Wow, my blog has become dusty and full of spider webs for these past 6 months. I'm really sorry for being gone just like that for half of the year, but hopefully you've been enjoying more contents on my Instagram posts and stories ✌🏻

Here we are at another end of the year, and I'm back to share my annual year-end reflection for this awesome year of 2018. I must honestly say that I'm kind of sad of leaving 2018. This year has taught me a lot of things that I never imagined before and surely there were a lot of struggles and pain to help me see these valuable lessons. These lessons are the things that make me fall madly in love with 2018 and I believe it's the greatest year of my life so far.

I'm going to sum up the lessons I got into five points and share with you what I've learned from each of it.
Let's take a flashback to my 2018 together 😉

True Love

These two words just appeared to me randomly at the beginning of 2018. They used to appeared back in 2015 too, just a week before I started dating a friend, and I honestly got so confused for they reappearance in 2018. However, I then chose to just embrace these words and make them my theme for 2018. I even got a bible verse which is related to these words (1 Cor 13:1-7, 13) that I printed and held close to my heart for this whole year.

Little did I know, I was going to learn so much about love this year that I don't even think I can tell you all just within this one post. Many many people have been talking about love through the centuries, so I don't think what I'm about to tell you is something new that you've never heard before. But obviously there's a difference with just knowing and finally truly living it.

I've learned that to love someone is to will the good of the other. Love isn't selfish at all and I double-checked whether I truly loved the people around me, or did I just use the word 'love' to cover my hidden intention of self-fulfillment. Sometimes we just forget and let our ego takes control over our intentions.

I've learned that in order to love others, you need to truly receive and feel the endless love from your Creator, namely God. As a human being, our love is sometimes limited and corrupted, therefore it is important to turn to the unlimited source of love itself which is God. I was really overwhelmed with God's love towards me this year, that I couldn't help but wanting to share that love to myself and my surroundings.

I've learned that God is my ultimate true love. I used to put my happiness into the hands of others, hoping they will always love me and make me happy. But that was selfish and rather impossible for any human beings to accomplish. I found out this year that only God can give me all of that, only God can fill the voids within my heart, for God is truly the love itself. He is indeed my only one true love. Forever grateful that I finally found my 'the one' this year.

Vulnerability

I went through a breakup this year.
Well, it wasn't really a messy and loud one, it was more of a calm and mature kind of breakup. But, it obviously indeed broke every pieces of my heart and I could literally see my dream shattered to pieces. What I did after my breakup you ask? Well, all I did was telling everyone close to me about it, as fast as I could. My intention was to let the words out, so that people would stop asking me about him. Then, right after I was done telling my closest circle, just a week after the breakup, I forced myself to get back up again and not letting this so-called tragedy affected my life ever again.
What's wrong with that? Well, every part of it is obviously sooo wrong.

If someone who just went through a breakup come to me and ask me for an advice now, all I will tell them is to just embrace their feelings. All those sadness, all those sharped piercing pain, all those swollen eyes after crying your eyes out, yup just embrace them all.

I was so used to being strong that I forgot how to be vulnerable. Once I started to embrace the vulnerability and accept all of the overwhelming feelings that I had, I ended up learning more about myself and finding peace with my situation. Towards the end of 2018, I also decided to become vulnerable again and opening up more about my feelings and thoughts to the people whom I trust which also helped me to get closer to these people.

I never thought that being vulnerable could be this freeing. It lifts up all the burdens and essentially gives you strength to continue the journey.

Fortitude

Needless to say this year has brought me so much pain. I'm not saying that my pain is bigger and harder than yours, but pain is still pain. They're still painful no matter at what size they're marching towards you. The virtue that I've learned a lot during these times of trials is the virtue of fortitude which is to find courage in the midst of the pain.

