2020… so far

Surely 2020 is not going to be easily forgotten. Funny enough, I started the year being in a middle of a crowd, celebrating NYE in LA’s Grand park downtown. There were fireworks, food trucks, live music.. ah, it was fun and lively.

Fast forward 7 months later, the thought of being in the middle of such crowd makes me shudder. Ain’t life funny.

I was looking forward to realising some of my plans in 2020. I thought this was going to be the year (well.. maybe it still is, who knows what the next 5 months will bring). Obviously things have not gone as smooth as I thought, but after some personal battles, I have learned to cut myself some slack. Here are other things that I have learned in 2020, so far, in no particular order.

It is OK to not be OK

I borrowed the term from a recent K-Drama with the same title that I currently watched on Netflix. If anything, these past few months I’ve seen an increase in people’s understanding towards mental health. Personally, I’ve also learned different ways to deal with myself. I learned to understand and accept my feelings, which results in being able to navigate through my thoughts better.

Job search can really take a toll on you

But I’m starting to understand that myself is not the only determining factor. There are many others, including how fragile the job market itself at the moment. It is okay if I felt beaten up by all those rejections and silence. Next time it happens, I need to take a step back, stop the job search for awhile, and bounce back. Easier said than done, but I’m working on it.

Count your blessings

Because really, when you start doing so, life suddenly becomes not as gloom. Given the current situation, there were times where I felt like I was dragged down by negativity, which made me overlook my blessings. Then I turned things around, and hey, suddenly everything was colorful and my heart was full of joy! So yeah, count your blessings, instead of your misery.

It does not hurt to be kind

Because we all can use an extra kindness these days

I feel most alive when I can share stories

I have been very passionate about Diasporia (My new project that I built with Dixie). Throughout the pandemic, I’ve seen how people around me found joy in baking, gardening, cooking, TikTok-ing…. for me, it’s sharing stories. Be it mine or others. So I’m going to keep doing so, because surely it’s been giving me so much joy!

I have an extended cousin living here in the US!

Thanks to social media, I recently found my extended cousin, from my maternal grandma’s side. She is living in the East Coast, have been trying to gather information about her roots, while all these times I feel most disconnected with that part of my heritage. So I feel really glad to have found her, and learned a few family facts from her.

Physical strength has a lot to do with the mind

I’ve been exercising more regularly since the pandemic, and I’ve seen how my body changed. It is yet to reach the goals I set, but I’ve seen the progress. And seen some setbacks. Sometimes it’s progressing rapidly, other times it’s one step forward, two steps back. Haha. But often times I have been amazed by what my body can do, if I really set my mind.

Trust the process

It helps. It really does.

Some are pretty basic, aren’t they? but hey, I guess it takes a pandemic for me to carefully internalise all those! :)))) As for the rest of 2020, I’m (trying) to be more optimistic and just enjoy the ride. Also, I think I’m going to be writing more often on this blog! 🙂 Fingers crossed! 😉

Anyway, how’s everything for you? hope you have been well! x