I am therefore considering to apply for a graduate research program on the topic of autism and mental health, in the hope to add a positive contribution to autism research.

When I first started this blog 2 years ago, I was hoping for someone to lend a hand to help make my dream comes true. A year after, I realised that was wishful thinking and only I can save myself. This blog is my personal journal, my self-rescue and self-help guide that would hopefully leads me to my Walden.

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”     Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Life in the Woods

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