Of course it's so hard to find the light when you're down in the deepest darkest place. However, even though I learned to embrace my situation by being vulnerable, it doesn't mean that I was letting my situation consumed me. I still stood up and believed that my situation at that time was only temporary just like any other thing in this world, and I also believed that there must be reasons why these things were happening to me. The key is in enduring the pain with perseverance to find those hidden reasons, then you'll finally see a shining light at the end of the tunnel, a light called hope.

I know there are times when you just want to give up and give in to the struggles. I was there too, my friend. What I did to fight this temptation to give up was by not letting myself be overwhelmed with self-pity and started focusing on what I should do next, one step at a time.

I know it's easier said than done, and I keep slipping here and there too sometimes. But just learn to keep going and doing what's your heart is telling you to do. And when you get stuck, prayer will always helps, it worked wonders to me.

Self-Love

Now that I think of it, I don't think I was ever in love with myself. I always had those tiny self-critic voices inside my head 24/7 365 (sometimes 366) days a year. I was never able to see, how loving myself could've done anything significantly great for me, until this year.

Do you realize that when you don't love yourself enough, you can let other people taking control over yourself? Because when you don't love yourself, you basically don't have any self-worth, which makes it so hard for you to stand up for yourself. That's what actually happened to me.

I used to have this huge fear of judgements. I often received many judgements from others and all I did was just receiving them and let them got into my head, so they ended up distorting everything about my true identity.

Truly realizing and embracing my identity as the daughter of my loving Father truly helped me to love myself more. I suddenly felt this overwhelming love that's so hard to contain, it basically flooded everywhere, including towards myself. One day I just woke up and find it really hard to hate myself, because He accepted me just the way I am. No matter what others think, in the end it's what He thinks of me that matters the most.

Other than embracing my true identity, I also tried so hard to switch the voices in my head to a much more positive and nicer one. It was very hard at first, but as the time goes you'll gain more confidence in yourself and it'll get easier to find anything nice about yourself. I also made an effort to make myself more lovable to me, by wearing the clothes that I like and comfortable with, having those relaxing manicure night, taking care of my skin, etc. Just list all the things that you would like to do with yourself and do them all without really caring about what others may think and say about you.

I'm glad that I can finally stop caring too much about others' opinion towards me, and letting me just be me.

Living in the present

Last but not least, I've learned a valuable lesson of living in the moment. As you might have recognized, there is a reason why the present moment is called 'present', because it's eventually a gift that you can receive right on every second that's ticking and right on every breath that you take. Life is happening before your own eyes.

I found it really hard to grasp into reality, because daydream and nostalgia were the things that I enjoyed the most. I love creating stories within my head and reliving the past memories that make me smile wayyy too much, can you relate to this? Then there's a possibility that you might be having the same problem that I had earlier this year: having such a high expectation towards the future and having a tendency to cling to those beautiful memories in the past.

I didn't realize that these habits were robbing me from my present, but apparently they made it so hard for me to accept my current situation just the way it was. I always got something to complain about my present, like things were not as good as I thought it would've been, things were not as beautiful as it was before, and so on. They also generated so much worries and fears when I lost control of the stream of my thoughts. It clearly didn't feel good at all.

After working on it, I found out that living in the present could bring so much joy and peace. All I need to think about is how to handle the situation that is currently happening right in front of me, and that's all. I'm not saying that you shouldn't think about your future or relive your past, but it's all about balance. When you're overthinking about it (like I always do), it's obviously not good and you need to start tuning in into your present again.

My advice for those of you who like to worry about your future or your purpose in life is to just stay true to yourself and be who you really are. Even though you might not know what's the specific purpose of your life right now. Just know that God has prepared everything for you, because He has designed and created you specifically for your purpose in this life. So, honestly you have nothing to worry about, because you've already got everything you could possibly need.





Wow, it's surely very very long, isn't it? Applause for you who have finished reading them all without missing any word 👏🏻

Hopefully some of my words can inspire you (and my future self) to embark on this new journey of 2019 that is about to begin within few more hours. I'm wishing you all the very best of luck for this awesome road ahead.

