Seven Trying Times

And now it's onto the sour. Here are the seven trying times in my history in Malaysia:

1. 2012. The world almost ended. But not in the way the Ancient Mayans predicted. This was the year a dear friend of mine left. Abruptly. For reasons too complicated to analyze or elaborate. The repercussions? Weight gain, Big Bang Theory marathons, and a battle with something which very much felt like depression at the time.

2. H1N1. I survived H1N1. At first, I actually thought I was going to die. That's how dramatic I am. Read more about the ordeal - err, adventure - here.

3. Waiting for wood companies. IE the respondents for my thesis. Not having any respondents would mean graduating at a later date and nobody really wants that.

4. Waiting for a job. After I passed my thesis defense, I started looking for work. And then I waited. And waited. And waited some more for work to open up. Everything fell into place eventually.

5. LDR blues. Long distance relationships are not, I repeat, are not for the fainthearted. We had our rocky moments, the rockiest perhaps was at the beginning of this year. The second half of 2015 was a close contender, too.

6. Team conflicts. I guess the closer iron gets to another, the sharper they drive themselves to become. Not that I was directly involved in any of the conflicts. But, hey, I was affected, nonetheless.

7. Homesickness. Especially those first few months. Apparently, I combated it through writing letters. When the letter writing season was over, I continued to turn to words for therapy.

Well, God has a way of turning things around and using everything for His glory. I look at these moments and see how everything brought me closer to Him. Not only that, these moments pushed me to creativity. I wrote songs, stories, even a bit of poetry. And speaking of poetry... I have an announcement which I shall be sharing in the Facebook page, soon.

I think we all desire a life without any sour moments. But it's those moments which let us appreciate the sweet moments all the more. :)

2012: On the road to healing.
Photo by Ate Mrose, I think.