Well Begun is Half Done, So just do it!

Well begun is half done. I’m not sure whether this expression is widely used. I’ve also seen ‘A good beginning is half the battle’, but I’ve settled on my pick because it rhymes, and a world without rhymes is like a colorless picture, a flavorless dish. Also, not everything has to be a battle. However, as I write this, I remember what Keanu Reeves said on a talk show. “If you don’t fight for your love, what kind of love do you have?”

He could not take the cheesiness of what he said and blurted out a “No I’m kidding”, immediately standing up and walking away with his back to the audience while they clapped and cheered at his comment. But I think he truly meant it, judging by his tone and the pace with which he enunciated his words, particularly “fight”, “love”, and “have”.

I wonder what kind of experiences someone has to go through to have such conviction in their voice. He truly is a man who owns himself. I wonder whether a time will come when I will truly understand who I am.

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Back to the topic at hand.

Well begun is half done. There’s a more encouraging saying in Korean which I prefer but I can’t translate it concisely.

시작이 반이다.
(English Pronounciation using Phonetic Symbols: ʃi ʤɑg i bɑn i dɑ | Basically, it sounds like “Shijak Yee Banida”)

The literal translation is “the start is half”. Basically, it means that if you start something, you are already halfway done. The implication is different from the English version. While “well begun is half done” implies that the beginning must be promising, “시작이 반이다” implies that it does not matter whether the start is inauspicious or not. You just need to start doing it, whatever it is. Just like the actor who played the male lead of the first three Transformers movies once said,

Okay Shia, okay. Thanks for the motivation. I did it. I just did it.

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2 halves make a whole…not quite the same meaning here

I like the Korean version of “Well begun is half done”. I will admit though, that this saying also makes me feel good about simply starting something without actually continue doing it because, according to the saying, I already completed half of it when I started it! Procrastination truly is my archenemy. I wonder why this word has the word arch in it. Isn’t an arch supposed to connect two sides to meet?

On second thought, it makes sense. Since the two sides are connected, they can fight each other eternally. I wonder who the archangel is in this fight.

I hope I am the archangel in whatever fight I may be in in the future, or my Christian mother would not leave the mortal world peacefully. But we all know that our mind is in a perpetual state of conflict, and a tree that reaches heaven inevitably has its roots reaching hell.

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I have begun, and now I shall continue on

Anyway, as the expression states, by definition, I have completed half of my blogging journey by writing my first entry ever. If I write the second entry, that would make up the other half, and my blogging journey would end. Hopefully this time my passion doesn’t dry up. Instead, may this place become an oasis for dehydrated travelers of this world and other worlds when they stumble upon it.

Well begun is half done.