If any of you want to do a revenge by sharing even longer 2018 reflection that you wrote, please feel free to drop them in the comment box below. If it's shorter then it's even better! Just share your thoughts because I'd really love to read them.

That's all for 2018. Looking forward for an exciting 2019 with all of you!
Until next year!
CN.

Time just flies.
It seems like yesterday that we decided to embark on this new journey together.
Trusting our guts that it was meant to be.
Today, it's already three years ago.
Three whole years just passed, and we're still here.
Lots of things happened, but none are useless.
We both got lots of lessons.
We both grow.

Here are 3 things that I learned about relationship for these past three years.

I love it when a film or a book has a happy ending. It makes me smile and it also makes me feel warm. However, you'll see that before the story reaches its happy ending, there will be lots of problems happening. Then the story just ended with a joyful ending. When the sequel arrives, usually there will be problems again. So, that's basically life. Nothing is eternal in this world, not even our happy moments. However, you can always work your sad moments out and turn 'em into happy ones. It's really up to you.

In a realtionship, the story doesn't end when you both become boyfriend and girlfriend. It might be the end of book 1, but you'll see there's another sequel coming. There will be times when you hate your partner, then there will be times when you totally adore your partner, those are all your emotions raging. Remember to make the decisions when you both are finally cold-headed, and try to work everything out. When you're truly destined to be with each other, then you'll somehow finish each book together, and keep writing and creating new books.

There's this understanding of love that I've just learned lately:
Love is when you put others before yourself.

My understanding of love used to be so shallow. When he wasn't there when I needed him the most, I used to think that he didn't love me anymore. Sometimes we have so many demands to our partner even without realizing. We forget that our partner is merely human being too. Demanding our partner to know every correct thing to do when we often don't really understand what we really want either is kind of messed up, don't you think?

When we love someone, we should focus more to the needs of our partner instead of what we want. Also make sure that our partner show the right kind of love too. Learn to love together.

Sometimes, we put way too many pressures from the society onto our relationship. Seeing others achieving new milestones in their relationship, doesn't mean that we also have to achieve the same milestones now. I learned that every relationship is unique and has its own pace, just like every person is different. Putting too many pressure isn't going to take you anywhere but dooms.

Accepting your own pace and growing together is actually a lot nicer than ticking another relationship's milestone box. Just keep your relationship in prayer and enjoy it. You'll appreciate it more this way than when you're pushing too hard.


Those are all the lessons learned and there will be more lessons along the way.
We'll just never stop learning, and I'm glad that I get to share these few lessons with you today.
Wishing you all a great future ahead,
CN.

Hello everyone!
Today I'm here with a rather different kind of post. It's quite an impulsive move, but I would love to start #ATalkToYourself series over here on my personal blog and also on my Instagram caption. Basically it's a series of my writing where you can see the subject talking to his/her own self.

I always believe that what you think has a huge control over everything that you ended up doing. That's why I would love to create a more positive influence on self-talk, since most of the times we're just being too tough on ourselves. Hopefully, some of my writings will inspire you to have victory against those demons in your head.

Until my next post, see you!
CN.

Hey! Happy New Year everyone! 🎉
We're now officially on the very first day of 2018! Wow, how fast the year's gone by. I especially feel like 2017 just flew by so fast and suddenly we're in a new year again. I think a lot of people will agree with me on that, because there were lots and lots of people mentioning the same thing to me. Oh well, before we proceed further into the year, I would like to share with you a few things that I had experienced in 2017.

2017 was one of the toughest year of my life. There were a lot of tears and pains but thankfully it's also the year where I found my rock. Everything started off quite nice, as I was working towards my goals. But somewhere along the road, I just somehow lost it, which led to a lot of disappointment and feeling crushed from within. Definitely not a good feeling to have.

I am the kind of person who wants to get everything done as quickly as I could, but not in this year. 2017 turns out to be a year of growth where I learned a lot about patience and love. It's the year where I discovered more about God's love and mercy. I learned again that my timing is totally different than His timing, and believe me, His timing will be much more perfect than any of our planned timing.

