Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Finding my feet

The memory of when I got home back in Nov of 2016, of feeling unbearably sad the first days, comes back to me clear as glass. I remember tearing up in my sis' car on the way home from the airport. It was really sweet of my sister and mum to come so early to the airport to pick me up. But I was still reeling from leaving the life (not to mention the friends) I knew for the past 8 years behind in Europe.

Little did I know that I would be back in Europe so soon (after only a year back home in Singapore). I wasn't planning or looking to come back, as most of my friends (& family) had thought. It was not easy to move again actually. My routine had been slowly re-established (weekdays = work, gym, home), made some new friends, joined a good cell, found a church to attend and have a good team to row with. I was finally feeling settled. *Sigh of contentment*

As my last contract with Bayer in Singapore was coming to an end, an unexpected job offer (a 2-year contract), in Berlin, landed on my lap. The position sounded interesting and with the thought that I could possibly develop my career with this foot-in-the-door opportunity, I decided to take it. Little did I know that it would end, as unanticipatedly as it came, after a mere 6 months. I know losing a job is nothing very major in life, but it has never happened to me before, and at that time, it felt like having the rug pulled from under my feet, jobless and alone in a foreign country. I wanted to crawl into the ground with shame, my already non-existent self-confidence took a Whac-A-Mole beating but unlike in the game, it staunchly refused to peek its head up again, for a good long while.

Since I had already planned for my summer holidays in Italy while attending the wedding of 2 good friends back in Genova, I took the chance to extend the holidays. Also made a trip to the UK and caught up with an old friend. My initial instinct was to go home after the holiday but because of a series of unforseen occurrences (that would be another story if I ever get to it), I started to apply for jobs in Europe. Then as 'luck' would have it, my housemate informed me that I needed to move out of our apartment by Nov because she is giving up the apartment. Thank God for my Brazilian good friends in Berlin who offered to take me in in their living room while I continued my job search.

Several phone interviews, countless rejection emails and many no-news later, I started to wonder if I would ever find a job again. The almost 6-month job search period felt like an eternity. I am not used to sitting at home. My motivation went through periods of ups and downs where some days I would go out for an early morning run then sit myself down and send out applications all-day, other days I would mope around, wishing I was back home, in safety with family. It felt like one of the hardest periods of my adult life, even if I know it doesn't sound like much looking back now.

Just before Christmas, I got my first (and only) job offer. It was for a business development job in a small CRO (contract research organisation) in Milan, Italy. The job sounds interesting and so does the company. But it felt like God was playing a joke on me. When I left Genova at the end of 2016, I told myself ('vowed' seem too strong a verb) that I would not come back back to live in Italy ever again. Italy is great for holidays, definitely. And to be sure, there was always a reason (the beautiful coast, friends' weddings) for me to come back every summer after I left. But it was (and still is, if possible, even worse now) a bureaucratic nightmare when one lives here.

I dragged my feet to the flight from Singapore back to Europe. I did not want to leave the comfort of home to the uncertainties: how the new company, boss, job, city will be like, what if they don't like me and I lose the job again?

Now here I am, almost stably back on my feet, looking back and writing this (post) after almost 6 months on the job and in this new city. I am grateful for the many blessings here: a new job I enjoy and where I am learning new things, my caring and competent boss, friendly colleagues, the familial environment of the new company, an apartment which is a 7-min walk from office, 10-min walk from the biggest park in Milan, a kind housemate I get along with.

Even though most weekends here still feel very lonely and I still miss my friends back in Berlin, I cannot and should not complain about my life here. I pray for guidance and the patience to follow through whatever this phase of my life has for me, even as my heart yearns for someone to share my life with, for home, I know I have people who care for me and I am thankful for them.

