JUST MY IMAGINATION

Today marks the 27 th of December, nearly 2025. As a tradition, I am once again making a brief post on reflecting on my previous year. In my 2023 post, I said I loved 2023. But I think I loved 2024 even more. It doesn’t mean that things were always good, but I felt like I was alive. I experienced things deeply. It was definitely not a mundane year. My list of good things goes on and on. On the not-so-good list, there's ‘healing my broken heart’ and ‘putting on a few pounds,’ which, all things considered, aren't so bad. I am healthy, and so is my family, with a cute little addition to the crew. This year, I finished my PhD. Well, almost. Submitted my PhD thesis and am now awaiting for my viva. I was awarded a fund for my project, which was quite an achievement for my career. Presented at one more conference and really enjoyed the experience. Travelled to 8 countries- 7 of them were brand new for me. I travelled through South East and East Asia in my crocs, living the ho...

I was watching a documentary about Vietnam while enjoying my store-bought pizza, extra mushrooms. This was the second-best thing that happened to me today. The first was falling asleep on the couch with a new book in my arms, as a rainy storm raged outside. I’m sure you can picture exactly what I’ve described. I’m trying to slow down my weekends, as they should be. In the documentary, they showed videos from a train street in Hanoi, apparently a very famous one. The appeal is that a train passes through a narrow street where there are cafes on both sides with outdoor chairs- as opposed to some sort of barrier between them. It’s exhilarating and slightly dangerous. But exhilarating for sure. As the train approaches, everyone takes out their phones and film the train coming through the little street cafes. It is a cute shot. I can perfectly picture myself taking a nice photo of my coffee with the train. I think this is the whole point of why people go visit the train street. Because, i...

   Today marks the last day of teaching for the semester. I feel exhausted and free, but mostly happy. I have done something I was most scared of—something I thought I could never do. One of my biggest fears. And yet, here I am, having led two module tutorials for a semester and surviving it. It’s been a long time since I’ve truly challenged myself through work, so this experience is incredibly valuable to me. Of course, when I first started my PhD, gave my first presentation, started my first job, or took my first long-haul flight overseas, I felt challenged and scared. But all those moments are in the past. Recently, I’ve been sticking to things I’m already good at. Nothing has particularly pushed me- nothing that made me wake up at 5 a.m. or kept me stressed overnight. As much as I disliked the anxiety coursing through my body, I appreciated the feeling of having a new goal—something to achieve, something that forced me out of my comfort zone. The satisfaction afterwa...

I was walking to the campus and while walking, replying to a few emails at the same time. This is a very bad habit I picked up recently. If I’m not cycling, I usually listen to stuff while walking and since I have to multitask, I also check messages and emails and respond to things I can quickly. Especially if it doesn’t require many brain cells or thinking processes. Of course, nothing is so urgent it can’t wait the thirty minutes it takes to reach my office. But I justify it as lightening my workload. When I first started writing emails regularly as part of my job, I would reread them five times, terrified of unintentionally offending someone. My most irrational fear was coming across as rude due to language barriers. On top of that, most of my emails were addressed to people far senior to me, which only added to my anxiety. Over time, though, this fear faded. Now, I’m much more relaxed. I usually end my emails with “Kind regards.” I’ve never used “Best wishes” or “Warm regards...