Happy New Year?

Is it still okay to say that even though the month of January is almost over? I am not really sure. But I figured this is a good time to start anew considering last year was a wash.

I can’t believe that my last post on this blog was last April. Looking at that post, it looked like a very positive and uplifting type of message, too. But then things started falling apart right after that because there was radio silence from and I was not able to write monthly, much less weekly.

I’m going to be brutally honest: Last year was a sabbatical from life and work. I just simply lost my focus. LIke my lack of consistency in writing, my diligence in watching my physical and mental health flew out the window. I indulged in bad habits that resulted in me gaining a lot of weight and being unhealthy. I not only overate and gorged on junk, but I also didn’t run as much as I wanted to. I will pay for that later on in the year when the snow eventually melts. My body will resist when I eventually start up the habit again.

Mentally, too, I was not as healthy as I wanted to be. There were periods of negativity and toxic behaviors that made me doubt whether I could really get back to the me I was two years before: the me who was so laser-focused on her goals and was extremely stoic when it came to her habits.

2021 was a year of adjustments, for sure. My schedule changed. My husband’s schedule changed, too. We both had to constantly change our habits so it was difficult to get a routine going.

However, the one good thing I can report is that I was able to save a lot of money during the months I was working. Before the school year started, I pledged to save at least ¥100,000 (about US$1000) of my paycheck. I managed to do that every month and consequently earned enough to hopefully buy another property that will help diversify and also earn me passive income.

I am pretty proud of myself. And I am also very grateful that I still had a job during the pandemic. I’ve heard of so many people losing their jobs and I am thankful that I was still able to work.

However, those times might be changing. Right now, I am in limbo. I will find out next week if I still have a job. At moment, I am contracted to work until the third week of March—I think. But anything can happen from this posting until next week.

And you know what, I am strangely not frightened by being jobless. It’s also honestly quite freeing. For some reason, I am more excited by the idea of having free time to myself. I am also eager to start something new. I don’t know if I’m being blind and willfully optimistic about the whole thing, but I am pretty calm about the possibility of being fired?

Anyhoo.

To be continued…