it's 16 minutes to the start of 2008 as i'm writing this. we are at home on the last minutes of 2007 having a quiet gathering. it's just like any other night, three sisters, each doing our own thing..but we are together. my visiting brother is the only restless one, pacing up and down, uncomfortable being confined in our home. oh well, neither of us feels like going out in this crowd..the sweat, the bumping around. ewww!
2007 has been a pretty interesting year for me, with lots of changes and unexpected events in various aspects of my life.
career
just not too long ago, i was still slogging away in my previous job, trying to learn as much as possible and get into the habit of being an OL (office lady). i was trying to find my focus and direction; trying to decide if that industry was the one i wanted to be in. then i realised that the job wasn't my calling (if you believe in that kind of stuff), and my mom took the opportunity to coax me back to the family business. it took me some time to think over, and on 15 may 2007, i finally left the company and officially went back to where i knew i couldn't run away from. it was just a matter of time. it's been about half a year now, and i am still learning the ropes. i guess my parents have been pretty supportive of me, giving me a lot of guidance and yet also room to grow. yet i know that 2008 is going to be a challenge for me. there will be more expectations, more shuttling between pku and sg, and more mental and emotional strength needed to juggle between work, family ties, and sensitive feelings all around. i'm apprehensive, yet also excited. can i deal with it?
(two minutes to countdown and i have to get ready for cake-cutting and birthday song singing for my little sis who was born on 1 january some 19 years back)
thirty minutes later and i'm back. where was i?
dance
upon my return from vancouver, i was resigned to the fate of having no suitable dance partner, and was intending on retiring from competitive dancesport, when i met a dance partner early this year. we danced together for 3 months, and then split due to as they say, "irreconcilable differences". i disappeared for a while, gained 4 pounds, before i received a call from my dance teacher telling me that she wanted me to dance with this dancer from australia. what luck! i was quite hesitant at first as i didn't know how committed i would have to be in the partnership and i wasn't sure if i was up to it. the first try-out was horrendous, but we managed to secure the partnership anyway. three months of training and we won first runner-up in the singapore closed category (latin grade A) at Lion City Dancesport Competition 2007. We got 7th place in the rising star category, missing the finals by a mere point and only managed to dance one round in the IDSF open category. three months later, we went to tokyo for our second competition and became the first singapore dance couple to ever make it into the semi-finals on the first try. we earned 10th position in the idsf open category. not too shabby but of course still a long way to go. but dancing is going pretty well, which is very encouraging considering the fact that i never thought i'd be so lucky as to be able to put so much into it at this point in my life. sometimes i am so happy i could cry.
my body
i was never really fat. only chubby at certain points of my life. but i was also never skinny. yet since september 2007 my weight and my size started going down, so much so that i could no longer fit into a lot of my pants, and people started telling me how much i've gone down, even though i honestly don't think i've lost THAT much weight. some people even suspected that i had an eating disorder since they feel that the change is way too drastic. all too dramatic. i like this change though. my clothes fit better and i look amazing in my dance costumes. i admit i get a little too obsessed over my abs. and on some days when i bloat or my abs can't be seen, i get a little crazy. but hey, that's vanity at work, not too bad a disorder is it.
dating
early this year i was a single girl. and i thought i'd be single for a while. yet, fate has it that i would meet a great guy; a shiny apple among the rotten ones (no i don't hate men), someone with whom i gladly share my days with. he's a career-minded chap who's constantly busy. but i don't mind, since i'm equally busy. we give each other space and when we are together, we cherish every single moment. while we don't see each other all the time, we talk everyday, about everything and anything. though we argue and get mad at each other, the anger hardly lasts a day. it's not perfect, but it's promising. and i'm happy.
my new year's resolutions
i'm not going to dwell too much on this topic since this can be a whole separate entry on its own. but what i wish to do in the coming year is to be able to focus more on the things i need to do; to be better able to prioritise and manage my time more effectively. we always find ourselves not being able to keep our new year's resolutions, so i'm not even going to try to shoot for the stars. just keep it real, keep it simple.
goodbye 2007.
hello 2008.
