What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2020?

LET’S READ SUARA SARAWAK/ NEW SARAWAK TRIBUNE E-PAPER FOR FREE AS EARLY AS 2 AM EVERY DAY. CLICK LINK

Your success and happiness lie in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
HELEN KELLER, AMERICAN AUTHOR, POLITICAL ACTIVIST AND LECTURER

Wishing you all ‘Happy 2020’. Tomorrow, at the stroke of midnight, we welcome a brand-new year — 2020. A fresh new year brings with it new possibilities and new excitement. I hope, like me, you are looking forward to 2020.

Before we bid 2019 goodbye, what valuable lessons have you learnt this year? What experiences have you undergone to make you a better person today? What are the joys that 2019 has brought you? Did you stick to the New Year’s resolutions you made for 2019? Have you made your New Year’s resolutions for 2020 yet?

Personally, 2019 has been a challenging year for me. My company moved office to a new location after it was taken over by a new management. It took a while to get used to the new routes to the office and the changes in the work schedule. In retrospect, the changes were interesting and made life more interesting. Until then, life had become quite a routine.

Padungan, where the old office was located, was an old part of Kuching City. After a while, life became mundane there. I got used to eating in the same canteen and travelling the same routes from my house to the office. Parking space was scarce and every day, I had to fight for a space to park my car.

Metrocity, located on the opposite bank of Kuching City, was a breath of fresh compared to old Padungan. It is a new development area, so many of the shops including the food stalls are relatively new. There is ample parking space, too!

The new office is located opposite the Uptown Market at Metrocity; initially, I found the food stalls a novelty. Later, I reminded myself not to overindulge in good rich food so often. My only complaint about the new office is the longer distance I have to travel from my house.

This year, many of my former colleagues also decided to leave for greener pasture. Saying goodbye to some of them with whom I had worked for years was not easy. But I told myself that “Here today, gone tomorrow” was very much part of life. After all, the only constant thing about life is change.

I have known for years now that no one is indispensable in life. 2019 reinforces this fact to me —new staff members were soon taken to replace my colleagues who left.

Am I a better person today than I was a year ago? I honestly believe so. Personally, I think I am humbler, thanks to some of the humbling experiences I underwent in the course of my work and in my personal life.

What are the joys that 2019 has brought me? Many. I had many, many lunches and dinners with my close family members. I also had many outings with my girlfriends who love and support me.

Last year, I also managed to visit two major cities — Melbourne and Sydney — in Australia with my former classmates and schoolmates from St Elizabeth’s School, an all-girls school in Sibu. It was a memorable trip down memory lane with my girlfriends. We had lots of fun and laughter together.

Although women need men in their lives, women also thrive on strong relationships with their girlfriends. I treasure my friendship with my girlfriends because they help me to make better decisions in life.