The more I pressure myself into writing a sensational year-end post, the more I arrive with nothing. Because that is what 2022 is/was — sensational.
As I look back to 2022 in an apparent slow motion, my most significant takeaway is the importance of living for oneself. 2022 is a year of transformation and execution. It's a year of building a life I don't want to to regularly escape from. I am still very much in the thick of it.
I started a new life in an unfamiliar soil with a completely different language, culture, without friends nor family, nor a job. Jobless at 31, I went back to university to study a new language. But at the same time, I was everywhere — meeting new people, seeing the world, collecting memories, experiencing diversity, having adventures, traveling to places I never thought I would, enjoying the joy and serenity of far niente.
As fitting as it may seem, it's not a romantic story of an Asian girl who found her way in one of the most dreamed-about country in the world. This year was a story of a woman who finally accepted a new challenge and then took it by the throat. It's a story of a woman who was brave and afraid at the same time — who had the right kind of curiosity to leave her comfort zone, the right kind of tenacity to face loneliness and live with it, and the right kind of courage to go after her goals even if it means leaving everything behind. But I also would like to think that I'm a lucky woman, with Max being always by my side.
French people like to say the phrase "On est bien la", which means "We are good here." Being able to find contentment in nearly everything, not fixating on the future, on what will come next. From the most messed up times to plain jane days, I try to find bliss in what we have. Preparing food, taking care of my plants, reading books, ending the day on the couch drinking tea, reading a book, or talking about the day that has been. I am grateful for this life, for this year. I still worry about the future, but I try not to dwell on it. 2022 let me open a new perspective on life.
I hope 2023 will be another year of discoveries, of taking more risks. I hope to come back and report a year of living as my authentic self, more accepting and less apologetic. Letting go, more forgiving.
