I foresee a bloody long post ahead in summarizing and penning down my insight on awesome 2012.
2012 new year resolutions
Out of my sixteen 2012 new year resolutions set on 5th Jan, I can safely conclude that I achieved majority of them! To be exact, I have checked 11.5 out of 16 of them! Woohoo! :D On top of that, 2012 has also surprised me pleasantly with many other new encounters and experiences which were beyond my expectations. Friends, heed my advice, setting practical new year resolutions at the start of the year really aids you in progressing in your steps to achieve your short and long term goals in life. Some of you might think that there's no point in setting any because eventually you will tend to neglect them as the year proceeds on. I, too, used to suffer from the frustration of not having the determination to achieve my past year resolutions, but look at my achievement now! My resolutions became more practical and more attainable even.
Insight
Honestly, I don't think it's because of the resolutions that changed me to be better at self discipline, but conversely it's the gradual internal change in perspective and mindset (or you can even call it the growth in maturity) that led to my success in my attainment of goals set ahead. I cannot explain the mechanisms behind it. It might be due to the greater understanding of myself after experiencing more events and occasions across the year or/and a better look at the reality from interacting with a variety of people in my enlarged social circle. All in all, my point is I think all of us should write down our new year resolutions somewhere we will not forget so that we can bring it out after a year of ups and downs to analyze how much we have grown as individuals. :) It can work as a personal check on whether you're still being true to yourself or have deviated from your true original goals. Then, it would also be helpful to question yourself and evaluate if you're still advancing on the "right path".
Alright. Enough of my self-inspiring monologue.
Again, I shall break down the 2012 resolutions into larger unit categories:
Family
In my opinion, the family aspect has been pretty well taken care of under my conscious effort to juggle all my commitments. Even though I doubt that we've become more well-off monetarily, I know the family has bonded more strongly over the year. This definitely matters more than the financial part now as I'm sure, in a year's time, we can all worry even less since i'd be contributing to the family income then. I guess the next challenge for us would be to handle my brother who is entering the adolescent age but he has all of us to count on.
Academic
No matter how much my grades in school have fluctuated, I'm glad to be finally able to take a rest from all those struggles with the bell curve. I'm immensely thankful and satisfied to have obtained a bachelor's degree with a pass with merit, just like an average university student after 18 years of education under MOE. Wrote more about my NUS journey over at Bye NUS.
Love
Many a times, I questioned myself and Leonard about this relationship we had held on and maintained over the past 4+ years. He doesn't match the perfect catch I have in mind, but neither do I. The 2012 journey with him had been a relatively smooth-sailing one as compared to past years despite the episodes of arguments which we would both regret to have sparked them off in the first place. What's for sure in the year of 2013 is that both of us will become better at loving each other. Thank you bee for being the most loyal boyfriend anyone can ask for. :) I'm looking forward to strengthening our r/s and growing to become more mature as a couple with you for another glorious year ahead. May our soft toy collection increase! HAHAH. <3
Friendship
The once-neglected aspect of my life became one of the highlights this year. I must thank each and everyone of you for putting up with my imperfect personality and my failure to be a friend whom you can count on at all times. Nonetheless, the crazy surge in the number of meet-ups with you guys that were organized are still heartwarming when recalled. Even though we are not omnipresent in one another's lives, I know you guys are true friends whom I can count on and seek comfort in for the rest of my life. :) I shall not mention names because it's only more meaningful when you read this and know I'm referring to you. <3 you all.
Work
In the year of 2012, what I would consider as my work would only be my part time tuition jobs that I took up while schooling in NUS. I didn't achieve 1 of my resolutions which is to help my P6 students obtain a PSLE score of 250 and above. But, they didn't do badly at all if you consider 240 and 245 as pretty remarkable PSLE scores. :) I'm so proud of both of them even though I didn't express my contentment to them dramatically like OMG I'M SO PROUD OF YOU! But i am really really happy that they performed so impressively.
Recently, I've a new addition to my "work" - blogging. I'm surprised to find out that everyday I've an average of about 3000-4500 unique visitors and 7500 pageviews per month and the number keeps increasing even though ZiweiSandy.com has only been around for less than 1 year. It's really heartening cos it means that my effort to record down my personal 2-cents' worth of reviews and recommendations are acknowledged by my friends and readers who keep coming back for more. ^^ Thanks soooo much for your unspoken support! However, in other news, I'd like to officially announce that ZiweiSandy.com will be focused mainly on music and my covers, as well as other noteworthy snippets/updates of my post-graduation life for the next year. Of course, I'd still welcome advertisers to come forth if they're interested in sponsorship/advertorials/reviews. :) Just email me (ziweisandy@gmail.com) for negotiation if what you would like me to publicize is related to events, travel, beauty, fashion and food~
Driving
I started my driving lessons this year and took 1 test which I failed due to inadequate practice in the driving circuit. So, it means I didn't attain my 2012 new year resolution which is to pass driving by mid of 2012. But, now i'm already quite decent driver on the roads, so I'm actually more than halfway there in getting my driving license! :)
Travel
Even though I didn't manage to travel to Taiwan, I left Singapore 4 times this year, with 3 out of 4 of them sponsored! :) Bangkok in May, Genting in July, Bintan in Oct and Genting in Nov ;)
Youtube
I think my most commendable personal achievement would be the setting up of my youtube channel: Ziweisandy. It consists of a mix of English and Chinese songs, of which some are song requests from friends and others are songs that i loved. If you haven't heard, click on the links below! :) Audio wise, my personal favourite is Safe & sound, which is also my most recent cover before I lost my voice). Overall, I think the more well done videos are the 2 Chinese songs: 我也很想他 and 红豆 (which is also my first and only music video to date).
Sponsored events
Sponsorship
Dejavu (yet to blog)
Reviews
Choupinette @ Bt Timah
Hatched @ Holland V
Sapore Italiano @ NUS Utown
Barracks Cafe @ Dempsey Rd
Food for Thought @ Botanic Gardens
Roadhouse @ Dempsey Rd
Marugoto Shokudou @ Ang Mo Kio
Bai Mi Fen @ Sembawang
Saveur @Bugis
Incanto @RWS
Performance and featured opportunities
Besides all these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for an amateur blogger like me, I'd conclude that 2012 is the best year that I've had thus far, especially notable in the fantastic luck I enjoyed this year in my big and small wins from the games of poker and mahjong with my friends and relatives. I'm now a devout believer of luck after this year. lol.
To my friends and readers:
In the upcoming 2013, I wish everyone to be presented with many precious opportunities that are useful in your path to success, greater wealth and happiness, maturity and rationality, best of health, strengthened friendship and more bonded family kinship and a smooth-sailing love life ahead.
To my friends and readers:
In the upcoming 2013, I wish everyone to be presented with many precious opportunities that are useful in your path to success, greater wealth and happiness, maturity and rationality, best of health, strengthened friendship and more bonded family kinship and a smooth-sailing love life ahead.
HAPPY 2013 TO ALL!!!!! :D
P/s: I'm gonna take awhile to come up with my 2013 new year resolutions as this year will be a watershed for me since academia and school will no longer be part of my life YESAH!!