Yay! Pictures not up because they are not ready yet but we are excited!
As of now every weekend is packed with something. Either something to fix or something to furnish.
This June is so meaningful to me and we endeavor to do a little housewarming party with close friends.
This June is my birthday month, my 2nd year anniversary with Mr J and most of all, 2014 June marks the beginning of my 10th year in KL!
I know a celebration for my 10th year here is overrated but I'm sure any of you who are now living far from your hometown and at the same time trying to make it work independently in the city would know what am I talking about. The first few years were the hardest because survival was everything and while family is far, far away, you have only yourself to depend on.
When I first started out here, there was no such thing as a last minute call to your family for help. You had to plan your itinerary taking into consideration of public transportation, how you were to live in the shabby rented room and still be like everyone else. It wasn't peer pressure, it was mere survival instincts. You need friends to at least be normal.
How clean drinking water is hard to come by, how laundry is almost impossible without an early queue, how every meal is the same but you can't be bothered with choosing, how there is no way you can see this city beyond the area you live in because you don't have a car and One Utama is so, so unattainable.
At 18 I learnt to be on my own and no one was going to call to check if I'm ok at the end of the night. No one would bother to know if I have slogged through the day taking the wrong bus then ending up waiting for the last bus home, and even if someone was following me while walking on the road and totally freaked me out, I had no one to tell because no one cared. Or the ones who cared were nowhere near me and there was nothing they could do.
I remember crying to myself in the middle of night fearful of what will happen tomorrow or depressed at what state I was living in. No family, no close friends, no one really understands what I was going through but I knew I was gonna make it. I was stubborn like that :/ still am, actually.
To strike out and know that this new place will be your home for the next 10 years was probably the hardest thing to do. I could never call back and tell my parents that I want to come home or cash is running low. I couldn't make my parents worry for nitty gritty like this! I had to make it work.
Gah, this blog post is sounding a little depressing but you get the gist!
Well on a sunnier note - I graduated within two years. I got my first job at 20 working for Sunway, got my first car too which spells AWESOME! Finally rented a whole apartment to myself at 22 (finally no shared bathrooms!). Went to India that year and came back with a new perspective of life.
At 23 I started two businesses while maintaining a "higher" paying managerial position in a smaller firm and at 24 I officially left the corporate world.
Today I am 27 and after nine years in KL, I work only three hours on weekdays, found my love and bought an apartment, together planning the next few decades of life.
Tell me, isn't this worth a celebration of some sort?
So... If you have been invited to my housewarming party, you better come! Nikki Lee!!
As of now every weekend is packed with something. Either something to fix or something to furnish.
This June is so meaningful to me and we endeavor to do a little housewarming party with close friends.
This June is my birthday month, my 2nd year anniversary with Mr J and most of all, 2014 June marks the beginning of my 10th year in KL!
I know a celebration for my 10th year here is overrated but I'm sure any of you who are now living far from your hometown and at the same time trying to make it work independently in the city would know what am I talking about. The first few years were the hardest because survival was everything and while family is far, far away, you have only yourself to depend on.
When I first started out here, there was no such thing as a last minute call to your family for help. You had to plan your itinerary taking into consideration of public transportation, how you were to live in the shabby rented room and still be like everyone else. It wasn't peer pressure, it was mere survival instincts. You need friends to at least be normal.
How clean drinking water is hard to come by, how laundry is almost impossible without an early queue, how every meal is the same but you can't be bothered with choosing, how there is no way you can see this city beyond the area you live in because you don't have a car and One Utama is so, so unattainable.
At 18 I learnt to be on my own and no one was going to call to check if I'm ok at the end of the night. No one would bother to know if I have slogged through the day taking the wrong bus then ending up waiting for the last bus home, and even if someone was following me while walking on the road and totally freaked me out, I had no one to tell because no one cared. Or the ones who cared were nowhere near me and there was nothing they could do.
I remember crying to myself in the middle of night fearful of what will happen tomorrow or depressed at what state I was living in. No family, no close friends, no one really understands what I was going through but I knew I was gonna make it. I was stubborn like that :/ still am, actually.
To strike out and know that this new place will be your home for the next 10 years was probably the hardest thing to do. I could never call back and tell my parents that I want to come home or cash is running low. I couldn't make my parents worry for nitty gritty like this! I had to make it work.
Gah, this blog post is sounding a little depressing but you get the gist!
Well on a sunnier note - I graduated within two years. I got my first job at 20 working for Sunway, got my first car too which spells AWESOME! Finally rented a whole apartment to myself at 22 (finally no shared bathrooms!). Went to India that year and came back with a new perspective of life.
At 23 I started two businesses while maintaining a "higher" paying managerial position in a smaller firm and at 24 I officially left the corporate world.
Today I am 27 and after nine years in KL, I work only three hours on weekdays, found my love and bought an apartment, together planning the next few decades of life.
Tell me, isn't this worth a celebration of some sort?
So... If you have been invited to my housewarming party, you better come! Nikki Lee!!
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