Top 10 Memories of 2017

Another year has flown by! Thank you for hanging on to this blog despite my laziness to keep posting. Now that I've moved from Buckeye Land a.k.a. Ohio, I'm wondering if I should change blog's name. For now, I'm just going to keep it and see how my life evolves!

Anyway, here is my annual list of Top 10 Memories for the year (in no particular order):

1) Probably the biggest news of the year for me is that I'M FINALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL! It felt good to receive my Ph.D., and the experience was made sweeter by the fact that my family and best friend flew in from Singapore, Utah, and Boston to witness my graduation.

To be honest, this year's Top 10 list was difficult to come up with (I know I say that every year but I mean it this year) because January to July was a complete blur. My routine from Monday to Saturday was get up, work out, shower, breakfast, check social media/ procrastinate, start writing, lunch, write, dinner, shower, write, sleep, rinse, repeat. Nothing much happened during those months. Except...

2) I finally went back to Washington D.C., my favorite city in the United States. In fact, I went back THREE TIMES in 2017! The first was for a workshop about federal governmental jobs for historians (April), the second for a SHAFR conference (June), and the third as part of my family's epic road trip (July). I still love D.C. but oddly enough, when I went back, I didn't feel that I should move there after graduation. I still applied for jobs with the federal government, but when I received the rejection emails, it wasn't hard to get over the disappointment. I probably knew D.C. wasn't where I should be. But who knows, maybe in the future!

3) My family embarked on an epic road trip in the United States which I promised to blog about, but have only completed Part I...oops! We drove almost 10,000 miles in two months, and literally went from Coast to Coast of the United States. We met up with friends whom my parents had not seen for over 20 years, and got to see both American city and country life. Yet, we didn't even get to see all that we wanted to! One day, I will complete my posts about how the family trip went. I did manage to get a Photobook out about our trip, so come visit me in Singapore and I will show it to you 😀

4) Part of our family road trip involved us going on the "Mormon Pilgrimage" to our Church's historic sites. Each place offered new insights into our Church's history and founding leaders, and I came away having a better appreciation for and understanding of the early Mormon pioneers.

5) I moved back to Singapore. I miss having my own apartment, but I'm not complaining about having clean clothes and home-cooked food.

6) I started a Peranakan shoe- beading class. After hours and hours and hours and hours of beading, I've completed about two-thirds of the beading for one side, and a third for the other. It's painstaking and tedious, but also weirdly soothing. Wish me luck in completing it!

7) I was a bridesmaid for my Secondary School best friend in October, and her wedding was one to remember because it took place over two days. And not only two days, but the traditional Chinese ritual where the groom "fetched" the bride from her home took place at night (something to do with the auspicious hour, etc.). It was crazy and exhausting, but definitely a 48 hours to remember.

8) I started another blog where I test and evaluate the life hacks you see on social media. My goal is to post 4 to 5 times a week (*gulp*), and with me starting a new job on January 2, it will be interesting to see how it goes. So far I'm enjoying this new blog, and hope to keep going. Please let me know if you have any suggestions about the blog: hacks you want me to test out, what can be improved, etc. Would love to hear your thoughts!

9) Donald Trump was elected as the president of the United States, and his victory opened a nasty can of political and social worms. Not my favorite memory, but definitely something to remember about 2017.

10) I left academia, and it felt LIBERATING. I might go back in the future, and I still have two articles that I'm working on, but for now, I'm so glad that I'm out. I started going on a rant about academia but deleted it, and am just going to say...maybe another post for why I left. Ha ha.

Happy New Year dear readers! Love ya, and hope this year rocks :) xoxo