Looking back at the year that has just left us, 2011 has been a year of transition, progress and stability for me.
Transition
I officially graduated from undergraduate life and moved on to working life in 2011. Wrapping up the last bits of my degree course that I would spend time in university in from January to March was a hectic yet memorable journey. Deciding to complete my Final Year Project in a record time of one short semester was the biggest and rewarding gamble I had ever taken throughout my student life. However, it wouldn't have been possible without the support of probably the only true friend I made in university life.
Sometime in February, I managed to secure an internship - which was my final semester, with a company that I would have never expected to be able to make the cut. Everything went better than expected, as I really enjoyed the experience, and the company subsequently became my first employer and I am having the time of life there. My longtime childhood friend, Shao Min, deserves the credit for this; without her persistence and encouragement in getting me to apply, the thought would've always been rubbished from my mind. Thank you, old friend, if you're reading this.
Moving on to friendship, Aurelia, Amanda and Elaine were my strongest emotional support network for the past five years or so. They have consistently been there for me, sharing my happiness on brighter days, and supporting me throughout the darker ones. However, this year, all three of them pursued the next phase of their lives overseas, starting with Elaine in May, followed by Aurelia in July, and ending with Amanda in December. While I am truly happy for them, I have to admit that I am still trying to adapt to their absence. All the best, the three of you, if you're reading this.
It is also worth noting that I attended two friends' weddings and a friend's engagement in 2011. While not a personal transition, this serves as a reminder that despite me not rushing to get married anytime soon, I am at the stage of life whereby these things are starting to get taken into consideration.
Progress
This section may sound a little conceited so please bear with me.
My mentality and outlook on life have changed significantly since I started working. Yes, I have my vulnerable moments, but I am no longer the obsessively overthinking person I once was, even if I do tend to overthink, I have gotten better at suppressing it. When I get back from work, I am often too tired to bother with things that upset me; instead, I focus on things that make me relaxed or happy, e.g. music, reading, gaming or just chatting with my favourite people. This has done wonders in calming my temperament. I have also started to see things from another perspective, which has led to a little bit of conflict of interest between myself and certain people, which needs some sorting out.
I am also going to be honest and say that I enjoy work more than my student life. Throughout my university, I never had the feeling of belonging. For better or worse, pretty much everything about me differed from my coursemates. Mutual respect and general friendship exists, of course, but it was at a very impersonal level - just enough to get along. Having said that, I would like to stress that there's nothing wrong with my coursemates, and maybe it's just me. Once I started working, though, I met a bunch of people that I could really get along with, professionally and personally, and started to feel truly happy and fulfilled in both counts. Without a doubt, work is challenging, but the wonderful environment I am in makes things so much better.
[Generic] Starting work also exposed me to real-world application of the knowledge gained in university, and I am fascinated to see everything cascading into a significant business until this day. [/Generic] My career has also gotten off to a pretty good start, and I was promoted - for the lack of a better word - to a more technical role three (or six, depending on when you start counting) months into the job. At the moment, I am still adapting, but I believe that things can only go up from here. Recently, I was also called to be a guest speaker at a workshop for university students, and that experience provided me with a completely different outlook on things. I'm truly excited to see how things will go this year.
Finally started playing sports again as well, woots!
Stability
Frankly speaking, it has been quite some time since I felt really at peace and comfortable with myself.
For these past few years, I have been dealing with emotional problems pertaining to the matters of the heart (what else?) rather extensively, and in certain moments of insanity and loss of self-control, I did things that had pretty massive consequences on myself and the people around me. I lost a few friends as a result and I regret it to this very day. I can only hope that I can make amends one of these days.
In 2011, save for a brief period whereby I was a little confused between caring as a friend and as a potential partner (and drifted apart from a friend as a result), alhamdulillah, I have been free from any sort of love life emotional turbulence. Quite the opposite has happened last (nearly typed this) year in fact; I actually managed to feel truly smitten - an emotion that has eluded me since 2008. Truly, beautiful things happen when you least expect them. I have no idea how far things can go though, but I am trying, and hopefully 2012 will give me an answer to that.
Thank God for a stable career as well.
That pretty much sums up the reflection aspect on my 2011.
I don't usually do this, but since I've done a fair bit of things last year, I'd like to list the breakdown of events throughout 2011 by month, as far as my memory allows..
[January 2011]
- Met someone whom Aurelia has been wanting me to meet for the longest time
- Started my final semester in university, and second last of my degree. Final Year Project took precedence over everything else
[February 2011]
- Went to Singapore with the KR family to catch Iron Maiden in action
- Secured my internship
- Finished my Final Year Project
[March 2011]
- Two friends got married on the same day
- Went to Langkawi after final exams with my family
[April 2011]
- Started internship
[May 2011]
- Elaine left to Singapore to pursue her career
[June 2011]
- Offered a full-time job in the company of internship, committed my first serious mistake on the same week
- Finished internship on the 30th
[July 2011]
- Started my career on the 12th - took medical leave the next day
- Internship results came out - I officially became a graduate!
- Caught the Arsenal training session and Arsenal vs Malaysia
- Caught the Malaysia vs Singapore World Cup Qualifier at Bukit Jalil National Stadium, where Malaysia lost
- Aurelia left to Australia to pursue her Masters
- Attended my first company annual dinner - I actually dressed up to the theme!
[August 2011]
- First fasting experience in the office
- Bought a Sony Bravia 32CX520 TV for my room
- THE 8-2 game
[September 2011]
- First Hari Raya where I started to give out duit raya instead of receiving; felt really good to see my nephews and nieces happy and surprised
- A friend came back for a one-month break, went on three dates (or "dates", for fear of getting ahead of myself), felt smitten after the first one
- First birthday celebration in the office
- Said friend left a few days after my birthday
[October 2011]
- Moved to Technical from Operations
- Convocation - I am now officially a BSc (Hons) Information Technology (Computer Science) with second-class upper honours holder!
[November 2011]
- Sent out a birthday surprise to somebody, only to ruin it myself by being impatient and spilling the beans two days before it arrived
- Bought my first home theater system, a Yamaha YAS-101
[December 2011]
- Bought a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and tickets to catch Judas Priest in Singapore in February 2012
- Amanda left to Australia to pursue her Masters
This ends my 2011 retrospective. Stay tuned for 2012's resolutions and expectations soon, if I get down to writing them here.
N.B. This super long entry took two hours to write. Oh well!
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