2006... The year that flew by...

Well its the last day of 2006... and almost 2007... and i guess its an appropriate time to look back on what can be summed up as the year that flew by. Although for me the year 'flew by', i gotta admit its the busiest year i've ever faced... with heaps of big decisions and milestones. I reckon the highlight of my life.. and the lowlight of my life so far has occurred in the past year. But in the end... what really pulled me through were all of my friends... those who are there for me when i'm happy or sad, smiling or crying, whatever the situation is, my friends were always there for me. I met heaps and heaps of new friends, which probably don't know how much they have impacted on my life... also old friends from high/primary school which I am so happy to still be awesome friends with.

I can barely remember 2006... it started off on a bad note: my uncle passed away on 2nd Jan because of throat cancer. I spent new years in the hospital ward, and woke up the next day with the news. I knew 2006 would be when I turned 18... but adulthood really hit me in the face then. Life can come and go just like that... but I remember one of the last things I heard my uncle say... he said that he was satisfied and happy with his life. That really challenged me to live a good life and be satisfied with whatever it throws at you. I should be happy because maybe there will be no tomorrow? I should tell my friends how special they are to me as if it was the last time I could do that.

Another step for me in 2006 was the beginning of university life. I was happy with my course and eager to settle into university life. The first thing that hit me was the scope difference between school and uni. In school there are 25 people in class and 1500 in your school... but in uni there are like 100+ people in a lecture and like thousands of people in the actual campus. I was lucky to find a group of friends who are really friendly and also relatively focused on uni =P. Also, was able to meet with other friends during breaks, which was really good.

Because of uni and everything... I think my friendship groups were really mixed and stuffed up. I rarely met up with high school friends, and i wouldn't say I had 'best buddies' among my church friends, but I was really blessed to find a new group of friends through badminton. These people overlapped to church friends and also friends of my old friends, so it was really cool! I reckon I wouldn't have survived the year without these people, and they mean so much to me.

I've said it so much... especially in the last few months (where i've tried to get the most outa them by sleeping at 1am at least every night) but I think its true. Time goes by so fast. Once we catch up with wat is happening around us, something else pops up and we have to catch up with that. Can't we just pause time and savour those moments? There have been so many occasions where I just wish time was infinite and at our mercy. Also times where we could just have things the way we thought them out to be. Times where everything would be perfect. But we live in a fallen world, where imperfections are abundant. Life can be cruel, but life is something to be treasured. I don't wanna ever waste a moment of my life. One thing I've learnt is to always have a smile on my face ^__^ ... Its been plastered there by various ppl many times this year... and I hope it won't need to be plastered on anymore! I probably will still be evil and mean when i can get away with it... but otherwise I wanna be the best person and friend I can be.

2007 is coming... with its ups and downs. Sure... there will be moments of helplessness, but I know for sure that there will be times of celebration... times of happiness, love, friendship... times that I wouldn't trade anything for. 2007 is a big year... let's just hope its a good year for everyone! ^______^

Random

Holidays...

Well the past few days have gone pretty fast... been keeping myself busy with church stuff, badminton, work, reading, and the occasional msn chat or two =P And its amazing! tonight will be the third night in just about 4 months that i've slept before 11!! Great accomplishment for joshi~!!

Mmmm christmas time is getting closer~ less than 2 weeks away!! I wonder wat suprises will there be this year? Lots of X-mas carols coming up i guess... voice gonna die and everything... Work is making us wear santa hats and stuff... But the most important thing about X-mas is to remember and remind ourselves of the truth behind it! X-mas isnt just some made up time where some big fat red dude comes down ur chimney (or the big fat red dude who is lonered at plaza says my parents) and gives you presents... That's obviously a fairytale. Just remember... why X-mas equals presents... and then you'll realise what the greatest gift can ever be... and what the greatest gift is...

