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This is my favorite place to study or work. Yes, the one in the photo. Solitude. A veranda. Greek coffee. Wearing my bikini underneath my shorts, eager to hit the water again early on. I enjoy solitude in the water as well. My laptop on silent mode and my eyes feasting on the Aegean blue. This is my absolute ideal. And I feel blessed each time I manage to make it happen. But sadly, it can't happen all year round.
All other days I achingly sit on a bright green wooden chair that keeps falling apart in front of my tiny black desk that can barely fit my laptop, my notebook, my daily agenda, an old shoebox filled with old concert tickets and broken earplugs, my mouse pad and whatever literature book I happen to be reading at the time. That's it. No room whatsoever for anything more. And yet it's the one. And it has been for years. That tiny space keeps me organized and inspired while making me feel a bit tense and cramped at the same time. And it really works for me. Wouldn't change it. Because whenever necessity has driven me to relocate my working space, it's just not the same. I can't seem to focus or get great amounts of work done.
I've once read that Stephen King writes in a totally dark and secluded room. I get it. Because in order to materialize a complete new world out of utter nothingness, one shouldn't get affected by the one they are already into. I try to replicate that. At my tiny and cheap desk while listening to Still Corners, Editors, Madrugada or lo-fi beats. The right music unmistakably sets the correct mood for whatever scene one might be painstakingly building.
But my book writing is completely different from my classes. I need seclusion for the first and inclusion for the second. When teaching, I need my teaching space to feel welcoming, cozy and filled with natural light. I need my student to feel welcome and curious at the same time. Welcome enough to open up, expand their knowledge, build their confidence, feel free to make mistakes and build on them while we have fun.
But come to think of it, for me studying is actually working and vice versa! Whether I'm adding another chapter to my upcoming books, preparing notes for my classes, organizing my workout schedule and endless errands. One feeds the other, and both of them make me truly happy. Because I'm eager every single day to draw the curtains and sit at my little desk corner and work. On a different project that seeks my attention and creative mind, with a different student that might need my help while we casually chat during our online class coffees in hand, or on a different chapter whose characters remain frozen in a parallel literary dimension until I give them life and motion again.
Let me know what your cozy little corner looks like.
Zenia
Aug 11, 2026
Ahhh, dear Emiko! Hello and thank you for your comment! I hear you! Seclusion is both valuable and cherished when amidst family chaos -a chaos we both love and hate at times :)))- in order for us to recharge! hahahaha!
Emiko S
Aug 11, 2026
I like being secluded, but it is often difficult living with my family. I can relate to you. A tiny organized space helps me clear my mind.