This week, I turned 25. It's a pretty surreal feeling – knowing that you've lived half of your twenties, and yet your life has only just truly begun. Over the course of the week, I was inspired to reflect on my life over the last year and to share them here. Here are my 3 biggest takeaways.

My weekly nomz will be postponed till next week as I don't have the time to write 2 posts this week. Sorry about that!

Being the cool person I've always wanted to be

One of the best advice I've heard throughout numerous podcasts and readings that I've done over the year, is to always remember to live out the dreams and aspirations of your younger self. When I was young, I've always wanted to travel and be a cool person by doing cool things and having amazing experiences. However, when you are young and poor, it's kinda difficult to achieve these. Nearing the end of 2022, I decided to delay my graduation for half a year (and pay additional school fees) in order to achieve 3 things:

1. Do a final year project
2. Grant myself one last summer internship opportunity
3. Abuse the freedom and time as a student to do more of the things that I've always wanted to do

Even though delaying my graduation would mean that I would forego half a year of working adult salary, I'm glad I made the decision. This year, I managed to travel to South Korea twice, America/Canada once and I'm looking forward to my trip to Japan in December. I've also managed to do a couple of cool things such as:

• Driving a convertible on a road trip in Utah/Arizona
• Work at Bytedance/TikTok for the last 5 months
• Catch up with my friends from halfway across the world

Here are some pictures from my time in Utah/Arizona!

Younger me would have been stoked to know that I've done all these things. Younger me would have been inspired to know that I took the path (slightly) less travelled and actively slowed down my progress in life in order to live out these amazing expereiences. Present me has so many more dreams and aspirations that I want to achieve, and I can't wait for future me to accomplish them.

Love, even when it's difficult

As I grow older, I become more aware of the flaws that people around me have, and my pride also gets in the way more. Slight miscommunications leads to big arguments; incompetencies and inefficiencies frustrates and tilts me; and I catch myself being less empathetic and patient towards others. Though it's a constant struggle, I do my best to reflect on my daily actions and thoughts, the context which led to them, and how I can improve myself to be a better person. I'm thankful for the small circles of friends and family around me who constantly teach me and remind me to love others, even when it's difficult. Many mistakes have been made, relationships have been damaged, yet I've learned that love will always prevail. For me, consciously choosing to love others means to challenge my assumptions and reminding myself to be more empathetic; it means to be more patient and to give others the benefit of the doubt; it means to take initiative in mending broken relationships and to be the first to apologise. The advice I would give to anyone who wishes to know how to be better in this aspect, is to build a habit of reflection and to force yourself to listen more than you speak. You'll be surprised at how much you can catch yourself having negative thoughts and misplaced assumptions about others. Most importantly, be reminded that we love because God loves us first.

1 John 4:19 - We love because he first loved us.

Be intentional with your time

If you've been keeping up with my weekly nomz, you'll know that I've been trying to learn a lot more about investing. One of the most important principles about investing is that it takes time. Even though I'm only 25, I get fleeting feelings of regret of not starting my investment journey earlier. The best time to start investing is always yesterday, and the second best time is today. This advice can also be applied into every other aspect of our lives. And so I try my best to live out days learning as much as I can (both in technical and non-technical aspects), to exercise more and sleep better in order to maintain physical health, and to spend time cultivating my relationships around me. Keeping to these isn't easy, especially since the fruits can't be reaped immediately. However, all these efforts will eventually compound and pay off in the long run. If you are reading this, I hope you'll be encouraged to be more intentional with your time as well. Start small and choose an area of your life you want to improve on. Utilise the wealth of (free) knowledge available on the internet and in books, and start learning. Force yourself to be vulnerable and to actively cultivate your relationships. Be patient and consistent. Your future self will thank you for it.

Closing thoughts

It's been a great year. It wasn't easy, but I'm thankful for the experiences and memories. If you have any thoughts or opinions you would like to share, feel free to reach out to me directly! I would love to hear from you. Till next week!