8 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY
Sunday, November 23, 2014
After reflecting and asking myself umpteen times, I realise I tend to forget the things that makes me happy. Sometimes we get so lost within the things we do that we forget to be happy. I know I'm one fine example.
Have you guys ever felt the empty void in your heart in the middle of the night, when everything you were busy with in the day dies down? Its like you feel really.. empty, numb and emotionless.
I then start to question myself if I was truly happy.
Sometimes doing things that you thought you were happy doing just suddenly becomes a routine or motion. For instance, I do enjoy blogging a lot and I love to share my thoughts with my readers.
But when tons of assignments pile up and I have to squeeze in time to juggle my relationship with my friends, boyfriend, family, photoshoots, school, events etc.. I started to see these things as just datelines and it was stressing me out.
Unknowingly, I started to lose the joy I felt in me doing these things. Don't get me wrong, I do LOVE my commitments, and I am so thankful and so blessed for many great opportunities that have shaped me into becoming who I am today.
Now that i'm miles and miles away from all these commitments, I finally have the time to reflect on the things that truly makes me happy. I thought I would just pen it down here to serve as a reminder to myself.
Kinda need something to pull me back when I fly into a frenzy-stresful state, like I always do, huh.
So here goes:
1. Being productive makes me happy
I would say this is the thing that makes me most happy. I'm naturally someone that appreciates efficiency and I love to get things done quick and well.
Chilling my life away and just rotting at home, doing nothing and watch videos all day would make me even more lethargic and upset than anything.
A trait that I know, might be toxic to me, my health and everyone around me, something I've been trying to find a balance in. Haha still trying, though.
I become super happy when I complete a gazillion things in a day. Be it go for 3 shoots back to back, write 2 blog posts in one day, shoot 20 pieces of adverts, or simply.. completing all my errands for the day.
I just can't sit still and do nothing. Sleeping in is almost impossible for me because I often feel that sleeping is a waste of time (yes I know we need sleep and I STILL sleep, in case youre wondering).
But i'm usually up and about by 9 am because I want to make full use of my time. And the sunlight for taking nice pictures for advertorials etc.
"Sleep is for the weak" hahaha!
2. Food makes me happy
I'm sure all of you know this, nothing really makes me as happy as a satisfied tummy.
Going for brunch, cafehopping, etc. Food in general makes me SO happy and I sometimes I even feel happy a few days after.
The conversation would usually go like this:
*Smiles to myself randomly*"Why are you smiling to yourself?""Because I had the Buffalo Wings from Ice Edge Cafe and it was SOOOOO GOOD OMG! Im so happy"
Hahhaha! I know most of you are probably judging me by now, but its okay, you'll get used to it.
My friends don't call me "THE weirdo" for nothing. Oopsie.
3. Blogging makes me happy
I love to share my thoughts and view on things, and I see blogging as a way of expressing myself.
Its so heartening to know that there are actually people reading my blog and have some readers even influenced (positively) from it. I'm so blessed to have you guys, really.
Its amazing how I have this bond with some of my readers, something I will always treasure. You guys will always cheer me up whenever I'm down. Be it emailing me to encourage me, or leaving nice and kind comments to make me feel better.. really appreciate it.
I don't know where I'd be without you guys. And I guess thats the Biggest source of happiness I get from Blogging.
Furthermore, whats better than getting paid and sponsored for the things you love?
God is truly gracious and good, and he's blessed me with so many opportunities to work with many brands, big or small. And even though i'm not a celebrity blogger or anything close to that, I'm happy with the little tiny progress "mongabong" have made thus far.
Everyone has their own expectations and I would say that this is my little success that i'm so proud of :'D
So i hope to continue sharing my thoughts over here and I hope that you guys won't ever get tired of reading!
4. Doing photoshoots make me happy
Singapore is not the best place to have a photoshoot, I know. The sun is so unforgiving, and there are only so many shoot locations we can choose from.
