paper glass against flourescent neon lights

Grandpa 2009, you've served us well, Thank you for the months, days and minutes well spent.. rest in our blissful memories, and be assured that baby 2010 will give us as much fun and experience as you've given!

2009, what a year it was! one full of new experiences, new friends, and great achievements!

***

Chapter 1: Setting Up Camp.

She started the year with a confused sleepy blur, fresh from the plans with cabin breath, gracing Vail, Colorado USA with anxiousness, and a whole lot of awesomeness! She didnt know what to expect for the next few months in a foreign land, she didnt expect to expect anything. There was too much of getting used to, the bone chillin winter cold, the topsy turvy time difference, the alien accent on difffernt lips, so, she decided to just be like a bear, and hibernate the first few days of 2009 away.

It was a whole new firsts for her. 3 transits, one missed flight, and 24 hours on a plane was the first of firsts that kept her confidence. Through the months, naive and confused as she was, she survived independent life in US: she saw another side of her brother that she loved, she talked to strangers, she met new friends from all over the world, got the fucking of a lifetime for sneaking into bars with a fake passport, she got drunk, she learnt how to snowboard without killing herself (although she almost did), and she jumped off a plane.

US was one helluva ride! but work was work, money was an issue, and ugh, work, was work. She loved going into work to talk to the customers, and snatch some free food! After bussing tables, breaking glasses, sitting guests and making coffee for months, she finally step out of Vail Marriot Mountain Resort and Spa a different woman for the very last time.. giving a grateful hug to her lovely manager Vanessa and giving fake pleasantries to the boss that was more of less, a pain in the ass.

From then on, it was airport to airport as she and her brother boy enjoyed the fruits of their hard sweaty labour in Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco! And then , plane flights to plane flights back to sweet land of Malaysia, that she missed heartedly.
Big mess up on the way home. Note to self: always check the AMs and PMs on the flight itinerary!

US, was an experience of a lifetime for her. Though it was only months ago, it felt like a chapter closed far far away... She was in places she never thought she would be, doing things she never thought she would do. Stepping back into Malaysia, she tasted so much, saw too many, most important of all, she learnt to love Malaysia even more!

***

Chapter 2: Mounted Flag at the top of the Summit

Through the months before and during and after US, she was frustrated. Not only frustrated at the frustration of visa procedures, she was worried about college. The age old questions and puberty-stricken teens got sick and tired off: where the fuck am i going to study? What the fuck am i going to do?

But it was all answered in August. Thank Heaven's mercy that she got practically free admission to spent the next three years of her life as a Comm Student with Taylors. It solved a whole lot of problems: where to study was crossed of the list, and not spending her mother's EPF on tuition fees was a good thing. Though reluctant as first (Taylors wasnt her first, second, nor third if given a choice), she grew to absolutely love the school. Mainly, and only because she found herself bonded in the midst of colourful characters that is the Berry family!

AppleBerry she became, and she was here to stay.

Relunctance resided, she then geared up and set determination to conquer and prove her priceless worth.

***
Chapter 3: A Little Taste of Everything.

There was alot of bumming around in between holidays. Between ending an adventure and staring a new identity, she bummed around at home for months. She just didnt want to do anything but dance.While the bees buzzed about her head and the mushroom grows, She got so sick and tired of fossilfying at home but she just couldn't bring herself to do anything else. Maybe she was so focused on dreading Taylors, maybe she was just so tired from finishing chapter one, or maybe she was so rusty at dancing that it was all she could think of. Either way, she couldnt help herself but be unproductive. Even when the first weeks of Uni finally crept in, she stayed away from the busy clubs and societies that she usually frequent. She looked at herself in the mirror and despised the person she grew into, the jist was gone.

The end of semester one came along with 3 months of nothingness. For reasons that she herself couldn't comprehend, she gave up priceless opportunities to intern at magazines, radio or tv studios, and instead, landed herself at a Kindergarten, working as a Kindy teacher to sweet, innocent, bratty 5 year olds.

For all the amount of work she's contributing, even show monkeys earn more peanuts than her. Its like, exploitation! It's all about the kids, she tells herself, its all about the experience!

and that was what 2009 was all about, the experience. I was reluctant to do US, i was reluctant to start Taylors but it was well worth the misery. Believe me, it was a vibrant year, like paper glass against fluorescent neon lights. I slid down all 7 colours of the rainbow slide, basking in each of its golden glory...

P/S: the jist is not gone, it was just deep inside, recharging!

now tell me, is it annoying to listen to someone talk about themselves in the 3rd person?