Another lesson that I got is that love costs something. You can hardly love someone without sacrificing something, or else it can't be called love because love isn't a selfish act. I was reminded not to be afraid to love someone just because I have to feel some kind of pain as a cost of it, just like Jesus suffered and died on the cross for His love for all of us.

Honestly, the only one I could really depend on in 2017 was God. I felt like I had so many broken relationships and a lot of miscommunications with the people around me last year. It's just a little bit too much for me to handle by myself and I just got so worn out at the end of the day. Therefore I started to shift my focus to God. I started to practice gratitude towards what God had given me every single day, I started to learn about His Church, I sought for every understanding and knowledge I could possibly get just to feel closer and closer to Him everyday. Surprisingly, it brought me so much peace at the end of the day.

I can say that 2017 was the year of me finally coming back home to Him. Not only because I finally learned and felt a lot closer to Him than ever before, but also because I was finally able to let go of my ego and encountered His grace on the Sacrament of Reconciliation after 6,5 years of thinking that God will just forgive all of my sins and avoiding it so much. It took a lot of courage to step into that confession room and confessed every wrong doings that I could remember. I would describe my experience as a nerve-wrecking-yet-full-of-excitement one.

Now that I'm finally back on track, it doesn't mean that it's getting easier though. In fact, it's getting harder than ever, because evil loves to mess up with the good, as you might have known. I have a goal to stay strong in Him as hard as I can. It's totally not easy, because there will be days when I just won't feel like it, since we're not perfect yet. However I pray that at the end of the day, I will always find my home again.

I might sound quite religious in this post, but I think 2017 was the time when we needed religion the most. I solely believe that religions are the means to get closer to God, no matter what your religion is. 2017 was so full of tragedies and pains and I saw people used religions to create even more pain by blaming, spreading hatred, etc.

Religions have a pure purpose, and when some people with a certain religious view commited sins, it doesn't mean that the religion itself is bad. It's not the religion we should fight, but the corruptions within it. Just remember that evil loves to make something good become bad. Don't be deceived by it and always stay close to God who is so full of love and mercy, which I believe is what your religions teach.

Whether you believe in God or not, in our darkest hour we will always seek for a greater power to help us, just like what Sam Smith sang in one of his song, Pray:
"Everyone prays in the end."
We sure do. We will always look for our home.

Keep on praying, friends, and let's greet 2018 with our improved and better self. 2017 was one hell of a year, but now we can proudly say that we've survived it well. People said, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," right? 😉

Hope you're having an astonishing first day of 2018 and another year full of His grace!
See you on my next posts! 😁
CN.

Today I'm turning 25 years old! Wow!
I thought I would be in such a denial, but apparently now I take this aging up thing better than I did last year. I just can't believe that this day have actually arrived though, the day when I'm already in my mid 20s. When I was younger I used to believe that I will be married by this age and enjoying my life fully. Little did I know that not everything will be going as smoothly as what this brain of mine had planned.

Well, since I've reached an age that is rather special to me. I thought I would love to write something special too. I guess you have already known what I'm about to write, because I know you've read the title of this post (obviously). So, without further ado, here are 25 things that I would love to tell my younger self:


I must admit that I was not the easiest kid to be dealt with, well I think most teenagers are. Most of us have that short-temper problem when it comes to our parents sometimes. I was an extremely moody kid, and it feels like I was always angry when they're starting inviding my personal space, criticising my poor choices, etc. But, as I got older, I finally learn to see things from my parents' point of view and I ended up realizing that they're just human beings after all. They're not perfect but at some point they always try to.


It's a waste of money and space. When you look at how ridiculously high that piles of things that you ended up never using anyway, you'll understand.

3. Everything happens for a reason.
You may not see it now, but somehow you'll see it eventually. Just trust your heart and do what you feel is right. This kind of faith will take you far.

