Thank You, 2023

Currently Sunday, December 31, 2023 (2pm)

AHHH oh my gosh. It’s 2024 in less than a day. In fact, less than 10 hours.

I vividly remember back in the early 2010s, when I was still in elementary school, I would think about how my life would be in the 2020s. I visited my grandparents’ house a lot, so my grandpa and I would talk for hours about the future while he drank his beer. He would always get excited for me to turn 20 years old so that we could drink beer together and talk about life (20 is the legal drinking age in Japan). It’s so interesting to think about those moments because I’m finally 20 years old and we can drink beer together.

In general, so much has changed. That girl and her grandpa would’ve never guessed that she could speak English fluently and live in a foreign country. She would’ve never guessed that she could travel to many new places and make new friends from different backgrounds. She would’ve never guessed that she could call multiple people her best friends and trust them like her family. She would’ve never guessed that she could get awarded for things that she worked hard for. She probably dreamt of things but was never confident she could achieve them. Wow, I sound so inspirational I can probably get elected as the next president of the United States of AMERICA 🦅 (I don’t have an American passport or have stayed there more than a week).

Let’s talk about my 2023. It was a year of growth, learning and traveling. I wrote in my journal book 45 times across 7 different cities: I now call two of those cities “home” and four new cities that I truly love. Never in my life thought I could call more than one place “home” but I do now. My friend and I moved into our first apartment ever and decorated the place with a dining table and 2 chairs… no sofa. But we still had people we love over to ours. My room is my new comfort place filled with pink items, posters, photos and sometimes fresh flowers. I met so many different people all over the world and even became friends with two Starbucks workers. I got close to people and learned a lot from them: not everyone thinks like you and those who love you will support you in every possible way, even when they tell you some brutally honest comments. And I learned to accept those comments as a help, not as a hate. I also grew to like university as a place to learn rather than a place to study.

I've learned a lot this year but I won’t lie, I cried a lot as well. People probably thought I was going through it. The psychology students were about to psychoanalyze me and put me into a case study (RA's study on the hippocampus and amygdala). But all jokes aside, I think I cried a lot because I actually realized that sometimes you need to go through uncomfortable situations to achieve things you truly desire. Overall, I’m definitely doing better compared to before. I am still a hater but not so much anymore. So I would like to say I’ve matured a little. And honestly, I’m so thankful to all my friends and my family for everything that happened this year and in the past years.

Well, if you read until this part then you got mesmerized by my self-marketing strategy with psychology and pathos technique. Anyway, thank you guys for being interested in my random blogs and I hope to continue entertaining you with them.

Seriously though, thank you 2023.

To 2024.

XOXO. Chinie