‘Hey man, how’s life going?’
‘Did we make a lot of friends?’
‘How’s our career progressing?’
‘Have our dreams become a reality?’
Yes, it seems like the sequel to my previous story — Living With No Goals. Last time we talked about pursuing dreams and now we’ll say hi to them.
Written 3 years apart, it feels like looking back and seeing the old version of myself. This one serves as a life checkpoint, detailing what I’ve been up to in the past year and answering those questions pretending from the old me to the present me.
‘Hey man, how’s life going?’
They say that life is like a rollercoaster. Well, they were right.
It is not easy for a young fish surrounded by the unknown in the deep sea. But yet, you managed to get through it, though scars all over your body. Called an old friend several times, and sought professional support once to help us stay on our feet.
Those years were undeniably the toughest one, at least so far. ‘You‘re not supposed to be here yet, you’ll forced to grow up’, said an old man to me.
But hey, it gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But I gotta do it every day — that’s the hard part. But it does get easier.
Now I’ve got my go-to coping methods: hitting the road, blasting music, grabbing some coffee, and checking out the coolest cafes in town for work. I’m really into it, make it a weekly thing and it speeds up the healing process.
Just like a rollercoaster, right? Packed with ups and downs, but in the end, we’re all just laughing and loving it.
‘Did we make a lot of friends?’
They say that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
Starting the year in a new place with no friends around, and even losing some close ones, sure made things tougher as the year rolled on.
We’ve tried to keep them around and after a while, I just realized that it’s costing more energy than it’s giving and it’s hurting more than it’s healing.
Then as time went on, I came to realize there are other things just as important as them. I’ve got some longtime pals from school, a sweet workplace with supportive folks, still in touch with some colleagues from my previous office, and, most importantly, I’ve got my family to look after.
People change, situations change, and therefore relationships change.
So I think some people help you become the person you end up being, and you can be grateful for them, even if they were never meant to be in your life forever.
After all, I’m still keeping up with my social game, nurturing existing relationships with the folks. Sometimes we grab some coffee, hit the football field every week, and travel to different places together.
I haven’t exactly made a ton of friends, but I’d say it’s enough to get by.
‘How’s our career progressing?’
Our career journey wasn’t a walk in the park, especially without a degree, so we kicked things off from rock bottom.
Grateful for the grind, we picked up loads of lessons, always striving to connect with others. You also get bored quickly and always itching for something new. I mean, 4 offices for the last 3 years? You gotta be kidding.
On the bright side, you’ve stacked up a ton of experience real quick and a fat paycheck. But, on the flip side, it’s been a bit tricky finding a job with all that hopping around.
Right now, we’re in the midst of tech winter with layoffs everywhere. We almost got caught in the crossfire, but luckily, we dodged that bullet and managed to move to a new place. But yet, after months, the winter haunts our new place.
It could be said that our careers are improving quite quickly. Although, on the other hand, there’s no time for peace with the winter we’re facing in the industry right now.
Well, it is what it is, and fuck what it was. We gotta keep pushing forward because the journey is still a long one.
‘Have our dreams become a reality?’
Remember those dreams we had back in the day? Well, guess what? We went out and made them happen.
We started in a small spot on the outskirts of town, but you hustled, and never let anyone down, and it’s all paying off now. We’re working at those skyscrapers now, living out our childhood dreams. As we can imagine, the city view is a whole lot more breathtaking from up there!
Remember when you were all about EDM and had a major crush on Martin Garrix? You even dreamt of catching him live at the Djakarta Warehouse Project, but back then you got no money, so you threw it on your bucket list. Fast forward, now that you’re grinding at work, you saved up, and guess what? You made it to the DWP as your birthday gift to yourself. Pretty darn lovely, isn’t it?
Remember when you were itching to hit up Singapore for some culinary delights? Well, buddy, not only did we make that happen, but it’s been beyond anything we could’ve imagined before. We came for a Coldplay show there! Yeah, you heard it right, and it was so magical that your tears never stopped streaming down your face. But don’t forget, we definitely should come back again later and grab some of our a-kong’s legendary coffee butter.
The pandemic tried to erase our bucket list from our memory, and there was a moment when bills had us thinking about giving up on this. Unexpectedly, we held on and we’ve checked all of them out.
We should grab some drinks and toast to that!
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.
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‘Yeah, we made it, buddy’
‘But then what?’
…..
