Reflecting on 2022.

2022 has been a strange yet beautiful year complemented with change for both the world and me personally. Reflecting on the past 12 months, I discovered that this year was magically simultaneously my best and worst year combined.

Personally, the tallest hurdle I faced was moving. I moved from Singapore to Cambodia, two entirely different settings with no similarities.

My parents presented the idea of a potential relocation at the start of the year. They stated we would relocate once the international schooling year ends, between July and August. I was nowhere delighted, I was disappointed. How have my parents approved of us relocating to such an unknown, undesired destination? I attempted several different solutions to excuse me from the relocation.The best solution I found was to live with my grandparents in Malaysia while my parents leave for Cambodia. It wasn’t successful. If it was, you wouldn’t be reading this article. In frustration and defeat, I disregarded the idea and continued living my day to day, hoping the day would never come.

As time flew, the idea of moving to a completely new environment surfaced back. There was absolutely nothing I could do. It was inevitable. I was embarrassed to tell my friends I was moving to Cambodia, so I told them I was moving back to Malaysia. However, I told my close friends I would be moving to Cambodia as they deserved the truth.

I sought out to use every second of my remaining stay in Singapore over the last few weeks. I would hang out with my friends as much as possible, try new things and enjoy myself. Towards the last week or so, I found a passion for skateboarding. I would go skating at the local skatepark for hours every day.

On the day of the move, I was discouraged. I knew I was going to miss Singapore and everyone I knew. I was going to miss being out and about and skateboarding. I was going to miss having the freedom and safety Singapore provides to teens. But nonetheless, I had no time to whine as my new school was scheduled to start in 2 days.

On my first day, I was introduced to a boy named Lucas, who then introduced me to his friend group. I learnt so much about everyone, and wondered how there could be such cool people in Cambodia. I continued living my new day to day life, making new friends and learning about the new culture.

By the end of the year, I had made an amazing group of friends, enjoyed school and got back into sports again, with the lifting of Covid restrictions. Reflecting back, I would say I was being stubborn and difficult. I came to the realisation that Cambodia isn’t that bad.

There are two lessons I learnt in the past year. One being to make use of your time, nothing ever stays constant. And two, there is always a silver lining to any situation, even if you can’t see it in the beginning.