hello again (:

It's been a while since I've written a post on this blog - probably my last post was 7-8 years ago. Read back some of my posts and wow, so much had happened and changed. But, I'm glad one thing stayed constant throughout which was our friendship :) 

It's Sunday today - a little more relaxed as compared to the past few weekends. I woke up early, did 45 minutes of the spin ride, ate lunch, and had 20 mins of mask time. It's a self-pampering day and I'm enjoying it so far 😍

Hm... where should I start? Maybe a quick highlight on what had happened the past years - since I have time today, so why not? 

2015

I remember my last post was about deciding what major I would like to pursue in my undergraduate degree. Well, I ended up choosing Psychology as my major. *fast forward* In 2015, I graduated with BSc (Hons) in Psychology from Sunway University. I've made new friends whom I am still keeping in touch with, some of them I've lost touch and I hope they are doing well. 

Class of 2015

** I'm not sure if I would have picked another major if I could have chosen again, but what I know for sure, I enjoyed studying Psychology. 

2017 

I went on to pursue my postgraduate degree in Organisational Psychology at City, University of London. I believe this is by far one of the best decisions I've made. I really enjoyed my time in the UK and in my perspective, London will always be one of my favourite cities. Perhaps, London will also be a place that I'm willing to settle down given the opportunity. It was my first time being away from home and living all by myself and I survived! 

I did some traveling, met new friends, got an internship in the UK and of course party and got drunk too. 

Class of 2018

Autumn '16

Hyde Park

Flatmates surprised me with a cake on my birthday - really sweet of them 

Winter '17

Christmas! 🎄

Spring '17

Keukenhof, Holland

Summer '17 

Pride in London

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

 City Cheerleading team and we won 3 medals!🥇

2019

I got my first full-time job in 2018. I was an intern with this organisation and after I graduated with my Masters, I came back to Malaysia and continued with them. It is a small organisation and the culture was like family, and everyone was nice and supportive. I was the youngest in the team and it felt like a safe place to fail and learn here. It was challenging being in a client-facing role as clients may have a different perspective towards me given the youngest in the team. And, this was also my first job after university, it definitely didn't help either. On the other hand, it was also fun working in this organisation because I had the opportunity to travel across Europe for work, training, and attending conferences. 

 '18

Antwerp for a work conference

Dubai 

Oh! Another highlight in 2019 was #meetthedjuliantos

with the gorgeous bride - yee ling

........ and not to forget the last trip I had before the pandemic - Shuk, Pat and I went on a trip to Cambodia. Well, us smartypants decided to have our breakfast at the arrival hall level and we got carried away chatting, which led us to miss our flight to Siem Reap. But, we managed to figure out an alternative way to get there...... it was definitely an adventure! 

Chasing sunrise at Angkor Wat

Flying fox

Chasing sunsets together too 💞

2021

COVID happened! It has been more than a year now and I have been working from home since Feb 2020. I left my first job earlier this year and moved to a different organisation. I was on-boarded to my new role virtually, and have been in my new role now for almost 4 months without having met any of my team members/colleagues in person. I took on a bigger role in my new job and I've been working longer hours (perhaps, because we are all working from home too), more challenges but no regrets. I believe I am learning and growing in my new role. *positive thoughts I'm starting to feel tired of this pandemic and lockdown - we are not allowed to dine out, go to the gym or yoga classes, not able to meet our friends. I feel all I have been doing during this pandemic was work and work. I really hope and wish everything will be better soon and I can meet my girls again. 

Thankfully we have met up, spin, and party (a little) before the lockdown. 

I've spent the whole afternoon writing this blog post, and I think I'll stop here..... I was supposed to do the 50 questions from Fa's last post but I guess.... TBC. haha! 

Note to self: You may feel lost, and unsure about your future but eventually all the pieces will fall into place. Don't be too hard on yourself, and failure is a way to learn. You've made mistakes at work, made wrong decisions, and maybe regrets on some, but hey look, you are doing well and you've learnt not to repeat them. So keep moving forward, leng. 

signing off, 

leng.