Reality: Snapshot #2 - True Friends, and Satisfaction

Photo Credit: *vlad*

What is real happiness?

Notice (26.8): I'm going to be moving this blog to a new address soon. If you have been following me for some time, the nature of my blog posts has taken a more personal, reflective turn (being true to personality FTW) and as I have rather detailed form 6 notes lying around this blog, I'll leave this blog for reference and the occasional article on learning/studies but open another address for future updates. Just felt the need for separating the personal from the studies stuff.

A(nother) five minute post-Camp Cam and holiday-end snapshot of life so far.
PS: Pics at end of post ;)

Photo Credit: Brandon Christopher Warren 

Snapshots of life come in different colours.

It's been a little more than a month since Camp Cameron ended, and pretty soon life's gonna start getting busy again. With Band Camp, classes starting (it has been said that the transition from freshman to sophomore year is a pretty big leap, and a hectic one at that), convocation - where many senior friends are going to graduate and move to the next stage in life, and juniors coming in (OMG I'm a senior already! Old already...haha!), life goes on. Everyday can't be a mountaintop experience.

When I came back from camp last month, everything seemed less than perfect. Family, church, life, friends - everything needed to be fixed because it wasn't ideal. Somewhat I had this superwoman mentality that everything must be changed (which is normally what happens when I get a 'high' from camps and stuff) and some people said that I became more judgmental, actually. But instead of everything changing for the better, it either remained the same, or I became lazy. I stopped reading my Bible daily like the first few days after camp. Worship stopped feeling personal and intimate - it felt routine again. Some bad habits and closet sins became worse than ever before. How quick it can be to forget the experiences that I had with God and with my camp family, if one never takes the trouble to remember! And once again, doubts about identity and self worth creep in in those dry, dreary days where the computer became my only companion or connection with the outside world.

There were events such as reunions with my camp family and also church camp (If you stumbled here by accident you'd probably wonder, wow, this girl goes for a lot of camps does she? Yeah, this holiday season, pretty much.) Those undeniably were good times with good fellowship, but most of the time when left alone with a computer, I start to doubt. There seemed to be pictures of almost everyone having a good time (i.e when you feel lonely, everyone seems to be having more fun). And then I start counting - the number of Whatsapp messages I received, the number of notifications on my Facebook feed, the number of friends in pictures I posted, the amount of time I hanged out with people. When others seemed to have more of those, I envied them. Surely their lives must be more fun and fulfilling than mine, I thought to myself. So at one particularly down day, I posted this:

The responses that I received were overwhelming. No, not in terms of quantity, but those that responded to me both publicly and privately chastised me for looking at the surface quantifiers of popularity as to determine whether one is truly happy or not, as well as for the envy that I had towards others. People who were genuinely well liked are so because they bless others, and I am guilty of seeing what they have and coveting it instead of blessing them/getting to know them as people.

Insecurity is a pretty lethal road block if you want to bless others and feel really happy, because you are never perfect enough, never happy enough, never satisfied, always lacking, always wanting. Discontentment...breeds contempt.

Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney

Alone doesn't have to mean lonely.

So it's alright to be eating alone in the cafeteria (trips me up everytime someone asks about that), it doesn't mean that I'm a loser.
It's okay if I log in to Facebook, Whatsapp or whatever and see nothing new, it doesn't mean that I have no social life.
It's okay if people who are around me are ''less fun''. They are not less fun . They are fun, and fun doesn't have to be only certain type of activities that aren't preferable for people with different personalities. And even with people of different personalities, they are not shallow or surface. They are people. Everyone is a unique creation of God. I am, too. And for that I am grateful.

More stuff I am grateful for:

Yoon Yi @ Georgetown! Pic is hers.
She's one of those few friends that I grew up with :)

The Asherite reunion @ Melaka, and the family there,
happy after their crepe cakes:)
this one was taken by Fongwan, btw.

More Asherite madness!
The pics above and below was taken at one of our outings by grandpa Jeremy :)

The last three are spoilers, bahaha! Had a small gathering at home yesterday. I am blessed to share a historical day with these folks. I admit I did envision a big fancy party and crowd but...again, quality over quantity. Besides, now I kinda have friends all over Malaysia (or getting there) :)

The family...

The childhood friends...

The childhood friends + my senior pastor & wife

Goodbye Puchong, hello second year. I welcome the challenges and the new experiences for the year ahead :)