I was doing my rounds yesterday (now I sound like a doctor, heh) and I can’t believe the number of year-end posts that I came across. You know, those “What have I done in 2007″ kind of posts that get you thinking about your own achievements and what-nots. And then I began to think. How nice it would be if everybody wrote such posts at the end of the year because then, I would only need to blog-hop in December every year and STILL know what’s going on with everybody! That way, I would spend significantly LESS time blog-hopping and that would probably increase my productivity too, wouldn’t that be great?

Actually, I find year-end posts very effective as “subscribe to me!” posts because in just one post, I get to know about stuff that a blogger writes about most of the year — be it “What I had for breakfast” kind of posts or “Look what I bought today!” kind of posts.

So if you had similar thoughts, here’s my contribution :D

ON LIFE AS A STUDENT

My biggest achievement this year as a student is to have finally completed my Master’s research project. To top that off, I am also glad that I have managed to submit my thesis draft to my Supervisor in 4 months. At the moment, I am working on some corrections, after which I hope to be able to submit my final thesis to the Graduate School in two weeks, but we shall see how it goes.

Up next, I do have some plans to do my Ph.D. but I am not making any decisions yet, and I hope to be able to discuss this with a few other turtle scientists before making the commitment. Wish me luck yea? :D

In February this year, a visiting scientist came from Canada and we tracked a few adult river terrapins in the Setiu River. The tracking project was an indeed eye opener because I have read about (and tried visualizing) turtle-tracking and how, apparently, it was done but I have never seen it myself. But all thanks to my Supervisor and the visiting scientist, I now have an idea of what a turtle-tracking study entails :D

Fast forward a few months later, we successfully organized and carried out the 3rd Annual Terrapin Independence Day, but it wasn’t without some misunderstandings and frustrations. But then again, my Events Co-ordinator cousin would say that ALL events come pre-packaged with a set of tears and blood, literally, LOL.

And two weeks ago, I attended a graduate congress (my first and last academic conference this year) and am thrilled to be awarded the Second Runner-Up Oral Presenter. It was a great opportunity for meeting new people and for networking and I am glad I was able to make it.

Oh, and at the moment, I am working on a 4.5-month job as an Education Officer, and my job includes designing posters and educational materials for primary school children. In Feb/March next year, I will be conducting four Turtle Education Roadshows to the targeted schools in Redang Island, Perhentian Island and Setiu. I took up the job because it sounded very interesting and I thought it was a good opportunity to challenge myself to do something out of the ordinary :D

ON BLOGGING

I jumped onto the PPP bandwagon in January and I jumped out of it in June. I had lots of fun, I wrote 42 sponsored posts, I got paid a few hundred bucks, but at the end of the day, I decided that I actually preferred writing for charity, for the environment, and for spreading awareness.

Hence, The Giving Hands and The Turtle Talks were born. At one time I almost sold Giving Hands due to my own commitments but a couple of bloggers willingly chipped in environment- and charity-related articles which kept Giving Hands alive. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to hang on to it until today. Thank you very much, Rinnah, Joanna, Miranda, Yvy, Steve, Diana13 and littlebro. Thank you for showing that you care. And most of all, thank you for being there when I needed your help. You rock!

On top of that, I am also trying my best to write timeless posts consistently on my turtle blog. At the moment, I am working on about three posts in a week, but I am not sure if I would be able to stick to such schedule next year.

Besides (normal) blogging, I managed to raise more than USD 800 for Eden Handicap Service Centre in Malaysia during Blogathon (it was my first Blogathon, you see). Blogging about disabilities has opened my eyes to the plight of the disabled in more ways than one, and I would definitely do again next year, if I could :D

ON A MORE PERSONAL SCALE

We celebrated Grandpa’s 84th birthday, Grandma’s 81st birthday and their 60th wedding anniversary in June this year. Almost all our relatives from far and near got back to Ipoh (and it was like celebrating Chinese New Year all over again) for the occasion. We had a lot of fun, cheers, laughters and toasts :D

But then again, 2007 has also been a year in which some of my relatives are diagnosed with diseases. It saddens me to hear about them falling sick, and knowing there is nothing that I can do :(

In addition, I am surprised at how matured I have grown over the course of a year in the way I handle my relationships with people around me. J and I got into fights once in a while but not so much this year because we were apart most of the year. He spent about 7 months in two separate contract jobs in Penang, whereas I spent most of my time in Kuala Terengganu.

On another note, I attended five weddings this year, one of which was a Malay wedding and two of which were my cousin sisters’. I enjoyed myself during those wedding kenduri and dinners because that was when I got to catch up with my friends and relatives. But five was ENOUGH, you hear me??! I need to start working very urgently because of all your wedding invitations!

I also went on a trip to Chiangmai with my high school girlfriends in July. That was the first time I flew out of the country without my Mum, so yeah, that was an achievement, LOL. We spent 4D3N walking, shopping, sight-seeing, elephant-riding, photo-taking and we all came home exhausted!

FINAL NOTE

On the whole, I think life has been great to me this year. Sure, we all have “those moments” when we feel like life is so unfair and all those jazz, but then again, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, no?