An overviwew of my 2015

Year 2015 is coming to an end, as usual, before it ends, here's a brief overview of my 2015.

Before I start, I would like to briefly talk through my year! This year has been incredibly amazing because I have learnt to pamper myself so much so much and I found the love of my life after a lot of nuisances.

So let's jump right in!

January 2015 was exceptionally amazing because I attended the last President's List Award in my entire life and I was over the moon because I have managed to collect all the President's List Award throughout my degree life. Right after the President's List Award, it was my convocation! I was dyingggggg to graduate because I needed my academic transcript to register myself as a Ph.D student. While I thought it would be just another humdrum event with loads of speeches and a lot of waiting, I was informed by my lecturer to dress up for a photo-shoot during the graduation rehearsal. The graduation committee made the whole thing very mysterious and I did not know what award I was getting until the award giving session. I was so overjoyed that I was awarded the Academic Excellence Award! BUT! I felt a little upset inside due the fact that I wasn't eligible for the Chancellor Award aka the mother of all awards, lol. Still, I was happy for my own achievement! I promised myself that I would graduate with an award and I am super glad I achieved what I had set.

In the beginning of 2015, I was still seeing my dermatologist, and I could still remember that I told him I would like to continue with the medication at least until CNY so that I would have clear skin for CNY! And I had been working out religiously too because I wanted to show off my abs during CNY. I have also got my hair dyed red for the very first time in my life! I felt so not myself in the beginning and I thought it made me look pale, but I have grown to like it after time. We have also gotten ourselves a new camera so hoorrayyyy to all the awesome photos we have been seeing in the blog! CNY was of course marvelous, we visited my mum's hometown and they thought our fashion was over the top! Oh well....

January and February 2015 were rather busy for me because I had to train a few students but it was really fun training people. Although I felt challenged sometimes when some students spoke brusquely to me, but I think I handled them well.

March was mum's birthday and that was when our obsession for the Oriental Group restaurant or upmarket Chinese food thickened.

It was also somewhere around March that I have joined MalaysianCupid.com, I am not sure if that's the web url though as I have deleted my account. Not gonna lie, got A LOT of people showing interest at me daily and my mail was exploding, but in the end I only had proper conversation with this Sagittarius guy who is interested in baking and has pretty good knowledge in both research and health sciences. Kept in contact for about two months but we lost contact eventually.

My prof has also recruited a part time RA to work with me and assist me because my knowledge in research was and is still lacking. Gotta admit that I had quite a bit of distaste towards this guy named S, because of his pretty calculating attitude and he talks too much. But time after time, when I got to know him better, we became good friends. I could still remember the first day he reported himself at my lab, after exchanging merely a few sentences, he guessed my horoscope accurately right away and boy was it mind-blowing! And all thanks to him, I became superstitious! HAHAHA!

I have also applied for PTPTN loan payment exemption.

Jasmine's birthday celebration in April, we opted for Chinese food too! After a lot of chasing and probing, I finally got my PhD offer letter in late April and finally got myself registered as a PhD student. It felt amazing to see my own student card! One step closer to my dream!

The following few months of study was hectic and stressful. I had to travel down to HKL very frequently just to get our study samples sorted out. I had to work till around 9pm every Wednesday and I normally just lived like a zombie for the next two days and expecting prof to understand the exhaustion I had but he never gets it. LOL.

Somewhere around May I have become more and more into arts and started visiting art exhibition. It was rather awkward for beginners like us who had almost zero knowledge in arts. Hahahaha! But I have also learnt that if we are daring enough to breakthrough and try out new things, it is not that hard after all, and we will all become better with time. It's only the beginning that is the hardest.

Attended research week in UM again this year. And I remember attending a Western Blot workshop, who were given by speakers from Hong Kong, who were the delegates from Abcam. Spotted this really charismatic speaker RC whom I fell head over heels for. All because of him, I started using LinkedIn. We exchanged a few mails and the excitement in me was overwhelming when he told me he remembered me from the talk.

Went to Singapore for a conference organized by Abcam, made two new friends from Sabah who were super friendly and they kept inviting me to visit them. Of course, I had also met RC from the talk before and became good friends with him. He is such an inspiration!

