I couldn’t publish this at the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020. I’m finally publishing this as a reminder for myself how hard I worked in 2019 and what a happy life I had. I had fun going back to old photos and memories from 2019. Things are not easy right now, but I hope I can learn something from this note.
Last year (2019), I decided to write a note about 2018, because I managed to survive the challenging year and I needed to remind myself how much I’d done. (If you would like to read it, it’s right here!) Just like last year, this is a note for me, just to remind myself what I worked on this year.
In 2019, I could keep pursuing happiness with the foundation I build in 2018. I’m a pretty positive, happy person to begin with, but even then I face difficulties in my life and I need to learn how to deal with my emotions. Finding a happy place is different for people and it is not as easy as it sounds. It’s a lifelong process and I’m still learning my happy place as well. That being said, those are the things I did in 2019 that helped me being happy.
- Focusing on what I can change, instead of something I don’t have control over: One of the biggest challenges in 2019 was work. As much as I love my work and colleagues, it is still a job and I face issues here and there. This year, it was pretty big. I’m not going into details about what happened, but all I can say is that I wasn’t happy.
I wanted to complain and tell the world I wasn’t happy, but instead, I
organized my thoughts for what I needed to focus on, made action plans, and I tried to take advantage of the new opportunities I got. Complaining takes so much energy out of you and you need to move on once you know what you need to do.
- Showing a positive attitude: Again, I’m a pretty positive person. But it’s a reminder for me to always try to have a positive attitude even if you are not feeling positive about certain things. I know it’s important to be direct and give negative feedback, but the way you tell the stories changes the tone of the conversations. Since I started to “fake” myself into showing a positive attitude, my frustration didn’t affect me as much.
- Accomplishing more races: I had done a couple of Spartan Races and a marathon before 2019. I kept continuing with that journey this year. Spartan Race in Cebu wasn’t easy, but I had fun amazing time with my friends. This trip itself had a lot from start to finish, but I’m grateful to have friends who I can complete those obstacles with.
I also ran a marathon in Sydney in 2019. Marathon is a race that I run all by myself and it’s totally different from Spartan Race. I need to write experience about marathons too, but I’m just proud of myself for being able to run a marathon.
- Being nice to the planet: Since I was a kid, I’ve always cared about environmental issues — about food waste, clean water supply, plastic garbage, etc. In 2019, climate change, SDGs, sustainability were hot topics and I saw a lot of people and media started to talk about them. I can’t force others to take action, but I can still share some actions I’ve been taking, and maybe I can influence people. I’m not a writer and I didn’t think I would have the power to influence people, but I wrote an article about my experience of using period underwear and got a lot of positive feedback. (Yes, I haven’t been using period pads or tampons for a while now!) I want to keep taking action, and I hope I can share more to influence others.
- Making myself happy: Someone was sharing an image that says “Be with someone who makes you happy” but “with” was crossed out and it said, “Be someone who makes you happy”. Of course, you want to be with someone who can make you happy, but you shouldn’t be depending on others to make your life better. If you become someone who can make yourself happy, that would be pretty cool, right? I’m learning to become someone who makes me happy. I used to hate being alone, but alone time has been “spending time with myself” time and it’s been amazing. I hope to explore more of those times with myself.
I started to love myself more in 2019. All the things I did made me feel better about myself. I’m grateful to have what I have and it’s an amazing feeling to wake up every morning, looking forward to everything that is happening in my life.
Looking back on 2019, life was so good, and didn’t think how 2020 would turn out to be. Things are still crazy in 2021, but time doesn't stop and we all have to move forward. Our life is totally different from before, but I hope I can still adopt the lessons I learned before 2020.
