Goodbye 2019 + Decade in Review

Happy New Year! I hope 2019 was everything that you wanted and dreamed of and I also hope that 2020 is better than all your previous years! Looking back the past decade (can you believe that a decade has passed?!), I've grown so much in person and have achieved so much. So I really wanted to do a recap of this past decade with today's post.

2010

I started the decade by landing a job in an advertising agency. The competition was tough in the design world and every designer dreamed of working at an advertising agency downtown. So the opportunity was very much coveted among my peers. I had “friends” who I rarely talked to approaching me on Facebook and asked me to review and give feedback to their portfolios. It was a digital producer position, a role that I was unfamiliar with and had no experience for. I didn’t want to give credit to my luck though. I worked hard in networking, building my portfolio, website and resume. I took it as a deserving reward from my perseverance and commitment.

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Student cosplay for my "Back to High School" Birthday party

2011

The agency lost one of their major clients and so the entire team working on that account was laid off. And I was one of them. It was short but definitely a memorable experience. I had learned that I really hated commuting downtown to the city every morning and that the agency life was not as glamourous as it seemed. So I wanted my next job to be more stable and corporate with a shorter commute. I ended up getting a designer job in a bank working in Marketing and started a side hustle with a colleague doing custom baked goods.

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• Mad Men Makeover
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Makeover for a Mad Men themed party

2012

Travelled to China and Taiwan with my family in May. Then I went on a trip to New York with some friends via Megabus. Lesson learned that year: Never take the Megabus to New York again.

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2013

Went on an all-inclusive trip to Cuba with my family for the first time. Started playing more badminton. And met the love of my life through numerous rounds of friendly games. Highest record was playing 8 hours straight. Oh the energy!

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2014

Flew back to my hometown, Hong Kong to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday milestone and reunited with my extended families. My grandmother passed away a few months later. It was a tough time for our family.

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2015

I bought a house with Will and went to Punta Cana together. Career-wise, I transitioned to a digital marketing role with a focus on content creation.

Started an annual tradition of our #HosGoGlobal trip with the extended family in honour of our grandmother. Our first destination was to the Mediterranean. Later that year, Will proposed in our new home!

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2016

Best Year Ever! This was the year when we tied the knot as Mr. and Mrs. Although, I didn’t share many details of our wedding on the blog here but it was a day to remember. Planning a wedding was a LOT of work. Thankfully, there won’t be a second time. LOL!

Went on our Honeymoon to Japan a month later. Visited Tokyo and boarded on a cruise to Hokkaido then took the train to visit Osaka and Kyoto.

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2017

This year was mostly about travelling as well. Flew to Banff, Alberta early in the year and hit the slopes with Will together. I was very thankful that I actually survived the cold and the Rockies. Later the year, we travelled 22 hours across the planet to Australia and New Zealand. This was our longest flight yet! We visited Sydney and tried our first scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef.

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2018

Was definitely an interesting year for me. Lots of ups and downs. I got promoted to a senior at work but felt that my passion was elsewhere. So I diverted my focus to creating content for the blog and started my Etsy shop selling digital products.

Will started a new job and couldn’t take any days off, so we only did a road trip together to Montreal this year.

This was also my strongest year in terms of achieving my physical goals. I accomplished a personal milestone by finishing my first 10K run and also a 50 km bicycle charity ride.

Things then hit a wild turn when I fell down the stairs at a restaurant which resulted in a mild concussion. But it gave me a reason to finally do a digital detox and rest. After recovery, I spent the last bit of summer in Muskoka but fell out of an ATV in the woods. I thought I broke my leg and got sent to the hospital for the second time. Lesson learned this year: always wrap myself in a bubble wrap.

Later the year, I still travelled (of course) to Spain and Italy (post still to come!) and then flew back to Hong Kong for a wedding with a side trip to Seoul, Korea.

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2019

Started mediocre but had gotten better towards the end as we found out that we are expecting our first baby! YES. You read that right! Our baby will arrive in Spring 2020. So, we quickly went on a babymoon to Europe (post to come!) as soon as I passed the 3-month mark and am now spending the rest of my pregnancy preparing for our little one and motherhood.

Thank you so much for all the support you had given me throughout this whole journey. I can’t wait to see what 2020 and the new decade have in store for us! Have a happy New Year!