New Year, New Paradigm!

I'm finally back in my country! YAHOO! It took me a long time to find my way out of China, but I did! And actually I still can't believe it! Looking back at everything I've been through...it was just like a dream. A dream that I'm so glad I woke up from. I think of it as a glimpse of something I wouldn't want to be. Haha! I know most people who have worked abroad would feel the exact opposite.

I know people who have worked abroad and chose to continue doing so after coming back to our country and realizing there isn't much progress in here. I am proud of them in a way that they are willing to sacrifice a huge amount of time away from their loved ones. I consider myself independent even before I graduated from college, I can live alone without adult supervision. I can take care of myself - I can cook, I can shop and I consider myself street smart. But being away from friends and family is a totally different thing. It may sound dramatic, but, really, knowing that you can be with your friends and family in just a couple of hours in case there are emergencies is different from being thousands of miles away from them. I realized WORRY is something money can't ease.

I'm somehow proud of myself because at the age of 25, I was able to create a better version of myself. I have realized my limitations and I have realized there is too much to learn in this world. There are too many places worth visiting and I can't wait to do that. I have no idea when I could travel or work abroad again but I have already created a picture of it in my mind. I WILL TRAVEL and SEE the world. While I was in China, I have crossed out quite a number of things from my crazy TO DO list. (Walk on the Great Wall, experience Winter and read a book under an apple tree, to name a few) 

It was awesome!

Right now, even though I'm back in the same job and I'm doing the exact same things and I go to the same places I used to go to, it's like I'm seeing them with brand new eyes. My heart is filled with so much longing for the place where I was born and raised. Haha! Yeah~ dramatic but that's the truth! The greatest lesson I have learned was to appreciate everything I have because I can lose them in a snap of a finger, literally. I gave up a lot of things before I went to China ~ my clothes, my shoes (because they won't fit in my luggage anyway!), my dorm, my routine, my job, my favorite places to go 'introverting', my favorite food, my sleeping habits and my freedom to be who I wanna be! I did pretty much the same thing when I went back home~ I gave up my Winter clothes and I left my shoes (I won't need them in this tropical country!) and I realized material things literally come and go. It was one hell of an experience and I know I was meant to go there at that time and age because that was the perfect time to experience deep shit and get over it. If I was too young or too old, I never would have made it alive. Haha!

So, yeah, 2014 was an epic year...I guess I would never forget it no matter what I do. And for 2015? Well, HELLO to you too!

*peace and love*