My Journey in 2018

2018 has been a good year for me. I am thankful for the personal growth and career growth I've experienced last year. I've been looking back at my life to remind myself of who am I and what I've been through.
6 - 10 years ago, I was still an immature young girl, stumbling and bumbling around, thought I knew what I wanted, but looking back now, I didn't know what I wanted back then.
2 - 5 years ago was important to me, not just what happened to me, but what I learned from those few years. It was a rocky and hard road to walk through, but the valuable lessons I've learned from the experience helped me to realise what I actually wanted, and what I am capable of.
So this past year (2018), I've been constantly going out of my comfort zone to continuously learn how to be better, more confident, more stoic. It also means less anger, less insecure, and less complaining. (boy, I was such an angsty whiny kid back in my late teens and early 20s)

I've been to 3 different countries in 2018, and it's my first time travelling to foreign countries just by myself or with some friends. I'm learning how to deal with crisis, why it's bad to over-plan, what makes a good plan, and connecting with my friends on a deeper level. I still suck in making conversations, but I'm getting better at it. I'm glad to be able to knock a lot of items off my bucket list last year - Tokyo, blooming Sakura trees, Munich, Oktoberfest, Neuschwanstein Castle, travelling alone, travel with a friend who is not family. These are memories I'll treasure for the rest of my life.

I'm grateful to be able to learn a lot more in programming in 2018. I've quit my previous job and went out to be a full-time freelancer, working with my programming mentor on cool projects. Learned more on server architecture and backend optimisation - skills that I wanted to improve on.

There's more to learn, and more to experience in 2019. I'm happy for all the good and bad moments that led me here and shaped me to who I am today. I want to be more independent, and take on life head on without fear pulling me back. I thank God for helping me throughout this journey. I thank my family for supporting me when I'm at my lowest point in my life a few years back, and during my lonely times. I thank my friends for still sticking around after so many years. Looking forward to a good 2019 and beyond.

I'm pretty sure a few years later when I look back at this post, I'll squirm because of the cheesiness and sappiness of it all.