hello 2013

It's been awhile, and much has changed. The calender has turned another page; it's 2013. Half a year later, the world feels like a different place.

2012 saw the closing of many chapters, including a particularly long one involving a certain man I met and fell in love with 4 years ago. Yes, it broke my heart, but we grow up into different persons from who we were and then life goes on. We move on.

On a happier note, 2012 saw me toss my mortar board into the air with great joy. I finally made it out of school, after 16 years. Woah, such a long time! My thesis was bound into a book and found a place on the library shelves. I'm immensely proud that I wrote on a topic close to my heart and dedicated the most important essay that I've ever written to the girls who fought and sweat and bled alongside with me on the field - my touchrug girls. In the same year, we also won the IVP championships, after a 4 year drought. Champions!

Enough of closures, 2012 marked many new beginnings as well, such as that of adulthood. In the span of 3 months, I went for no less than 10 interviews, got myself so stressed up that I almost decided to go back to school and then landed with 3 job offers, although not simultaneously. I rejected the first, accepted the second, tendered within a month and finally found myself back at HDB. It's the perfect first job, because it felt like homecoming, going back to where I knew I'd be happy.

I travelled a fair bit in 2012 as well. Right after graduation I took a holiday in Bali with the family, then G and I went to Vietnam in the later part of year as friends, and we also went to Bintan for a short getaway with our other friends. And as the year drew to an end, I went on a long trip to visit my lovely, lovely grandparents, who turned 80 as the rest of the world turned 2013.

It's been an arduously long time since I last saw my grandparents and spent time with my aunties, uncles and cousins who love me and dote on me as if I were the only baby at home. Oh, how I've missed them! I think somewhere along the way I've forgotten how many people in the world truly love me with all their hearts. Before 2012 ended, I remembered, thankfully. I found respite from all that heartache, and then strength to cross over to the other side.

The first moments of 2013 were spent with those who love me most and love me best. And for the rest of my life, I'll always remember the happy smiles on the faces of my grandparents as they clinked glasses at the end of the first day of the new year, wishing each other a long life of love and happiness. This is love, and in 2013, I hope I find love.