4. You may think you're not, but you're such an egoist sometimes.
I never admitted that I was such an egoist person when I was younger. I thought that I always have a caring heart for others, but I just realized how selfish I truly am just around this year. Sometimes, when I make decisions or do something, I uncounsciously choose an option that fits me best because I want things to be done the way I think is right. I learned it the hard way to finally realizing this negative trait that I have, but I'm glad that I get it now and I can start learning to control my ego.

5. Love yourself enough to eat well and exercise.
I was that kind of girl who took her vegetables with her spoon, put it on the corner of her plate, and never touched it again. I was also the kind of girl who never enjoyed her P.E. classes. This is the one school subject which was her least favorite subject ever! I never thought that I would somehow learn to enjoy them until I see how amazing their effects to my body and health. Still not loving them 100%, but it's a progress.

6. Stop trying too hard to fit in.
Everyone is unique, so expecting yourself to be exactly the same with all of those people around you are simply ridiculous. Just find what you're good at and keep improving those traits of yours.

7. It's okay to be wrong sometimes.
You're just a human who makes mistakes and doesn't have all the knowledge in the world (even though you want to), so it's completely normal to make mistakes. I used to feel so anxious about making mistakes, but I learn that the mistakes actually help me to grow, a lot.

8. Life isn't that simple, but you'll survive.
I don't know why, but I used to think that life is going to be easy and pretty (maybe I watched too many Disney films 😂). Oh well, life is rougher than I think it was. I can feel its hardness the most, right after I graduated from university. It was the time when it's totally up to you to take the next step. Where do you want to go? That's the question that kept haunting me for a while at that time. However, as time goes, and as I learn to take one decision at a time, everything just turns out okay.

9. You'll learn how to do your makeup eventually.
No, I didn't have any makeup or skincare routine when I was younger. If I'm not mistaken, I started using face cleanser to wash my face at around the end of my junior high or the start of senior high era (?), and I started learning how to do my makeup in 2015. I thought I will never be able to do any of this, but I just love makeup now. It's kind of dangerous to leave me in a cosmetic store with plenty of money nowadays. Just telling you 😛

10. Enjoy school while it lasts.
The thing I miss the most, even now, is my school days. I just miss my friends and the unlimited time we could spend together. Now it's rather hard to find a time to meet each other that much, because we have our own schedules. I also miss how my biggest fear was not being able to do well on the tests and graduated, when my biggest fear now is not being able to earn a proper living. So, when you're still there, just enjoy it as much as you can, then step into the adulthood with confidence.

11. Capture as many memories as you can.
Capture the memories through your photographs and writings the best you can. Just admit it, you can't remember everything that is happening in your life. So, it's just nice to keep some reminders of the beautiful moments you had in the past 😊

12. Life gets easier with family and friends.
When you're lonely or tired, you can lean on your family and friends. They may not always going to be there, but when they do, they can contribute their love to help you cope better with your stress. You don't need to tell them your problems if you don't want to, but having a random conversation with them can actually cheer me up sometimes. Just try it 😉

13. You'll learn to love the things you don't enjoy.
I know you don't really like sushi and green tea right now, but will you believe me when I said that you will love them and even get addicted to them in 2016? Believe me, because even now I'm craving for a cup of iced green tea latte. Honestly, the guy you'll end up with was never your type either, but somehow you see something greater than just following your current likings. You can change your mind sometimes, so just be more open minded and get ready to fall in love with the new things 😁

14. There are some thing you'll never stop loving.
I did say you can change your mind, but there are some things that you'll always end up loving, like: Disney, reading, singing, writing, rain, the smell of the earth afterward, relaxing in a cafe, etc. These things are the things you're passionate about. Keep them always close to you, because they're who you're truly are.

15. You can't predict every single thing, so just stop expecting too much.
It's just not healthy to want everything to go smoothly as you've had planned, because you're not in control for everything. You can't control time, you can't control others, the only thing you can control is you. So, just have an average expectation on those things you can't control, because it will totallt helpful to reduce your stress.

