I slipped my newly acquired apartment keys in my doorknob and carried my suitcase inside — well, at least one of them.\u00a0 I plopped my overflowing handbag on the my new IKEA-tagged futon and sat there just absorbing everything that I could.\u00a0 It was my first time ever to live totally on my own.\u00a0 No family members.\u00a0 No roommates.\u00a0 No one at all.\u00a0 Just me and myself all by my lonesome.\u00a0 I looked out the window to oversee the festive Chinatown — in streams of reds and golds — as it celebrated the entry of the Year of the Dog.<\/p>\n
That was exactly a year ago.\u00a0 In a couple of weeks, according to the lunar calendar, it will be the turn of the Year of the Pig to take its place in this cycle.<\/p>\n
It has been a year and yet I still sit on the same futon — a little worn now, but more comfortable as it probably has taken my couch potato shape — and still looking out to the same view and seeing the same festivities.\u00a0 Surely they've changed the theme this year but unfortunately, it all looks the same to me.\u00a0 I hear the same hustle and bustle from people doing their holiday shopping, I smell faint traces of smoke from random fireworks, and I feel familiar pangs of jealousy… wishing that I were with my family like everyone else.\u00a0 Even though we don't celebrate the Lunar New Year, I reckon it'd be fun to do something of the sort.\u00a0 Binging on a delicious steam boat meals, collecting a million tangerines and trying to eat them before it becomes stale, conning red packets out of each other, and watching elaborate fireworks funded by the ever so wealthy Singaporean government.\u00a0 Given that we're not even Chinese, it would be weird to do that with my family.\u00a0 But the good kind of weird.<\/p>\n
So… between the Dog and the Pig, it's been a good year.\u00a0 In many respects, it was the same as any other year — worked too much, earned too little, spent too much, saved too little, ate too much, and well, didn't lose any weight at all.\u00a0 However, I've progressed to be someone one year older, one year wiser, and one year more experienced.\u00a0 Just like in kindergarten class, the basics were reiterated to me over and over the past year.\u00a0 It had dawned on me once again that:<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0 You can never trust anyone.\u00a0 Dropping your guards down 100% can be the silliest decision you've ever made.<\/p>\n
2)\u00a0 Travelling is the best way to get educated.\u00a0 Totally worth being broke over.<\/p>\n
3)\u00a0 Some people just never change, but it doesn't mean you have to give up on them.<\/p>\n
4)\u00a0 There is neither a beginning nor an ending to learning.\u00a0 And you just surprise yourself sometimes as to what you're capable of doing.<\/p>\n
5)\u00a0 All you need to be happy are good friends and enough money (note: enough does not translate to a lot).<\/p>\n
6)\u00a0 Having the time to read becomes more and more of a luxury as you get older.\u00a0 And watching movies become more and more attractive.<\/p>\n
7)\u00a0 It's perfectly okay to do nothing on weekends.<\/p>\n
8)\u00a0 Swearing in your own native language is still the best method to capture your frustrations.<\/p>\n
9)\u00a0 If you're going to get fat, might as well enjoy the process and eat whatever it is that you fancy.<\/p>\n
10)\u00a0 There is absolutely no need to rush anything.<\/i><\/p>\n
Three hundred and sixty-five days.\u00a0 That's quite a lot of days to go through every year.\u00a0 The funny thing is, we never feel the whole 365 days because we're all too busy looking forward.\u00a0 On a daily basis, we look forward to lunch times, to tea breaks, to leaving work and going home.\u00a0 On a weekly basis, we look forward to Wednesday (where primetime TV is usually the best), to Friday, to the weekend, to Saturday.\u00a0 And on a monthly basis, we look forward to the next public holiday.\u00a0 Well then, no wonder we never notice 365 days passing by.\u00a0 We're too busy looking forward that we rarely get to pay attention to the present… and yet we complain we never have enough time.<\/p>\n
We do.\u00a0 We are given more than enough time.\u00a0 It's just that… can we actually stand still just for a few seconds and try to take in what's around us without thinking about what we are going to the afterwards?<\/p>\n
Another set of 365 days are handed over to us.\u00a0 The question is, what can you do differently this year that you haven't done previously?\u00a0 When was the last time that you did something for the first time?<\/p>\n
Make the Pig proud.\u00a0 Oink!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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