Farewell 2022

The Great Escape.

To conclude my 2022 – The Great Escape.

I have erased and re-written so many times at this point I’m getting frustrated. This should only contain stuffs in 2022 and nothing else. No self-loathing or no whining shits.

2022, I have successfully made the great escape. While there are many different definitions of the great escape, and it is very subjective, the great escape here refers to my escape from all the crying and whining of my depressing life.

I escaped from the corporate world.

Despite being very well treated throughout my career, I’m happy that I’m finally free from the corporate world, and no longer have to fight for attention to climb up the corporate ladder. This year, I resigned and co-founded sonderbase, a travel content platform, with my buddy Cheng. While it is natural and risk-free for me to do this, we still needed fund to sustain (or what they call ramen-profitable?). After few months of not achieving any form of success and getting no traction at all, we pivoted (or we co-launched) a software consultancy, utilising our expertise in tech to help companies make better softwares (Yes, we are the best, find us here).

I escaped from my home to be a digital nomad.

I have spent significant amount of time in other countries, learning more about other countries and more importantly learning how interesting and big the world is, creating emotional bonds with other people, immersing in local culture. I’ll admit that I might have had a couple of terrible experiences, but I hope this will NEVER stop me from travelling more. I hope the level of fear and fun of being in a strange place will never go away no matter how many times and how long I have travelled.

Cities that I visited:

I escaped from unhealthy competition.

I’m a somewhat competitive person and have always compared myself with my other peers. In school, we have grades, scores as our metrics to how “good” we are. When we are out of school, the only ONE ultimate metric that everyone cares – money. Seeing most of my peers buying properties, vehicles, it is easy to feel inferior for the weak minded like me. Fortunately being commitment-free and not having burden on my shoulder has given me a greater room for risk and a greater freedom to do things that I enjoy. The money metric is only one dimension, I’m glad to find out that it isn’t for me and I have managed to escape from it. While it might haunt me back in the future when I’m old and homeless, I’m more terrified of the regrets of not doing something I enjoy.

I escaped from emotional manipulation.

I’m no stranger to emotional manipulation, I’m a frequent victim. In short, I learned to love myself more and learn to identify when I’m being exploited/abused into doing something. No one loves me more than me.

2022 has been nothing but amazing to me. To quote my co-founder, “2022 marks the year I live the way I dream”. It is very difficult for me to bid farewell to such an amazing year, but I’m positive that the future holds the best for me.

Finally, shoutout to people who took part in my 2022 and I hope you all will continue doing so till I die. For good or for bad, you are a part of me and I want nothing to change. I wish you all the best and happy new year 2023.

A picture paints a thousand words.

Happy Jun