sunday. rainy. Aachen. the new semester starts tomorrow!

and im not done with exams…but am i ready for my comeback semester? yes…? whatt?? YESSSSSS!!! oh and my cousin got married today! couldn’t attend because im stuck here because of the pandemic 😦

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everyone will develop some form of mental disorder in the courses of their lives. EVERYONE. can’t believe that people needed to run a huge-scale research to prove that….

here is a little song:

what on earth have i been doing in the past month

in short: not much


the main highlight is the exam season and i just bloody realised that im not even halfway through my exams!!! what on earth!!!! it’s been forever!!!! and my grades aren’t even that excellent…i can totally understand people who drop out…it literally feels like a waste of time. [to my friends who are worried that i might do just that : fret not, im asian and some part of me still want to feel the pride associated with a piece of hopefully recycled paper]

i used the Chinese New Year and exams as excuses to eat a lot of Chinese takeout and meat so i gained a substantial amount of weight which is why im annoyed. another side effect of this is my diminishing wallet. but i was happy as hell!

my thumb is still broken and my surgery wound is for some reason a little infected??? after two months??????? tending to it has been annoying (by tending i mean ignoring it, which is harder to do than you think). i went for my first run this year and since the surgery last week, which was invigorating and at the same time breathless. it is winter part 5 or 6 now here in Germany so im a little frustrated that i cannot go out and run and “wiggle*” the my extra weight away. [*quoting this directly from a data analysis & visualisation slide; please see below]

i started using a shampoo bar and mmmmmm for someone who is basically trash i think im doing a great job in reducing waste.

one more very important thing is the improvement of my mental health. my psychotherapist is amazing mannnnn! (i differentiate between a psychotherapist and physiotherapist because it wouldn’t be long till i have both in my life again)

i haven’t been reading as much as i wanted to so in some way, i feel like a stupider person. i have been however watching shows “to relax after a tense day of studying(cramming- because i didn’t do shit during the semester)” which is obviously just another excuse to not grow my mind in a more productive way during my free time…not proud of it but im chronically lazy person so yes, i will accept this personality flaw without question (cos that takes effort).

i have ideas for some EXCITING side projects to do in the near future…but first i need to. get. through. exam. anxiety. im combatting it by writing way more exams than i used to. i think im currently slated for more exams in this one semester than the last two combined … someone is trying to sprint to the finish line 8)

my brain was kinda swimming in keyboard vomit and i think i should just let it out so here it is…STAY ALIVE!!!!

Valentine’s Day. winter is finally ending (i hope)

my first exam is in five days. im writing 95% of the time with my right hand now and the thumb is still a nuisance but not as big as it used to be.

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i didn’t know what bucatini pasta is, but now i wanna taste them too. and i want those from De Cecco.

all BREAKING NEWS we see are just results of feedback loops eh

it claims to be Valentine’s Day tips from astronauts. more like survival tips from people who have been in extreme conditions of isolation — for people in lockdowns like us

more tips on how to maintain a healthy mind in this pandemic. most are pretty straightforward things

Angelina — a film (?)/ documentary of an Italian granny. really like the cinematography

medical advices are so confusing

or maybe it’s just in Germany. or maybe because i’ve only needed help here in Germany. but wow.

anyway:


physiotherapist: go to your doctor and get referrals to come here again

me: i want to go to physiotherapy again

doctor: nope you’re going to an orthopaedic cos you shouldn’t need physiotherapy anymore


psychologist or counsellor lol idek who cos the mental health industry in Germany is even more confusing: you need to go to psychotherapy

me: i want to go to psychotherapy

doctor: nope you need a psychiatrist


at this point i’m not even sure if i have that many problems. but if anyone was asking, my university life is going great.

friday. Malaysia. it rained.

hello welcome to the peak of my emotional rollercoaster!!! life seems to be hopeful!!

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things that people listed as “hobbies” on their CVs. wow. these people are bold.

how learning programming can help with mental health. hmm interesting. all the more motivated to learn coding now.

woah Nike sounds scary for budding female athletes

data engineer vs data scientist

words that have no English equivalent. hahahhahahahahah fun

50 ways to be ridiculously generous. yeap. ridiculous. some are quite nice though

(kinda) done with the second semester

academics-wise, i’m officially done with semester 2, three days earlier than expected because some bad decisions in the past weeks led me to unregister from the last exam due to lack of preparation. and i don’t want to just “try to pass” in a subject that would be important to me in the future.

now for some reflections.

the semester started shaky as i further try to navigate the life as a student and trying to recover from a horrible first semester. i made plans. i was executing them. things were going good. and then of course, life would come fuck you up. i broke my dominant arm and a knee ligament, while playing badminton indoors. things pretty much just went downhill after that. although i was just physically incapable to go to classes for 1.5 weeks, the mental aftermath that i had to endure afterwards rendered me useless for more than half of the semester. i had to learn to use my left hand, which has gotten smarter but also still dumb at times; i still eat solely with my left hand but do most other things with my right hand, though it tires easily. i couldn’t go to classes because of the mental distress and i hated writing with my left hand after a while. i was betrayed and backstabbed badly while in the midst of this mess. i thought i couldn’t trust anyone anymore(not true), and i wouldn’t talk to my family (my poor poor dad). i literally faced all kinds of problems that a human could possibly face in a lifetime, other than financially, all at the same time. who wouldn’t slip into a depression like that? my routine started including going to physiotherapy, regular checkups at the hospital, going to the doctors, counselling, and group therapies. officially, i am engaged actively at two institutions for my physical health, and four institutions to maintain my sanity (i still went berserk sometimes, sorry for people who had to deal with it), and i went to my general practitioner often enough to realise that the first one sucked so i started going to a second one. this was rock bottom.

thus i started a battle with depression and anxiety. i still wouldn’t say that i conquered it but at least it has gotten better cos everything seems to be okay again. it begun with me starting a job at a university institute as a student assistant and in the same week i won a scholarship (that’s why i don’t have a financial problem xD). i really am happy at the job, it’s great to feel appreciated when you put in effort to do something. though i did (unsurprisingly) fail the first exam in the semester, the others that i sat for seemed to go quite well. and it really boosted my self-confidence.

there are of course some other things that happened that im still not comfortable to discuss in the open. what i really want to say is, i really am grateful for the people who stuck around and who believed in me (even when i was having serious doubts about myself) and gave me all the support to help me go through this. i now know who my true friends are, it’s still hard for me to cut off the toxic ones but for the sake of those of you who really care about me, i will.  shoutout to the all of you, mostly people who have known me for less than a year and people who might not understand me and my actions all the time because of cultural differences or otherwise but still chose to stay in my life. not to say that i don’t appreciate my old friends back at home and people in other parts of the world whom ive known longer, but we aren’t in the vicinity of each other and i now realise that it does make a difference. i still love you all, that’s for sure.

and i love all of you and i will try my best to regain full health (physically, mentally, and emotionally) as soon as possible and be the best person i could possibly be. i hope that you would still be there.