We are already one quarter done with the year and the past 3+ months have been nothing short of news.
Kenny and I ended the year of 2019 in Sydney with his family and that was the time when Australia was experiencing bush fires and extreme haze conditions. We were there to experience it first-hand, which wasn’t ideal but it only made the trip slightly less than wonderful.
And then shortly after, I recall Jakarta announced mega flooding situations and my boss at that time, who is Indonesian, had to take some bandwidth off to settle her parents’ state of housing.
I’m pretty sure many things continued to arise around the globe till the clock struck 0:00 towards the beginning of 2020, a pneumonia-like virus stemming out of Wuhan, China would now become a global pandemic called COVID-19, as declared by WHO.
Alas, it’s time to hit reset.
Change is the only constant but I guess this time, Mother Nature is adamant on a big reset.
For those who wished for 2020 to be The Year, now desires for 2020 to be done. For me, 2019 was nothing short of perfect and I was ambitious enough to aim for a better version of 2019 in 2020.
Resetting expectations
So here I am, privileged enough to be penning down my thoughts on what I should be pivoting and re-calibrating my expectations for 2020. Unlike my 2019 vision, I am largely behind schedule this time.
In 2019, I have pretty much achieved significant milestones and I feel good about that. But what have I not accomplished are the following:
- Reading 12 books
- Written 30 posts here
- Exercise regularly (get on the mat!
And so for 2020, I shall continue to work hard on making the above happen. I’m on 4 out of 12 books now!
Professionally, it’s been 1 year 8 months at Facebook. There are troughs and valleys, as always. I really haven’t decided what will be the big bet for me this year and especially with this COVID-19 situation, things are likely going to slow down a little. Maybe it’s the year to just maintain status quo. But who knows?
I also just turned 28 years old. What will life be like at 30? How SHOULD it be? I really need to get down on planning where I should take my life towards. I cannot wait to be better and stronger. #ownyourlife
Count my blessings
I am grateful for a shelter in place during these times of uncertainty and pseudo-lockdown. I am grateful for a full tummy and well-rested soul.
I am grateful to receive a promotion at my company this year and be able to have a job that I can work from home. I am grateful for the company that is doubling-down on supporting all employees during this crisis.
I am grateful that my family and loved ones are still healthy and able.
Let’s not take things for granted. Because for the many of us that are able to enjoy this period of “lockdown” largely in peace (excluding screaming kids, that is), let’s not forget that there are so many others who will not be able to make it after this period.
A close friend of mine works in the social front-lines of Singapore for the needy families. She mentioned that during this time, there is in fact a large spike of cases (100+ in a day) that visited her branch office to appeal for more government allowance support.
I pray that we will all come out of this unscathed.
Take care and stay safe, to whoever is reading this. xx
Huiyi 