What I learned in 2017

For me, 2016 was a year of wealth. My award winning short movie resulted in some good financial boost. There were some free-lance projects that seemed to fall on my lap too because of it.

How to best picture it; I flew half of my family members to Bali and paid for most of things; return tickets, entertainment, lunches and dinners. 
The house also got some nip and tuck ; new roof for the garage, new sofa, I even installed a new air conditioning in the guest room.

It was easy.

But it did not take long for it to go South as soon as I entered 2017...

Illustration by Aolanow

In 2017, so many mishaps and hardships continue to test me. Mom even had a stroke. And her house got on fire. Then my kitchen got on fire. No joke.
Relationship was no walk in the park too with the both us finding it harder to visit each other. Also, I've trained for my first Marathon so the whole regime changed a lot of routines for months.

How to best picture it; no one is coming to Bali this time, and I cannot even afford to have a short break. And my skin has never been this dry and freckled.

However,

I learned about reaching my potential. If you've read my stories before, I am officially a Marathoner this year with two medals bagged in less than four months time. The first one was even a major hit as it was sponsored by renowned brands! 42.195K is not a joke. I can finally say that by experience. It was only by God's grace and second to none discipline in training.

Animal Welfare issue become an even closer cause to my life this year. When I contacted BOSF about my Singapore Marathon and how I want to run it to raise fund for the Orangutans, little did I hope it will gain so much attention. 

Then, I learned even more about people and myself. (Prepare to read a cynical paragraph here)
It was not easy to ask people to donate when you do not have a "wine dinner." as a gimmick. No photos will be published in magazines too. Nothing pretty or lavish about donating money to the Orangutans.

There were some... well, disappointments on my side. People that I know would easily say yes to overpriced charity dinner did not even bat an eye when I ask them for their support. "Donation starts from USD.2, and it goes directly to the foundation..." I told them.

But no. Nothing from those people.

I've realized that I can be so judgemental sometimes. And it was so hard for me to see the bright side. My partner keep reminding me "So what? They do not care, but others do. Work with what you have. It is still way better than nothing."

And at the end, we managed to secure a good amount of donation for the work of Rescuing-Rehabilitating-and Releasing our "Gardeners of the Forest." And I am forever thankful to those who have supported. (Total as of today IDR 13,228,745)

Last, I learned about how to listen to your gut and take an action on it.
I cannot share all details at the moment but the gist is; I need to stop talking myself out of my own destiny.

What did you learn this year?