16. Your social skill will get better, just embrace it.
I used to be socially awkward and I guess sometimes I still am. I also totally love to observe others from afar better than engaging in conversations. I would always think that I had a really low social skill and I would never have any friends, but through my university years I improved a lot and I didn't really push myself, it just came really naturally. So, yeah, no worries, you'll do just fine.

17. Stop getting angry all the time, it's just tiring.
My father said so to me. He knows this because he's the kind of person who gets irritated easily too. So, I know he's talking about this out of his experience. It's totally relatable to me, because I have to admit that it's really tiring to get mad you know. Your head just feels like it's bursting and all negative thoughts just keep spinning and spinning. When you're done with your anger, most of the time you'll reflect on the foolish things you've done while you're angry. Let's try our best to keep the heat down, shall we? 😊

18. You are in control of your emotions.
I used to lean on others to make myself feel better. It would totally work when that particular person was available at the time, but when they didn't I would've felt even much more miserable than before, which is bad, really bad for my mental health. I stil do this bad habit sometimes, and I try my best to control my emotion at times. When I just can't, sometimes I will cry, pray, and just have some sleep. These things will totally help me feel at peace again.

19. Goodbye is unavoidable.
Even when you hate the fact, there will be some friends that you'll end up never meeting again, some people who have to die first, and some people who you just grow appart. Just accept this fact. If you end up meeting them again unexpectedly then it's good, if not then you can only hoping they're enjoying their days.

20. You'll find him.
I was always afraid that I will never find my life partner, but don't worry girl. You'll definitely find him and the wait is definitely going to be worth it.

21. Don't really have any care on any negative comments about you.
I pity people who feel the need to say bad, negative, unconstructive, and plain evil things about others. I feel like they're actually the ones in pain, and it's just their way to scream their broken hearts out. Don't take this kind of comments seriously because it will end up making you broken too. Try to be a positive influence to them instead if you're able.

22. Life supposed to be a gift, not a torture.
When you have problems in life, don't feel like they're tortures. Yeah, they're freakin' hard and stressful sometimes, but they will shape you for the better. So, in a way, those problems turn out to be the gifts for you right? 😉

23. You thought you'll always love comic and fantasy books, but at the end you'll love heavier books.
Admit it, as much as you love to imagine those amazing stories in your head, you're also so thirst of knowledge. That's why the more you grow, the more curious you are about lots of things, and your book collections will have more variety of books 😁

24. Be grateful, always.
You always seem to forget this. At the time of hardship, just remember what you have which others don't. It will make you think and finally see the bigger picture of your live, then you can see how small your problems are compared to the grace you've had.

25. You'll always have Him who loves you through all eternity.
I never really realized that He loves me this much. Now that I've seen how much He truly loves me, it's just hard to unsee it. Now, His words and Church are the place for me to find peace to go through my life. I would love to share this beautiful experience of mine with you on another different post, because this one is quite long already 😂 Just try to lean to God more, because He'll always be listening.


Alrighty, that's it!
I hope this list could be a pretty good advice and guidance through your teenager time when you're still not quite sure about life.

See you on my next post! 
CN.

Hello again!
Sorry for being away for a while. I just in need of  some little time with my family, friends, and also myself. I hope you've been missing me though 😉
With June ending, we're officially halfway through the year 2017! Wow, time does fly so fast!
Alright, before stepping further into the other half of the year, I would love to share a few things that I enjoyed last June. Let's start, shall we? 😁

MUSIC

For music, there is this one particular event that totally made me feel hopeful for the future of this world. It is the One Love Manchester concert which was held by the one and only miss Ariana Grande. It's just spectacular and full of such amazing songs and singers! My favorite ones were when Ariana performed Where is the Love with the Black Eyed Peas and also her perfomance of Don't Dream It's Over with Miley Cyrus. Check out the performances below if you want to experience the power of music ☺

I also fell in love again with these amazing duets of Disney Channel awesome productions: True Love from the series Liv and Maddie and also Meant to Be from the movie Teen Beach. I used to really loved it already, and apparently I still do ☺

I still love K-Pop songs, and these new songs of Mamamoo just got me so excited! I love them all because they're so unique and talented! Enjoy their newest songs: Age Gag and Yes I Am 😆


A new Carly Rae Jepsen song to put back the summer mood! Totally love her newest song Cut to the Feeling!


