A Year Has Gone And Passed,

Today is the 17th of July 2009. Today is a Friday. Today marks the last day of my eighteenth year.

I've got this long standing tradition of doing a dedicated post for my birthday eve reflecting on what transpired in that particular year. This is no different. As I welcome my final teen year, I look back to my past in hopes that I'll be able to learn and grow from my mistakes.

My eighteenth year was rather tumultuous as it began. After celebrating that significant birthday with 18 of my closest friend at that moment, everything in my world started to go wrong. Misconceptions, lies, misunderstanding plagued the first few months and I gradually grew tired of all that falsehood and the attempt at trying to mend things.

A mistake I hope I have learned from. Instead of running away in the face of all these hardships, I pray that I have grown and develop the courage and the necessary spirit to face things.

I gave up, and that was wrong of me. I lost hope.

I struggled for a good two ol' months in solitude. I was sad and hopeless. Being in a distant land was in no way a big help. It only added on to my burden, to all that emotional baggage I was carrying.

Then, metaphorically, a beacon of light appeared amidst all that darkness. That beacon came in the form of my current group of friends.

They are a group of people who are loving, caring, kind, sharing, nurturing, nonjudgmental, happening, fun to hang out with. They are a group of people who seriously hails from all walks of life. A concoction of genuinely nice people.

As I've faced difficulties in trusting people, I knew I was treading dangerous waters as I made the decision to accept them in my life, and thankfully they did the same to me. After spending a few months with this group of people, I am certain that this is the group that I have grown to love and care for. The ones where I will cry with them, laugh with them, get frustrated with them even over the most minute of matters, get disappointed with them, lend my shoulders to them, hug them, dance with them, have late night outings that are way past our bedtime, hang out in their rooms, play poker with them, have potluck with them and many more. Then of course, a few from this group introduced me to a person I can only say bears so much resemblance to my best friend back at home, personality-wise.

This year saw an addition of a smaller group of people into my life. This group consists of six amazing girls and one, how should I put it, erm, less amazing but still quite amazing guy, who are good at what they do. They, too, play no small part in my eighteenth year.

From them, I learn to embrace intimacy. They are seriously the first group of people that I have ever HUGGED. I have serious intimacy issues, I know, but you can't blame me just because I grew up in this social background that never demanded or even permit such actions to be carried out.

From them, I learn to trust once more. The people I have around me, I know they never judge me, I know they will never betray me. And I know they will be as truthful to me as I am to them.

From them, I learn acceptance and tolerance. We make a great deal of diversity in terms of personality, and that has really taught me well on how to accept people for who they are and just tolerate.

From them, I learn how to laugh as hard as I can without holding back. And to experience fun in brand new ways.

As much as they have given me, I wish to give back.

For them, I promise my loyalty until of course my loyalty is betrayed.

For them, I promise my relentless call to their aid in times of need.

For them, I promise my ear and my shoulder whenever they need them.

For them, I promise a lifetime of joy and happiness with jokes and sarcasm.

For them, I promise that I'll take care of them so long as they are around me.

For them, I promise I will do anything it takes, to make them smile and stay happy.

For them, I promise, I will love them.

For them, I promise that I WILL NEVER LEAVE THEM.

For them, I promise the biggest thing that I can ever give, me. My mind, my heart, my soul.

In no particular order:

Nicole, Izzie, Ryan, Sha, Wen Ting, Joleen, Tai Howe, Caitlin, Alastair, Michele, Jiah Lit, Yee-Hooi, Carmen, Jun Jing, Yun Shen.

Thank all of you, for having seen through this tough year with me and very much added a lot of color into the otherwise dull year.

I hope you guys will continue down this journey with me, promise me I will see all of you at the end of this journey next year same time?

In other words:


Stay with me bitches! And we'll fuck around like nobody's business! =D