Goodbye 2022

Photo by Sebastian Arie Voortman on Pexels.com

Last day of 2022, and oh boy did time flies. It felt like nothing much had happened this year, yet there were quite a few big events throughout. 

Being able to travel back to my home in Malaysia, business trip to Cambodia, caught Covid & dengue fever, converted my citizenship to Singaporean, placed my booking for my first home… these are just some of the highlights for 2022.

As planned, this year had been all about focusing on my life and work, and that’s exactly what I did for the most part. Didn’t travel elsewhere for leisure despite able to do so, it wasn’t my priority anyway. I’ll save it for next year.

In terms of photography, another empty year. My camera has become rusted I guess, but luckily I still get to practice my creative eyes at my work. Hopefully next year will be better, we’ll see.

Otherwise, I’m glad that the year was over with less downs than I anticipated. Looking forward for 2023 to come. Till then.

Going lite & minimal

Come to think of it, I have a fetish over small, slim, simple stuff. 

When I bought my iMac few years back, I have chosen the 21.5” 4K version over the bigger 27” 5K one. I have owned and loved the WH-1000XM3 headphone, but after living with it for a year, I realized that I wasn’t really a headphone guy and since then fall back to using earbuds. And when it comes to iPhone, I have tried to shy away from the Plus or Max variant most of the time.

The same goes with my photography. I have been a long time prime lens shooter, preferring the small, tiny lens over big-long-heavy zooms. When I have decided to switch to Sony and zoom lenses, I tried my best to pick the smallest and lightest zoom lenses I could find. 

Perhaps its a personality thing as I am pretty minimalist. I prefer simplicity and that’s shown through my life, the decision I made, and even the photographs I took. I believe it is important to have this kind of understanding about yourself, as that would allow you to make better decisions.

Like for instance, with the release of new WH-1000XM5 headphone from Sony, despite how good it is, I knew that it isn’t for me and therefore will not go out to buy one. Or when deciding over A and B, I will always chose the simpler, minimal version that is good enough for my needs. 

Spend some time to talk to yourself, reach deep into your heart. You will then know more about yourself and ultimately, I think this will bring some positive impact to you. Till then.

I’m not afraid of dying

Yes, seriously, I’m not. Why? Well, what’s the point of feeling afraid and anxious on something that you can’t even control?

“But I want to live longer… I’m still too young to die…” as some said. I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum. I wanted to die young, if possible. I don’t need to live my life up to 70s, 80s or 90s. Some may argue that they are working hard everyday and their life has just begun after their retirement in 50s. Some said they want to see their kids grow up, graduate, get married and have their own family.

For me, I want to live and enjoy my life now, like… now. I don’t want to save all the enjoyment until my retirement, I don’t want to pinch my happiness on unknown circumstances in the future. Like what I had always said, live your current moment to the fullest, live as if today will be your last day of life, live without regrets for tomorrow.

Therefore, it is important to balance my work and personal life, it is important to work a job that I enjoy, it is important to live my life to the best I could. If I die tomorrow, I will not feel a sense of “life is too short”, I will be able to close my eyes and smile.

Of course, the reality is, I have no control over when I will die (that is until the time euthanasia is legalized and become a norm). So it doesn’t mean I will spend all my money just to fulfil my lust for materials and experiences. I am still saving for retirement and for emergency, in case I live that long. If not, the money can always be donated to those in need.

So… here I am today, trying my best to live my life to the fullest, and I hope you are too. All the best, till then.

PERSONAL PROJECT: 字足

终于把这本书完成了，这是2020年的第一个Personal Project，也是续上一本书《字己》后的续集，许多没来得及畅谈的话题，延伸讨论等都会聚集在这一本书里。这也许也是现在的我唯一可以完成的吧，毕竟现在大家都只能窝在家里，努力抗疫。

看过这本书后，不知道你是否会更了解我，还是会更不懂我了呢？无论如何，大家还是好好照顾自己，希望可以早日再见吧！

想看书的请按这里。谢谢。

One year later

It’s been a year since I changed my job. Started off as technical support engineer in air-conditioning industry, moved on to after market services and sales within the same industry, and finally, one year ago I decided to make another move, but this time to product management and marketing at a completely different industry.

Looking back my one year journey, it has been a bumpy ride, really. When I handed my resignation letter a year ago, I wasn’t sure what my future would hold. There were job offers from the same industry, there were job offer for the same role as sales, there were even job offers to go up the rank as assistant manager or manager. Ultimately, none of them resonated with me and eventually I declined them all.

“You are making a huge mistake.” Often, this is the answer I got from people around me. Seeing from his or her point of view, I don’t deny their conclusion. To most of us, career has always about climbing the corporate ladder and earning every extra dollar possible. What I decided to do in the end defied their norm, or perhaps even disappointed some.

Instead of growing in the same industry, instead of climbing the ladder, I decided to take a pay cut to land myself here in a completely new and different role, and in a completely new industry to me as well. As crazy as it may sound, I felt that I am not ready to manage people yet at this moment of time. I wanted to explore a little more on what other industries have to offer. I wanted to know about jobs other than engineer and sales. I can be better, and I wanted to be better too before I take my next step.

So here I am, one year later in my new role and company. Is everything good and rosy? Of course not. There are much to learn, much to relearn, and above all, much to put into practice from all the learnings I made, be it from my past job experiences or from my master studies. I do questioned myself often if I have made the right choice, but I would soon brush off the thoughts and keep pressing on.

No one knows for sure, not even myself. Perhaps time will tell, we’ll see. It’s interesting to see what the future has to offer, for now, all I can do is try my best to work my best and prepare myself for the unknown future.