More to the religious songs. I've been enjoying these songs by Owl City and Beyonce a lot throughout June 😊

YOUTUBE

There are some videos on youtube that really made an impact in my point of view this June. First off is this video by the famous youtuber Michelle Phan. I never really subscribed or followed her videos before, but this very first video of her that I watched really touched my heart. If you're in a struggle with your life right now, you might want to watch this video:


I also got interested with this video about religions by LizziesAnswers. If you're interested with Christian theology, you might have some interest to watch her videos.


Then, I also found this awesome channel, full of inspiring videos, called Lavendaire! I haven't watched all of her videos, but I truly want to! If you love some inspiration and motivation in a video, then you must check out her channel!

FILM & TV SERIES

In June I watched the finale of Pretty Little Liars which was totally the end game of the series. I felt so happy to finally know the answer of all the mysteries, but I also felt kind of sad because it's over already. Totally want to watch the series all over again from season 1 someday 😁


I suddenly got the urge to watch Teen Beach and Teen Beach 2 again this June! I still totally love these films and the stories. It's a story of two teenagers who got stuck in a musical film and looking for a way to get back into their world. Totally fun and full of beautiful songs! ☺

TECHNOLOGY

I decided to buy something kind of pricey this June. My brother and I bought this Sony a6300 camera and the lens. We're going to share this camera so we're splitting the bills. My father also bought me another lens later on, so I can take pictures conveniently. I'm still learning on how to use it since I've always used Canon cameras before, but I'm pretty sure I'll get used to it soon 😊

FOOD & BEVERAGES

Here are some food that I've been enjoying in June! More details will soon be posted on my Food Travel posts! 😉




Alright, this is it for my June favorites! It's a little bit late, but stay tune for more stories on my adventure in June, because it's been lots of fun!

See you on my next post! 😁
CN.

Hello everyone, how's 2017 treating you so far? Well, for me it's still quite a good start. I hope it's been a great start for you too! :)

I've been thinking to write this post for a while, but I just wasn't quite sure what to write.

December 2016 wasn't really counted as a nice month. Yes, it ended beautifully with my trip to Bali. However, before that trip happened, there were a lot of complications that made me felt exhausted and sad. It made me lost my excitement for 2017. I was always excited for new year before, but not this time.

As I entered 2017 and tried to look back at all the things that happened in 2016, I found something.
I finally discovered that 2016 wasn't such a bad year after all. It was just a matter of point of view.

in 2016...

I traveled quite a lot. I even had my very first traveling abroad experience with my boyfriend, which was so much fun. I also managed to go back to my hometown in Makassar again after years not visiting it.

I started documented my life intensely on my blog and diary. So, now I can open them up and look at things I've done in 2016. I even won a blogging competition by Gramedia once. Well, I just won the third place, but still, it was still a great achievement.

I made lots of new friends, which was really exciting! I can't wait to see how these friendships will grow.

I started to work in a company that is so welcoming and I've had a great experience so far.

I finally hit 1k followers on Instagram (I know it's not really important, but it did make me proud because I worked quite hard for it).

I also learned that life is so full of precious moments that sometimes don't get enough recognition. Most of the time we just get caught in our hectic schedule/work/deadlines/life/etc, that we forget to just stop for a little while and actually enjoy our surroundings and what we're doing.

Weekend is finally here! Time to relax and recharge yourself! Especially if you've been having a hectic and tiring days.

