To round off the year 2007...

It's that time of the year when we do our reflections of what had happened in the year and what one has achieved or failed to do...you know, those new year resolutions and dreams/wishes. Thus, it has come to me to consolidate & summarise about what significant things this year had brought forth (this might seem like a re-cap of my blog posts though).

As a start, what prompted me to pen this year-end post now was when I attended the last church service for the year (yesterday)...well, I would have did a year 2007 roundup post anyway, but it might have been belated or not structured as so. Coming back to the service...2007 was dedicated as the Year of Victory for our church and we were prompted to recount the victories that GOD has brought us through. (next year is the Year of Sabbath) So you'll probably guess how I'm structuring my post now.

Year of Victory

The most significant & important victory this year for me was my baptism. I waited very long for this day and taking the step of faith was really a step of faith as I've dragged it on for too long. I finally made my stand to my parents and it was really a breakthrough when they did not put up too much of a "struggle"...this includes physically attending service more regularly (feel so paiseh admitting this - however, I did listen to the sermons online). So yeah! Victory!

Career-wise, I'm not sure if this is a victory yet, but I was given the chance to be on a professional development programme. My specialisation would be in the area of music :) (yeah!) Well, I've always wanted to develop professionally although I had a few other contemplations over the year.

Year of Exploration

This year, I decided to try new things, to break out a bit, and make my life more exciting. Did blog about this earlier though.

1) Visual Arts - I never thought myself as someone who would dabble in visual arts as I really can't draw. But in any case, I tried out the Bear Fruit art installation project and amazingly, I won (victory again!)! I guess I am more a "builder" (craft) so my piece wasn't much a drawing thing. And I became more aware that I am a conceptual person and once I get an idea, I usually progress accordingly on that track. Am also a more abstract person (as seen in my digital art attempts).

2) Music - ok, 2 main things. Firstly, I decided to explore new music; listen to other genres besides oldies & classical. I discovered electronica (although I don't necessarily like all types), indie/alternative and country/folk. Previously, I would probably not have paid attention to them or even knew what genre they were, although I discovered that some songs I liked from before were in 1 of these genres. It opened up a whole new world of music to me...some were while scouring through friends' fave artists and songs (thanks to FaceBook) and also http://www.emusic.com/. Really interesting.
Secondly, to do something about my music skills. Well, this ain't really a new exploration, but I somehow became more active in music-making, all thanks to Songcraft. It's really different when you have a support group compared to just yourself...the inspiration and motivation.

3) Fencing - Had given up sports long ago, but this year, I decided to take up fencing as a regular sport and it's a sport that's not so "mainstream". One might think it's a romantic notion but actually, I think it was more inspired by Sherlock Holmes (am a big fan of old-fashioned whodunit mysteries, and definitely not a fan of romance novels). It was more of a gentleman's sport in the old days. It's been fun, though I'm doing it more for leisure and am still a novice at it.

Year of Revelation

1) Sabbath - I was prompted to set aside a day each month from June onwards. It was more like take half-day off per month to just do some reflections and also some personal time. Well, I can't say I've really carried it out coz the past few months have been really hectic, but in the new year, this resolve will continue...after all, it's the Year of Sabbath.

2) The Word - It was an amazing time of reading the Bible this year. One couldn't help but be amazed at the richness of the Bible and the revelations it has...it's positively dripping with wisdom. It's been a while since there's been so much revelation...in the past it was only an occasional "Oh!" but this year seemed "action-packed". Think this was partly due to my 40-day fast exercise. All I can say that it was heavy reading for me this year...I haven't yet been able to complete my 1 Corinthians 13! Each chapter I read was so deep that I needed to rest...which I have been for too long :P Think this chapter will spill over to next year.

~~~
What other things?

I've learnt to appreciate my supervisor. Although I've heard "horror stories" (ok, that's an exaggeration), but I think she's not too bad except for the physical presence part (she's sort of like not around a lot). She's at least able to and will fight for staff. Also, she has that "helicopter thinking" where you know her perspective of things is really on a mgt/higher level. On a personal level, she's quite supportive of me and my development (ok, there might be some bias here on my part as a result). Never thought I'd say this, but I would miss her when she retires March next year. Hope the rumours of a certain person who might be coming to take over is not true coz that person is totally not on par in her way of thinking with my supervisor.

Of course, what's reflections of this year without checking out last year's? I think I've done some of the things and my thoughts on certain matters have in a sense "matured". Well, there's just too many things to say but since I've already done the reflections on different matters in earlier entries, I'll just leave things here. Here's to the new year & new plans!