2019 accomplishments and regrets, 2020 resolutions and next moves

Wow,

2019 went by SO fast…This might be the fastest year yet. Do you remember my Thank You, 2018 post? I thought 2018 was a BIG year – it was full of change (/MONEY MOVES*wink). I graduated college (with my Master’s!), I started a new job (cried every day lol), I was traveling for the first time (Colombia, New York, Big Sur, Catalina, Texas, Philly, Bay Area), and I launched my blog (my baby)!!

I was expecting and open to 2019 being a mundane year (in comparison to 2018), but oh my gosh it was another whirlwind!

2019

+ Career Development
Still learning my strengths, my weaknesses, my direction, my limits, and my potential in my career. Beginning 2019, I was still only a couple of months old in the firm (excluding my training). I think people forgot that I was still so brand new. From the very get go, I was being thrown huge boulders. And somehow, with the guidance of some really great people, I managed through and very early on a lot of trust and responsibility was placed on me.

However, it came at an expense. I was averaging 15 hours a day, sometimes more. 15 hours of straight GO GO GO, skipping meals, and working weekends. It was not uncommon for me to wake up at 4AM to do work, make it to an 8AM meeting, leave the office at 10PM, go home and keep working till 1AM or so, to wake up early and do it all again…

After 5 straight months of this ^^^ and me not seeing any slowdown anytime soon, I finally BROKE. It’s all much better now, but some lessons (that I learned the hard way) that I’d like to share with you!:

1. NOTHING is worth your health
2. As long as you work hard and have a good attitude, people will not get mad at you
3. No need to feel so much pressure, just do what you can and do your best!

+ World Travels
I know I say this all the time…but it’s surreal. Right now I am writing this blog post in my cute little Japanese apartment and Michael is next to me making breakfast (and the Japanese music awards is on the tv in the background hehe!). It’s crazy that prior to barely a year ago, I had never travelled outside of the US (and hardly in the US). In this year alone, I have been SO blessed to travel to:

• Silicon Valley – Work
• San Francisco – Vday/Birthday trip w Michael
• Orange County & LA – Work / Family / Trips w Michael (Universal Studios!)
• Laguna Beach – Daytrip w Michael
• Atlanta – Dinner at a mentor’s
• Hong Kong & Malaysia – Layovers, but international airports are awesome!
• India – Work and the wildest weekend trips to all the major cities
• Nepal – Work
• Thailand – Weekend adventure w Michael & Caleb
• Maldives – A heavenly 5-day relaxation
• Taiwan – Endless boba and night markets
• Japan – Work and the greatest 9-day trip w my dad (<3)

+ My Regret & Resolution
I want to say this has been a regret for quite some time, but it most upset me this year. In middle school and high school, I used to take pictures/videos of EVERYTHING. People KNEW me for my Tumblr (where I posted it all). It really brought me a lot of joy to do my amateur photography lol.

With all of my recent travels, I am sad that I did not take the opportunities to snap the wonders of the world. Every place I visit is like a new world – every corner, landscape, FOOD is so interesting to me. Though I don’t have many photos to show for it (luckily, Michael has been great with it), I guess I could argue that I’ve been soaking it all in and just enjoying myself in the moment.

But with that said, my goals to fix this and my resolutions for 2020 are!:

1. Take More Pictures – I want to bring my OLYMPUS with me everywhere and snap it all. One day, I will not remember any of this. And these memories are too wonderful to forget
2. Blog More Seriously – Have you seen my new blog homepage? 😀 With work and all my travel, clearly I haven’t blogged at all in 2019 (oof). But in 2020 and with a new blog design, I want to create more content for myself and for all of you!! Thank you for still checking in every once in a while!
3. Take Baby Financial Steps – At 23, I still do not know how to adult le sigh. And while I am not aiming for entire financial savviness, I want to take baby steps to improve my finances and financial organization
4. Continue To Take Walks – A 2019 resolution that Michael and I stuck to pretty well was to wake up early on the weekends and take walks. San Diego is so beautiful – just walking around under the nice sun next to the beach is truly one my favorite things
5. Wake Up Early – As always, WAKE UP EARLY!!! I am the worst morning person but I think I did pretty good in 2019 (except for when traveling hehe). I almost always made it into my Bay Area office by 7:30AM (when the coffee shop opens) without fail! For India and Japan, they are both countries that start work late!!! So when I have been abroad, I have been waking up at like…9AM, getting into office at 10AM…or later! >.<

& that’s all folks! I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years and holidays.Thank you, 2019.