Justin's Thank You For 2016

In about an hour’s time, another year will end. Swiftly gone. Ta-ta. Goodbye. Adios.

How has 2016 treated you? While you can’t hope for all sunny days throughout the 365 days, I certainly hope your sunny days are more frequent than the raining ones (or even the stormy ones). Some bumps happened in my 2016 journey, but I’m still here, stronger than ever. A lot of good things happened too, and that is why I’m here writing this article concluding the year.

I have been known for my sarcasm, my skepticism, my snarkiness, my negativity. But since we do not have a Thanksgiving in our tradition, I figure I should use this last moment of 2016 to allow myself some positivity, some sincere and honest feeling. So here I am, giving thanks to 2016 for 10 good things that happened throughout the year.

(1)    The No. 1 biggest thankful moment in my 2016 is certainly owning my first house. I have to admit, it happened very fast from the first viewing to the booking. But now I feel everything is worth it. I now have a place I can call my own. I can sit on my sofa watching TV while snacking. I can lie in my bed reading. Of course, I also get to know a few of new friends who helped me a lot in the process -- the Property Agent, the Loan Officer and the Internal Designer. They were still helping me / giving me advice long after their official service should had been ended. For that, I’m grateful.

(2)    Early in the year, something unexpected happened -- a very dear family member faced health crisis. It all happened so fast that we were not able to fully recover from the shock even until now. But we are still here. To all my family members, I thank God for letting us spent another year together. And to the future years, I hope GOOD HEALTH of all the ones I love is in your planner somewhere.

(3)    At work, there had been a lot of challenges. But I have to say a big Thank You to my team. I have always maintained the view that I am so lucky to have a strong team. Sometimes, I feel like I am an old man chasing and panting behind the brilliant people in my team. Along the way, some of them left but new people joined as well. Without them, there would not be the successful Ops Analytics team today. Thank you for believing in me and be a part of my team.

(4)    My friends, old and new. Sometimes I can be insufferably stubborn so Thank You for going through another year with me. I have lost a very close friend in 2016, but I had also made a few new friends too. Though I mostly preferred to be left by my own, admittedly I can’t get through a lot of days without the good company of good friends. So hopefully we still have many days to come spending together.

(5)    All the good movies and TV shows that I watched in 2016, and perhaps the bad ones too. I lost count of the number of movies / TV shows I watched in the course of the year, but I am thankful I watched each one of them. Good movies / TV shows give us inspiration and keep our spirit up. Even the bad ones could be entertaining sometimes, or at least they could teach you a lesson or two. Thank you for keeping me company in my lonely days.

(6)    Besides movies, music is also a prominent part of my life. In the car or in the trains, music had been my friends. Thank You for washing all my bad days and worries away with the good music.

(7)    While I have to admit I no longer read as much as I used to, I tried to force myself to read a little every now and then. Some books I can finish from the first page to the last, but others I gave up after a few pages. Nevertheless there are always something new to learn even in the few pages you read. So Thank You for all the new knowledges.

(8)    Speaking of reading, like most of you I did my reading mostly on my phone nowadays. Thank God for all the online articles and social media that we now can read articles and news through the small screen of our phones. Thanks to the technology we now are just one click away from knowing what’s happening in the world. And thanks to our wisdom we know how to filter out the real ones from the fake ones. So Thank You, my little phone.

(9)    Thanks for the ability to enjoy good foods. Looking at my body size you’ll know I like to eat. Knowing hunger is a real threat faced by a lot of people out there, I must feel grateful that I am still able to devour on whatever I wanted to. And I must also constantly remind myself not to waste food.

(10)Last but not least, I am grateful that I had successfully completed my first job in emceeing my Company Dinner in September. Though it had some unpredicted hiccups before the event started, my partner and I got through the evening eventually. So Thank You for the opportunity and Thank You to my partner for enduring my bad temper.

So there, my Thank You for 2016. For the coming year, I can’t expect every day to bring me joy and happiness, but my little hope is that it will bring me more happy memories than the unhappy ones.

Happy 2017 to you and wish you have a blessed year!