A good friend has advised me to consider journalling as a way to work through my thoughts and feelings and I think I should start to write more regularly again. It's cathartic. :)


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Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Change

Have been contemplating migrating this blog to Wordpress.org/ learn how to build my own website/ make a prettier blog and also to write more often...
Friends or acquaintances often ask me while I was taking pictures of breakfast/lunch/dinner: 'So what do you do with all the photos of the food you take?' 'Ehmm... I keep them for me...' was my answer. It got me thinking that maybe I should put up some of these photos somewhere, not so much in terms of turning my blog into a food blog because firstly, I would never be good enough to compete with all those amazing food blogs out there, secondly, I don't actually cook/take photos well enough to be able to photograph food that looks good enough to induce salivation in front of the computer screen so I would never get many readers. But I think it's time to do something for my little space on the WWW. And write more, for me. :)

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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Homecoming

After almost 8 years away, I am now going home. I cannot put my finger on my feelings about it and hence not sure how to answer the question from friends, 'So, are you happy about moving home?'

The first and foremost thing that wrenches my heart is that I have to bid farewell to all my good friends here in Italy (and Europe). Since I am not just moving to another country in Europe but rather am moving back to the other side of the world where I don't know when I will be able to see all of them again. Needless to say, I will also be missing the nature in Europe, the four seasons (and the corresponding change in wardrobe), the food (though I think the huge variety of food I can get back in Singapore will make up for this) and the languages I get to speak here. My life will be 180 degrees different, no more hanging out with these sweet, lovely people; going out for hikes in the nature parks, hills, a walk along the beach, a dip in the sea, ice-cream, coffee, pizza or a weekend somewhere. Instead, it'll most likely be back to the same rhythm it was those years ago back in Singapore: work, gym, home.

I am a little nervous about moving back home. Singapore, as 'westernised' as it is, is still Asia, with some Asian precepts where I don't fit in: the measurement of slimness is on a different ruler, the beauty of fairness of skin, etc. I definitely have some adjustment to make. Living back home with my family again has its advantages and disadvantages as most things go... I am sure there are more favourable points than drawbacks. I have missed my family but I have forgotten how critical my mother can be of me. That will certainly do a lot to my already non-existent self-esteem which I will have to somehow learn to regulate.

I am really excited (and grateful) about the new job, even if it is just a 6-month internship stint. It is an area I am very interested in and I am sure I can learn a lot! I am looking forward to start that new bit of my life, and am prepared to work as hard as I can in the corporate world and hoping that a real job will come out of it.

Isn't it funny how the brain changes its perception of its surroundings depending on our emotions? As I look around me now, in the face of my impending departure, the things that got on my nerves before seemed to take on a tinge of quaintness and beauty... It feels strange to think that this is my last week of work in the research institute where I've spent the past (almost) 6 years. I remember clearly how, 2 years ago after I'd finished my PhD, I couldn't wait to leave, and now I find it hard to believe that I am really leaving...

I am grabbing every chance I get to spend time with the people I love. We chat and laugh over lunch, or dinner and wine. I try my best to capture these moments in my mind's eye, hoping to be able to look back and hold onto these when I miss them. I've always hated goodbyes, so I am just going to say 'Auf wiedersehen' instead and pray hard I won't turn into a puddle of tears on that last day.

I know it is inevitable that I have to close this chapter of the book in order to open another. But that knowledge doesn't make it any easier.

Thank you for having been part of such an important phase of my life, I already miss you. :'(
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Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Hiding place

Recently chanced upon an unexpectedly good hiding place as I strode into the calm blue waters of Genova. Realised that being under the water with my snorkel is even better than putting on environmental noise-cancelling headphones. My muscles relax in the cool waters and I get a rare, much-needed respite from the vibrant Italian environment. The constant, ever-present loud chattering, cursing voices disappear once I enter the water. The only sound left reminds me of many tiny electric sparks going off in the waters. And I am left alone with the various schools of fish swimming around me. Such peace and quiet! Sometimes I let the waves take me along, drifting around, staring at the carefree fish darting here and there, looking for food among the aquatic plants or the little notches between the rocks, willing my mind to empty itself. Sometimes I swim actively, trying in vain to follow the schools of fish that inevitably leave me far behind. I reach my hand out, hoping I could touch the pretty things, but of course that was only wishful thinking on my part! How convenient that with the snorkel, I don't even have to come up for air! Makes me I wish I could stay in the water forever. But unfortunately as with every hiding place, one has to return to the real world. Very reluctantly, as my pruny fingers start to numb a little and I feel the cold slowly entering the layers of protective fat (my excuse for keeping them! haha!), I swim to shore and brace myself for reality.
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Thursday, January 14, 2016

Tabula Rasa

Just read this posted on a good friend's Facebook page at the end of last year, a bit late but better than never... Amazing how it can feel like something written is directed to me (even when it wasn't) because it hits the precise nail on the head. I guess it's because most of us go through something like this all the time, some people take it better, some less. Just before the end of 2015, I realised (to my own dismay) that I have been (unconsciously) holding onto someone in my heart for far too long and as he moves on, (and I let the tears out for a few days) it is indeed time for me to finally, REALLY, let it go.