I selected these quotes to help you understand the importance of using weekend time just for you! Let's put your work away for a while and just read these quotes to recharge yourself this weekend:

Your calm mind is the weapon against your challenges. So relax.

- Bryant McGill

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

You have permission to rest. You are not responsible for fixing everything that is broken. You do not have to try and make everyone happy. For now, take time for you. It's time to replenish.

Worrying doesn't take away tomorrow's trouble, it takes away today's peace. 

You have enough. You do enough. You are enough. Relax.

Relax. Let every moment be what it's going to be. What's meant to be will come your way. What's not will fall away.

- Mandy Hale

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.

- Mark Black

You don't always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go, and see what happens.

- Mandy Hale

Take time to do what makes your soul happy.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Taking time to do nothing often brings everything into perspective.

- Doe Zantamata

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.

- Sydney J. Harris

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Hope you'll have a more relaxing weekend after reading these quotes. Happy weekend everyone! :D
CN.

If you have been in a relationship long enough, then you'll know that it's not always sweet and magical. Sometimes, it can get disastrous and depressing. Usually in this state, a fight will occur.

I just watched episode 335 of a reality TV show from Korea called "We Got Married", and I got a precious advice on how to deal with a fight or heated conversation with your loved one from Chef Susumu.

In this screenshot below, you will see Saeho, one of the 'husbands' in this TV show, asking a question to Mr. Susumu:


to which Mr. Susumu then replied:


I found some great wisdom in his answer. It gets me thinking of how many times I got so defensive during a heated conversation, that I forgot about what's really important: compromising.

If you want your relationship to work, both party should be open-minded and willing to compromise and understand each other. It might sound easy, but it's not always the easiest thing in the world. Sometimes when you're too angry, your ego just gets the best of you. You have to learn to keep your own ego away for a while, and find a solution that will work for everyone, not just your own self.

Thank you Mr. Susumu! It's such an awesome advice for everyone!
Hope this advice from Mr. Susumu will help someone out there facing problem with their relationships.

Happy Sunday everyone! :D

Hello everyone!

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Music has a power to tell stories and affect somebody's mood. Those are the things I love about music. I really love the stories in the songs, especially when I can relate to it. As I'm listening to it, it will be as if it's talking to me, and I just love that feeling. I listen to music when I'm happy, when I'm bored, but especially when I'm sad and lonely. I just come to music to lift my mood up and make that beautiful smile appears again.

Today I want to share a song that has been helping feeling better when I'm kind of feeling down and tired. The lyrics of this song are just so perfect and they help me to believe that everything's will be alright. It's a song called Be Alright by Ariana Grande. In this post I will tell you how I relate the lyrics of this song to my daily life. You can listen to this beautiful song here:






The chorus is my favorite part! We need to remember that we have control over our emotions and decisions. Yes, we can cry now and then, but you need to remember to set your mind right. Those tears should be a release, and after you're finished with it you need to make up your mind. Here's where a positive mindset will surely helps a lot. You need to be able to tell yourself that everything is going to be alright. You need to decide that you're going to be alright. Not anybody else, it's just you.

The way that the same lyrics are being repeated twice shows that sometimes we need to keep saying it again and again. It's almost like we're hypnotizing ourselves. It's all in our head, and it is indeed the hardest part. It will be easier to persuade others, but it's harder to persuade ourselves sometimes. But, I believe it's just a matter of practice. The more you train yourself to think positive, the more easier it will be time after time. Practice makes perfect, right?

When you have the strong believe that you're going to be alright, no matter how many times you've been pushed down, you will still be able to get back up each time and say I'm going to be alright.

I hope you all will have a great start for this week. Tell me what you got in mind about this song :)
Happy Monday!
CN.

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Hello there! I'm sorry I've been gone for a few days and didn't post anything. I just didn't feel like it, because I've been having some quite rough days and I wasn't emotionally stable. But, there is this one sentence that keeps echoing inside my head during those days: