*Drops pen* Argh! Maybe I'll get it the next time.. *Pen flies across the room* ARGH! THIS IS TOO DIFFICULT! I QUIT!

Sound familiar?

Learning how to pen spin can be very tedious and frustrating, especially if you're not patient. Like many of my friends who wanted to learn a new skill, I wanted fast results in return for very little effort.

Before I started to pen spin, I found a pen spinning trick list on Google. The overwhelming number of tricks on that list OVERWHELMED me... but I was determined to learn them all (LOL - dumb, I know). The first day, everything went great. I was able to learn the thumbaround trick in less than 3 hours. I was stoked. This seemed pretty easy.

The second day... I was on fire. I learnt 3 tricks, the sonic, charge and twisted sonic.

Then I tried learning fingerpass. *ominous music*

I couldn't do it. No matter how many times I tried that day, I could not do it. I became frustrated. Why? Why?! WHY??!! I was sure that a stronger person... a real winner... would have learned easily without little effort on the first few attempts.

Looking back now, I could not believe how impatient I was. I mean, sure, I was only 17 years old and really immature... but still. I was impatient even for that age. My belief system back then was almost childlike. I assumed that winners were 'naturals' who learnt most things easily and jumped from lesson one straight to adeptness. It took me a YEAR to realize that successful people work at something over long periods of time, failing and trying again and again before achieving success.

So I picked myself back up one day and decided to start practicing pen spinning again until I was proficient. However, I realized that I needed something that motivated me to improve on a continuous basis. Eventually, I created a youtube channel: youtube(dot)com/user/wobsterful

After 1 month of HARD, EXHAUSTING, BORING practice and BLEEDING (omg) fingers, I landed my first SUCCESSFUL pen spinning freestyle combo: youtube(dot)com/watch?v=UUYTIjBegOQ

However, I still wasn't satisfied with that video and I wanted to improve even more so I continued to learn new tricks and linkages. Eventually, this resulted in the creation of this final, ULTIMATE pen spinning video: youtube(dot)com/watch?v=q6qIDW90TAk

I was extremely happy with this last video. I had finally achieved the level of mastery that I had desired about 2 years ago.

So my message to all you wannabe pen spinners is this: NEVER EVER GIVE UP.

Cheers,

Robin Tan - 19 years old