On 2007...

A lot has happened since my last post. I’ve turned 26, Australia has a new prime minister and government, Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated, the Malaysian Health Minister has resigned amidst sex scandal, and it is now 2008.

Usually the time to stop and take stock of the year’s achievements and failures would be just before the year ticks over – start the year fresh and all. I, however, have been in my tanah air (homeland) for the last three weeks, and I didn’t really have the time or headspace to look back and take stock, so here goes.

2007 was a year of fresh starts. New job, new home and a new niece to play with and spoil. Well... she wasn’t technically new, per se, but babies change so much on a daily basis, sometimes it does seem like she’s a new child every day. It was a year where I was given a chance to start on a blank slate, and every day that I walk into the office, I thank God for giving me a chance to give this one more shot, and I’m going to do all I can to –not- screw this up! I got to decorate and do up my new (rented) home, DIY my horrible mustard coloured bookshelves, buy some pretty floor cushions and a pretty shower curtain and score some pretty snowglobes. Fell in love with fish-keeping, bought a fish tank, fish, and decorations.. then lost them to common sense (although the tank and the passion is still going strong!).

2007 was a year of relationships. It was a year where family ties were severely tested, where sacrifices had to be made to repair broken relationships, and a year where some very unexpected friendships have come back to say ‘HELLO!!’

And finally… 2007 was a year of surprises. Particularly the last three weeks of 2007, spent back home with mum and some of the best friends ever. My mother surprises me every day that I spend with her – her love, her strength, her understanding, her capacity to forgive, to open her arms out in love to her children, against all odds – humbles me. My friends surprise me – the 1 year we spent together somehow managed to stitch us together, 7 years later, still going strong. We’ve all gone to our separate corners of the earth, and still, coming back together after 7 years, we’re still mostly the same people we were 8 years ago.

My niece surprises me every time she opens her mouth. Every time she reaches out to me. Every time she says ‘Happy Do’. Every time she laughs. Every time she says ‘fish?’ Every time she smiles at me. She’s got me wrapped around her little finger, she does.

Love surprises me. How it never truly dies. It just hangs around, quietly doing it’s own thing, waiting to be acknowledged and accepted. Acknowledgment is fairly easy, if it hits you on the head hard enough. Acceptance is that much harder, because it means making choices, one way or another.

That was 2007. Bring on 2008.