Hello to an anthology of what was the Covid pandemic years. It's been a long time.
I initially wrote this with the positive things first, but come to realise that I should feel good about my return to this space. So... here's the not-so-good stuff first:
1) Constantly being extremely hard on myself
This ties in to my punching-down of salary demands (covered later), but I am getting better at it. I think moving to a new faith which made more sense to me is slowly taking positive effects in shutting down the self-negativity.
2) Getting Covid
It was never ascertained where or when did I get it, but if I had to guess, it was probably from white-water rafting (which was terrifying, but also exhilaratingly fun). Kevin having been tested positive as well, and was also half-drowning with me in the rapids, probably clued in my guesses.
I was mortified when my lab results came back with positive results, especially being worried about spreading it to my parents and grandma. Shortly after, my dad and Jols both got it, and I felt guilty (since I probably gave it to them).
3) The Russian invasion of Ukraine
I cannot stress this enough, that fuck conflicts and the pain and suffering it brings. No one wins, be it the troops who were forced to invade a neighbouring country, or the lives lost or displaced from homes being destroyed. It's also extremely painful to see a looming near-future dystopia of information feeds having memes next to global disasters.
4) 1MDB... again
More cases had resurfaced, with more bad actors and cases of corruption. It boils my blood that the convicted ex-PM walks free with his bootlickers at his beck and call. Him and all his cronies do not deserve any relevance in Malaysian history. Let their names die in time, as unwritten history.
5) Losing my grandmother to Covid
Maternal grandma past away rather suddenly, and it came to a shock for most of us. It's also sad how I've grown familiar with death in the family. At least she's no longer in pain and suffering from the aftereffects of her stroke, which she had been facing for the past few years.
It pisses me off to no end how I'm living through a historical event, especially how the pandemic was leveraged by Malaysian ministers to clamour for power, atop the bodies of dead citizens. But with darkness, comes a new light.
The good stuff:
1) Getting a job after six months of unemployment
I arguably shouldn't have negotiated for a lower pay, but I was adamant to never draw comparisons with my short stint at F&N. And I want to never have to be tied or linked with that. It was an awful working experience, despite the few nice people I've gotten to know there.
The gig is a part QA, part R&D position. It's a twelve-person strong company so a tight ship means doubling on job scopes. I learned to bake cookies on the first week, and am very happy about the working hours. I get to be consistently punch out on time and be home by 6 pm to get something else done before dinnertime.
2) Having a consistent weekly sporting session
These are mainly friends of Krys and Jer Rick but they're a friendly bunch with mixed skill level. It's been a fun time getting to re-learn badminton with a more mature mindset and better understanding of my body. It's always encouraging to see tangible improvements to my game through friendly coaching and self-study.
I'm also grateful for being able to incorporate more consistent jogging sessions around the neighbourhood. There's been a slow but gradual improvement to my stamina and speed and now it's a matter of maintaining a consistent workout routine while pushing for longer distances. I recognise that I still have a long way to go to be even considered decent (both time but more importantly distance), but it's something that helps me recenter my thoughts (while also chipping away at the podcast backlog).
3) Getting better at approaching stray cats
My upbringing was exclusively pet fish and the occasional tortoise, so hardly any meaningful interactions are made there. Getting to be gentle while petting what are clearly fluffy good girls/boys is nice training to prepare a future where I have furkids of my own.
4) Being reborn as a Christian
This took a lot of soul-searching and introspection, but I ultimately took the dive and embraced a faith which promotes love and kindness through the Church of Christ. I am blessed to have support from my family members and friends on this new journey.
5) Krys and JR's engagement
Sure, she had figured out JR's plans way ahead of time. It doesn't stop the fact that Jols and I got to document the entire thing and spend a memorable weekend with them in The Acres at Bentong. I nearly teared up with joy.
As with a return to form:
Written form.
Road returnal.
Strolled, Passed, Trudged,
Through and before.
This body creaks.
Rusted, busted, entrusted.
Time was kind when I wasn't.
Yet I'm immersed in it,
the past not sloughed off,
a robe was placed upon instead.
It's not goodbye.
Merely a hello,
Again.
