2005 in summary

Achievements:
- Staying put at one company for one year
- Losing 5kg
- 229 bylines in The Star
- Travelled to Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), Koh Tao/Bangkok (Thailand), Hamburg/Frankfurt/Karlsruhe (Germany) and Manila/Banaue (Philippines)
- Fell in and out of love
- Read a total of 17 books
- Survived two rafting experience
- Climbed Mount Kinabalu
- Attended 14 weddings

A friend once told me that I shouldn't evaluate my life based on figures alone. it's the imperative that is important, he said.

So looking back, 2005 is probably one of my best growing up years bcos it taught me so many lessons that i wouldn't imagine learning so soon. It brought a lot of perspectives to me, challenging my core beliefs and testing the principles that i stood on.

To a certain extend, i think i have maintained my naiveness on several issues (although they were challenged many times) and persisted to believe their idealism.

Friendship wise, i come to see the worst and the best in people. Those that i've known for ages and those that i barely know. i choose to give them the benefit of a doubt until time shows their true colours. sometimes it was heart-wrenching, sometimes it was refreshing.

Someone used to tell me that i'm both sarcastic and profound. despite my cynicism, i want to believe that people or things could be different, especially when i alter my own attitude and reaction towards my surroundings. change afterall is the only thing that is constant and it's easier to change myself than others.

So, now at 27 years and four months old, i think i have grown up a bit more thanks to lessons from 2005 and no doubt this New Year will also be a growing up phase for me. i would be disappointed if it's not.