As tired as I get, I always somehow seem to be able to find the strength to pull through, and carry on.
I can have photo shoots of up to 10 hours back to back in a day, and looking back, I wonder how I even did it. Hahaha
Many people have asked me, why haven't I given up blog shop modelling after almost 2.5 years of being in the industry? They said that I should focus more on blogging instead because many other blog shop models are transitioning from being just a "blogshop model" to a blogger.
No doubt I do own a blog, but its a humble little one. I do not see myself as a "blogger" and probably never will because I know i'm not up to the standard.
Its a title that comes with responsibility, you know.. hahaha!
It was blogshop modelling that made me who I am today, I mean.. my online personality.
I started out as a blogshop model, and I was merely a blogshop model that had a blog, thats about it for me. Not that I enjoy modelling more than blogging, don't get me wrong. I just don't see whats so bad about being labelled as a "blogshop model". I know my time as a blogshop model will be up some day, i'm hoping not soon yet because I do enjoy being in front of the camera, meeting nice and genuine people and modelling all sorts of clothing.
People would often ask me, "aren't you tired of rushing from work/school to shoots every day?" Yes. it gets tiring at times, if you ask me. But only physically, and that will pass.
Especially when I meet really nice owners that appreciate all my hardwork for them, and when the photos turn out looking really pretty, the satisfaction I get is irreplaceable.
I guess thats what "loving what you do" means, right? Feeling instantly perked-up no matter how tired you are.
5. My boyfriend makes me happy
Of course, how can I leave out Mr. Matthiashaha?
Seeing the person I love, healthy, happy, well and doing well, makes me happy.
He never fails to be there for me whenever I'm down, and he's always there to support me, help me with the gazillion number of things I need to do.. chauffeur me around etc.
How far we've come.. eh?
Love makes the world go round ~
6. Travelling makes me happy
Needless to say, I love to travel. Go to different places, learn about the different cultures.
Try on different clothes, eat authentic food, basically I enjoy traveling because of the different adrenaline rushes I get from being at different places.
So far, I am thankful for this exchange opportunity because being in France makes traveling around Europe so much more convenient and easy.
Can you imagine going to and fro from singapore to the different parts of Europe? I'd be spending months on that plane! Haha
I've been on a few trips since I settled in Grenoble 2 months ago. Apart from Grenoble (of course), I visited:
London
Bath
York
Edinburgh
Lyon
Geneva
Santorini
Marseille, France
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Nice, France
Dijon, France
Monaco
And more! I'm so happy and blessed to able to go to all these places.
Planning to travel up to Annecy this weekend and to Eastern europe once school ends for me.
My bank account is depleting like mad but i'd say these experiences are so invaluable that money cant buy.
Traveling makes me happy because it takes away all of my troubles and worries. It's so magical that all I think about when traveling is "where shall we go grab coffee?" "what time are we having our dinner and where?"
7. Seeing my parents proud of me, makes me happy
I know this is really weird, and most of you are probably not expecting to see this here, especially when I hardly talk about my personal life at home, with my family.
Backtrack to my livejournal days, I used to write more openly about the troubles I was facing at home. The struggles of being a middle child, and the many times I would break down and write about how unloved I felt.
I guess.. not many were reading my blog then so I didn't have anything to lose. But yeah.. those closer to me will know that I come from a family that (how should I put it).. don't show any affection for each other.
Many times I shock my friends when I tell them that I have never hugged my parents before, never said "I love you" to them in their faces, neither have they showed the usual form of affection to me either.
So being the middle child, (I suffer from a rather serious case of middle child syndrome), or at least to me, I do.
I shan't go into details but basically, I was never a daughter my parents would be proud of.
My grades were mediocre, I was always rebellious as a child, forever seeking for their attention in the most annoying manner etc. (HAHA)
So fast forward to a few months ago, when my parents' attitudes started to change toward me, things at home weren't so sour anymore, and they started to hound me less for the things I did.
