2021: The Year of Acceptance

Dear 2021,

Thank you for teaching me how to be strong and resilient. Things might not go my way, but I'm still glad with how it turned out in the end. I still believe that things happen for a reason, and that failures make room for growth. I'd say that it was hard having to go through it all, having to feel such discomfort, but I believe that there would be an open door waiting for me at the end of the road, and the only way out is to keep going.

'To thine own self be true' as I quote from one of Shakespeare's plays, Hamlet. To be true to your own self. The past two years, I've grown to get to know me, myself, who I am as a person. Do I like who she (me) is? At first, not so much. I realised that at the beginning, it was rather hard to acknowledge your strengths and your weaknesses, your talents and your flaws, and to measure your self worth. It isn't as easy as they say when it comes to accepting your self and realising that you don't have to be perfect all the time.

I used to think that self-isolation and spending time only with your own self may help to get to know your self, but that's not always the case. Our interaction with other people, friends or strangers, may shape who we are as a person. Honestly, I have nobody to blame but myself for realising this only after the lockdown. There are so many things I regret not doing before the pandemic hit, like spending more time with my colleagues and friends from uni, keeping in touch with them, and so on. But from all of these, I'm glad that I get to learn more things, especially about myself, and perhaps, one day I can bring myself to reconcile with some old friends and connections.

Now I'm looking back with gratitude for being able to hold tight until this very second. I realise that in order to love themselves, one has to know acceptance. I have tried to accept who I am, though I still have to constantly remind myself that I'm enough just the way I am. She may not be perfect, but she is all I have, and I couldn't be more proud of her. Thank you for being so strong.

Cheers to the new year!

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