Badminton + holidays

Yes holidays sinking in! Last sunday was QLD Juniors Badminton comp... and it was awesome! Got there at about 2 and bummed around with the others... everyone was playing so seriously! Watched heaps of games and umpired a few too... talking with ppl about really random stuff :S listening to ipod... until my first game at 3:45. Man... my games were all pretty scary... against state level players and stuff! Under 19/21 singles... won my first game amazingly and comfortably 31-24. I pissed the guy off so much with my serves and he chucked his racquet on the ground. Talk about anger management lol.

Then a few more mins passed... then had to verse brian... crazy state level A/open player... and lol.. was beating him in the beginning 14-9. I was like OMG! Think he wasn't playing very well though... and i didn't give him many smash chances so yeah. I think I managed 20 points in the end. I was happy... was playing pretty well hehe. Then i got wasted by this dragon club dude... he was playing awesome and i was still playing okay... i got just under 20 points so that was okay. hmmmm... haha then i vs'ed this Aus jr team guy... he beat me 21-1 once ages ago so that was a scary proposition hehe. I was beating him in a few stages... then he romped home and beat me about 31-20ish so I was pretty happy still. Then vs'ed this other dragon club guy and lost about 31-20 and i was dead at that time so meh. Can't believe i beat a state team dude and got 20ish points off everyone else hehe. Then up came mixed doubles lol. Me and Elaine had this game plan =P and it worked LOL. We were both a bit tired (well i was anyway...) and SOMEONE kept on hitting the net and giving nice lollipop shots *stare* but we got through and won comfortably... even though the scoreline was a bit close. Then came MD which sucked so i wont talk about it.

Funniest moment was when it started storming... thunder went BOOOOM! and then... LOL half the lights went out! One court was closed cos all these leaves and rain came in through the top lourves... and the other courts had a bit of water on them too! So the lights went out for about 20 minutes... and with 1 unavaiable court for about 1hr... the comp was delayed soooo long. On the way home all the lights on mains rd were dead.. and the intersections were all chaotic. Luckily no stupid drivers on the road or else joshi might not be here. Crap moment was when sandy did a spectacular 180 degree twisting dive! lol thats not the crap bit... that's the awesome bit =P crap bit is she did her ankle badly :( hope you get well soon =P

Anyway more later... c ya

When it all falls apart

Have you ever looked forward to something... something that u really really wanted to go to, or some event that u just really wanted to take place, or just a certain day to come... but when that day came, your expectation, anticipation, and all that excitement and hype was just torn to shreds? Not just torn to shreds... just totally obliterated. Your anticipation gone down the drain... but thats not all.. not only that something is gone... your future is just muddled by this unexpected twist of fortunes.
I am not a guy with huge expectations... and i'm sure there are many out there like me. There are times wen u just wanna smash your head on the wall out of frustration or disappointment... not because of your huge expectations, but merely because logic has not prevailed. Somethings that are straightforward become a tangled mess.
I personally have never experienced what it feels like when everything is falling apart around me... but gee... from what i'm going thru now... it must be a pretty bad feeling.

December has come... what now?

Well, it seemed like yesterday we were staring into a new year... 2006... but now, we are looking back at a year that flew by so fast... and waiting for 2007 to come! So much has happened this year... and there's so much to look back and reflect on, yet theres still so much to come in the last 31 days of 2006. So many good and bad, fun and lonely, happy and sad moments waiting to happen. Well... lets see what is in store for December of 2006!

1. Christmas!
2. New Years Eve
3. Holidays
4. Work
5. Meeting up with friends that we haven't seen in a while
6. Eating out
7. Poking people!
8. Late nights *yawn*
9. Movies
10. Saying goodbye to friends ditching aus XP
11. Playing sport!
12. Swimming
13. Watching sport!
14. Reflection time
15. Fooooooooooood
16. Poking people!
17. Learning CAD/CG programs
18. Badminton self-training
19. Being nic... *coughcough* mean..
20. (hopefully) Presents!!!