Watched a standup comedy live for the very first time and boy was it goooddddddd! I laughed for an hour straight of laughing, non stop. I laughed boisterously and it was therapeutic. Now I am itching to watch more stand-up comedy. Hehe. I have also attended another conference at Hilton KL, where I have made a lot of PhD friends. From there I have learnt a lot about studying and working in Europe countries and I was crazy enthusiastic about my future career development in Europe, I spent the next few weeks looking through vacancy and writing CV etc. But just like how I gave up my MCAT last year, I gave up looking and decided I should just work hard with what I am working on now  and graduate first.

Joined Tinder and my life has changed completely. I suddenly had so many people to meet up and so many people to talk to that my phone was always dying. But I am thankful for the acquaintance with these people, it was with these people that I now know who are the good and bad boys; people who approach with ulterior motives and people who are genuine. Valuable life lesson. Besides than Tinder, I have got people talking to me on LinkedIn too. Thought BJ was a good person but damn can't stand his self-absorbed character.

Somewhere in August, I got the chance to travel to HK to attend a conference with the Sabah friend I made earlier this year. The whole trip was challenging but fun! Through this trip, I have learnt how to be alone, and how to travel alone. Made a wish at the Chinese Cupid for the appearance of my kind of ideal man in my life and then left it at the back of my mind, because I wasn't completely superstitious!

In August, Jasmine left to Perlis and we traveled there together. It was pretty difficult to be apart from her because she is the youngest at home and I was so used to talking and hanging out with her. It was of course more difficult for her because she had to be away from all of us and she often called home crying saying that she missed home.

Less than a month after my return from HK, I received a message on FB from my old old old friend. Well, he is not exactly a friend of mine, but it's a name I know for the longest time. I had no idea how and where I got to know his name, but I just knew him and knew how he looked like. So I replied his texts and talked to him. I wasn't really interested in him initially so I can't really remembered what exactly happened. But it was interesting talking to him, because he seemed to know a little bit of everything and he is really really really funny. AND! Little did I know he was actually my kind of ideal guy that I had wished for!

Called PTPTN to check on my exemption status and was told that I have failed in my application and they have lost my documents. I was furious and I was determined to bring this issue to the press if they fail to handle it well.

About a fortnight after talking to D, I fell sick and it was flu. I still remember he insisted that I took medication or he would come to my uni to make sure I ate my medication. I wasn't interested in him so I didn't want him to come if I'm honest, so I told him I would be happy if I could get a bouquet of flowers, peonies to be specific. I knew he wouldn't be able to make it, but deep down I thought if he could make it then heck I should really give him a chance and see how it goes. Well, he failed of course. HAHHAHAHAH! And before taking a nap I randomly told him that I was craving for fruit juices. And yes, he came to my uni to deliver fruit juices for me after a couple of hours. Frankly speaking the first time I saw him flashing a smile while handling the fruit juices to me, I thought he was pretty cute! So I told my friends about this guy whom I thought worth a try. BUT! When I saw him in person, I thought his muscular body was too huge for my liking, so I started shunning the idea of him being the one. And what made the whole process a lot easier was when he spilled a truth to me which made me feeling enraged and put me in dismal.

But he came back stronger and after some time, I started to look at only his good sides. I started giving him chances and I believe it was on his birthday that we both confirmed our feelings for each other and started embarking on a brand new life journey together. Since then my life revolved around him! LOL!

Good things started to fall into place because after a lot of trouble I finally got my loan payment exemption so now I am properly debt-free!

Early November when D's relatives visited him, that was the time he properly introduced me to his family members. And they were so kind to celebrate my birthday earlier with me, some of the aunts even gave me angpau so touched. T_T

And then it was Zahidah's wedding, and D was so kind to come with me. He had also made his promise by buying me a bouquet of peonies for my birthday and I was beyond touched. It was through this little things that I know that this man is willing to do anything to keep his promises and make me happy.

Another good thing that has happened was that I nailed a presentation to the Prince Songkla University delegates. I was under a lot of stress prior to the presentation but I prepared myself and gave the best during the presentation. I was sooooo happy to receive a lot of compliments from all the professors, Deputy Dean inclusive on my outstanding performance. It has also driven me to work harder and achieve more in the rest of my academic years!

And here comes December- Aishah's wedding! So happy that my twinnie bestie has found the love of her life and I wish her the best of luck! And also many thanks to D who's willing to drive all the way to Johor with me and took good care of my well-being in the rain and under the sun. I have never been taken such good care before and I am truly touched by his every little action.

I am so happy that I have learnt a lot and met a lot of people in 2015, but of course I am most thankful to have found D, such an amazing man who I could see a future with. I have never been this happy. I look forward to more amazing years ahead!