Belated post..

2011 kicked off with..

Me being on cloud 9.

How could I not? I came home at 2am from work to find Dude half-asleep on the couch.

He had conspired with the housemate to surprise me.. except..

his surprise was too well kept because having no clue whatsoever, I decided to stay back for the staff party and ended up making him wait a good 6 hours for me. 

 A minor car crash

Which happened a few hours before our flight to Graz, Austria. 

We were driving to Stansted Airport in the wee hours of the morning and the motorway along Darthmouth was frosted over. The car we bumped into was perfectly fine, but the poor housemate's car was crumpled in from the front. That was an instant party-pooper, but we had a good time in -14degrees' weather in the end... until we came back 3 days later to find out we forgot to lock the car doors. (women!) 

Nothing was stolen, thank God. 

Maybe the crushed in bumper turned any potential thieves off.

In 2011 I learnt..

To take each day at a time.

Dude left UK for good and it took me a long time to come to terms with it. 

It was a roller-coaster ride that had no end to it. And because I'm terrible at outwardly expressing myself in this kind of situation I dealt with it by going to sleep. The Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. Time was painfully ticking in slow motion and drifting off seemed the right way to speed it up. It became so chronic I was going to sleep after every 3 waking hours. I think this might also be why my bed springs are broken. But time slowly got me back to my architecture time zone and I was up again... like a little drawing night owl.

To persevere during hard times.

Cleverly concealed politics, mismanagement and disorganisation

made this year at uni a very rough year.It still saddens me to think about how 60 out of 100 of us ended up where we did because of what happened. I was one of the 60 who flunked the final year. There was nothing that could have been done other than to just suck it up and keep going. I was lucky enough to pass the summer resubmission with a 2:2, and I say lucky because nobody knew anymore to what standard we were at, and there were a few unfortunate others who again got thrown into the chaos of it all. As much as this makes me a stereotypical Asian who cannot hold chopsticks properly, I sometimes wish I did a little better, just because it would have given me a better chance at getting employed. But then I think about the bumpy roads that I had flown over at high speed like a crazy woman driver and I am proud of how I got through it all. I know I did my best in an environment that could have easily jeopardised my mental health, and the key is to always look forward!
There's a reason why our heads are fixed to face the front rather than the back! 

That saving up saved my life.
If I hadn't been the boring person who worried about emergency savings and made sure there was enough in my account to keep me afloat should anything happen, I would not be right here right now.
My visa got wrongfully rejected, which escalated into a court case to fight for my appeal.
If anyone told me 10 years ago I would go to court in the UK I would never have believed them.
Thankfully,I won the case, but it was also a very costly misfortune. Shit happens every now and then,
so be prepared!

To trust no one completely but myself

A very painful lesson that I had to learn a few times this year.
I am now very aware that being too nice, placid and easy going makes it easy for people to take complete advantage of me. I'm also now extra careful of what I say to people, because words can so easily be twisted against you.

To stick to my guns and beliefs
People will always talk and make assumptions,
and it's so much easier to accuse and believe that the person is in the wrong rather than go through the trouble of investigating only to discover that they were in fact innocent.
 It's up to anyone to believe what they want but the important thing is that I live by honest principles and I know who and what sort of person I truly am.

In 2012 I hope...

.To get a job.
.To go back to University in September with brighter spirits
.To sort myself out to be happier.. to leave unnecessary stress triggers behind and be more carefree. (life is short!)
.To travel more and do some soul-searching for myself.
.To continue to take one thing at a time, and enjoy the moment as it comes. :)

Happy New Year!