CLOSING 2015
One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.
Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.

Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?
You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened.

You can tell yourself you won’t take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.
But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister.
Everyone is finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.

That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home.

Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.
Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them.

Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose.
Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood.

Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.

Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the “ideal moment.”

Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back.
Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need.
This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life.

Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

Paulo Coelho
30 December 2015 at 00:42 · Geneva, Switzerland ·
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Thursday, October 22, 2015

Reminders...

The other day, before I realised it, a phrase we used to use together (or rather, he taught me: 'schlime schlime') came to mind unbidden as I started coughing. Just like that, the good memories of him, of us when we were happy together flooded back like a sudden strong wave created in an uneventful sea by a passing cargo ship. The way we were initially, so comfortable in each other's presence, how we laughed off usually embarrassing bodily functions (farts, burps, unchichi) and talked about everything under the sun.

We went through an initial difficult start and pulled through only because he was so much stronger than me emotionally, mentally. (I was already back then stupid and difficult). I didn't tear (as I am now while writing this post since writing things down makes the brain concentrate more on the memories). I thought to myself that day, as I reminisced, that there's a bit less sadness, a bit less guilt and remorse of how I almost single-handedly destroyed the closest relationship I've ever had and more of a knowledge that I cannot change what I've done and a reflection of how I will try my best to never make the same mistakes again if I ever have another relationship. Maybe slowly, very slowly, time is finally doing its job at suturing the wounds that I have foolishly self-inflicted.

Sometime before this day, I made another mistake while chatting with him over FaceTime and through that mistake I learnt that a part of me was subconsciously waiting, and hoping for a chance to try again although I have been consciously telling myself that it will never happen. Love lost is lost forever, as is trust. I cried my eyes out that night. If I can imagine how a knife through the heart feels, that would be it, for the nth time over the past 3 years since we broke up. I never thought I would be hung up on a relationship. I have always prided myself as being more rational than that. So when I realised that after 3 years, I am still not over it, I felt absolutely useless. The first solution that occurred to me was that I should cut off all contact at least for a while. But that made me even sadder. I remember thinking about the song 'Someone like you' by Adele. It is somewhat comforting, though in truth, I don't think I will ever find someone like him, ever. I pray that as the healing time passes, I will be able to stay in contact with him as a good friend, accept hearing (I think will happen someday soon) that he has found his true love and wish them all the happiness in this world.

The recharge I got through the recent work trip/short holiday in New Zealand and back home in the month of September has apparently disappeared into thin air as soon as I got back here. I miss home. I don't really recognise this person with zero motivation for anything in life staring back at me. All I feel like doing is to hide under the covers in bed. As I drag my feet to get through each and every identical, seemingly endless day, the thought of my bed is the only thing that gets me through the end of each day because at least when I get to close my eyes and fall into my usual deep slumber, my brain will finally stop thinking and feeling.
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Monday, October 12, 2015

Ever felt like...

everything you did up to this moment in your life has been a mistake?
you are the biggest failure in this world?
nothing will ever come out of all your effort scouring the internet for jobs and sending application after application for over a year?
you just want to drop everything and run back home where you feel safe to show how you truly feel without being judged?
you are so physically and mentally drained without doing anything of importance at all?
you are marching on the spot, or worse, you are in a pit of quicksand, slowly being sucked into it and the more you struggle, the faster you sink?
you are stuck in this deep rut that narrows as it reaches toward the sky so that even light has trouble entering and as you grope around desperately, blindly, you don't feel any hand/footholds to climb out?
you are sick and tired of pretending that everything is rosy, of smiling when you don't feel like you can smile anymore at the world?

I wonder how much longer I can wear this mask of nonchalance when it feels like I am crumbling up into a million pieces inside...


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