And even though they've never explicitly told me that they were proud of me, I know that things were changing for the better and I recently received a birthday card in my mailbox sent to me from home that wrote:
"Mong Chin, Happy Birthday to you! Over the past few years we have seen you grow and mature, it is really heartening to see that you are doing well and independent. You are now a big girl."
It was a card from my dad. I mean.. MY DAD?!
The guy that was always so harsh and hard on me, the guy that I could never see eye-to-eye to. Writing a card and complimenting me was probably the last thing he'd be likely to do.
I couldn't believe it.
Of course, I shed a little tear and that feeling was so overwhelming, I can't put it into words.
I felt truly happy that night, and I guess the hard work put into fitting in the past 21 years have paid off! Nothing beats having your parents showing you that they are proud of you, I must say.
8. Being a Singaporean, makes me happy
Okay before you guys start judging me for saying this, i'm gonna say that this thought has never crossed my mind.
From young I've always wanted to move out of Singapore. I thought Singapore was a sad country, everyone's so competitive, studies are so tough, living expenses are so high etc.
But thankfully for this opportunity to live abroad for 5 months, I opened my eyes to many things. These things I was so oblivious to, are now staring right back at me.
I finally realised how lucky I am to live in Singapore. Nope this is not some propaganda shit or anything, neither am I trying to stir anything up by talking about how great I think our government is.
This is purely based on my traveling experiences and from all the stories I've heard from my classmates. Oh yes, forgot to tell you guys that my class over here in Grenoble is made up of people from 31 nationalities, all over the world.
How amazing is that right? There are 42 of us in the class and we come from 31 nationalities.
So yes.. I've seen and heard about how unsafe some countries can be, how little freedom they have when it comes to choosing who they want to marry, how their education system is much less effective than ours.. The list goes on.
Being in a situation like this, I can't help but really be thankful for everything we have in Singapore.
We can go out at night after 8PM and not have to worry so much about getting robbed, we have so many opportunities to work in reputable, big companies, our night life is amazing (it truly is).
Not only that, i've had so many people come to me (strangers even) to tell me that their dream is to land a job and live in Singapore one day.
Ah.. I really need to contain my joy.. i'm starting to feel all warm and fuzzy within now because of how proud I am to call Singapore my home.
So yes, here's the list of the 8 things that make me happy, what makes you happy?:)
Let me know!
Credits: Google
Okay before you guys start judging me for saying this, i'm gonna say that this thought has never crossed my mind.
From young I've always wanted to move out of Singapore. I thought Singapore was a sad country, everyone's so competitive, studies are so tough, living expenses are so high etc.
But thankfully for this opportunity to live abroad for 5 months, I opened my eyes to many things. These things I was so oblivious to, are now staring right back at me.
I finally realised how lucky I am to live in Singapore. Nope this is not some propaganda shit or anything, neither am I trying to stir anything up by talking about how great I think our government is.
This is purely based on my traveling experiences and from all the stories I've heard from my classmates. Oh yes, forgot to tell you guys that my class over here in Grenoble is made up of people from 31 nationalities, all over the world.
How amazing is that right? There are 42 of us in the class and we come from 31 nationalities.
So yes.. I've seen and heard about how unsafe some countries can be, how little freedom they have when it comes to choosing who they want to marry, how their education system is much less effective than ours.. The list goes on.
Being in a situation like this, I can't help but really be thankful for everything we have in Singapore.
We can go out at night after 8PM and not have to worry so much about getting robbed, we have so many opportunities to work in reputable, big companies, our night life is amazing (it truly is).
Not only that, i've had so many people come to me (strangers even) to tell me that their dream is to land a job and live in Singapore one day.
Ah.. I really need to contain my joy.. i'm starting to feel all warm and fuzzy within now because of how proud I am to call Singapore my home.
So yes, here's the list of the 8 things that make me happy, what makes you happy?:)
Let me know!
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