Questions from Steph Ango
One of my rituals at the end of each year is asking myself these forty questions. It usually takes me about a week to work my way through all of them. I find it to be one of the most valuable exercises to reflect on what happened, good and bad, and how I hope the year ahead will shape up.
What is more interesting than each individual answer are the trends that emerge after years of answering the same questions. I’ve shared this list with my family and closest friends, and always enjoy discussing answers as we reflect on the year.
Q1 What did you do this year that you’d never done before?
- Sold my mum’s old Santana, which is too dilapidated to drive safely for her ;)
- Send my girlfriend to an intensive English learning camp, where she can go all her out to improve her English in the shortest time.
- Established my first overseas banking account, or rather, three accounts. And now the forth one is in its process.
- Got my first foreign SIM card, cards actually, one for the U.S. and one for the U.K.
- Sent and received my first LinkedIn recommendation, a straight-A who obtained Master’s degree from the Cambridge and Imperial College London.
- Got married to my beloved wife, yeah it’s she who still in that camp, and I won’t be married again :)
- Bought my first domain and established my first website, hoping that I’ll count on it for a living in the future, may it’s a beginning of something great.
Q2 Did you keep your new year’s resolutions?
Absolutely, studying English well is the most important thing, not one of them, till now, every day.
Q3 Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.
Q4 Did anyone close to you die?
Fortunately not :)
Q5 What cities/states/countries did you visit?
Not this year, but we’re preparing at full steam, to live abroad permanently.
Q6 What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year?
Freedom.
For one, the internet the most Chinese using is actually a LAN(local area network) if you know what I mean.
People who working in this country is actually a slave rather than a worker. Furthermore, working in here at a subsidiary company headquarters in Swiss which profits from global except China itself is worth to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done before. It’ll the same of the other corporations in China.
Q7 What date(s) from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
It should be my wedding registration day.
Q8 What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Despite enduring the most challenging working environment I have ever encountered, navigating through various forces. Through my adjustments and finding ways to avoid internal conflicts, I’ve managed to survive. Not for money, but for payroll statement, sad but heart-stirring.
Q9 What was your biggest failure?
My professional transformation, from a data analyst to a normal operator, was a failure at that time, but it isn’t now.
Q10 What other hardships did you face?
After my transformation, carping from the boss and hostile forces came along. But it’s okay, now I have adjusted my mentality.
Q11 Did you suffer illness or injury?
Fortunately not, but sadly, my wife did.
Q12 What was the best thing you bought?
An iPhone 15 Pro (US version)
Q13 Whose behavior merited celebration?
My leader’s mindset about his work turned out to be more Buddha-like as I am :) A good person shouldn’t be treated like that.
Q14 Whose behaviour made you appalled?
My best colleagues give me a huuuuge blue tooth speaker as my wedding gift.
Q15 Where did most of your money go?
I’ve changed my first 50k CNY to USD, and I’ll do it again in next January.
Q16 What did you get really, really, really excited about?
You already know, that I established my first website!
Q17 What song will always remind you of this year?
Sia’s Unstoppable. I’ll never forget the feeling when I heard that “I won every single game” and “I’m a Porsche with no brake”.
Q18 Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? Thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?
Happier, as I enhanced my mindset so that I can face more complex situations; My weight hasn’t changed in about 5 years; Richer, as I hardly ever buy anything.
Q19 What do you wish you’d done more of?
Do more exercise, I used that time to study English.
Q20 What do you wish you’d done less of?
Work less, and spend less time on unworthy people and things, focus on what is really important.
Q21 How are you spending the holidays?
Studying English with my wife in a study room located in a villa area around my home.
Q22 Did you fall in love this year?
I’ve always been fallen in love with my wife ;)
Q23 Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No one, all are my teachers and friends. –Sima Yi
Q24 What was your favourite show?
Gabriel Iglesias’s talk show.
Q25 What was the best book you read?
I read a lot of English essays in Shanbay News but didn’t read any books this year.
Q26 What was your greatest musical discovery of the year?
Successfully made my wife fall in love with Nakagawa Isato’s fingerstyle.
Q27 What was your favorite film?
The Godfather, I can watch it over and over and over again.
Q28 What was your favorite meal?
It should be the Stewed Spare Ribs in Casserole, from a restaurant newly opened near my home.
Q29 What did you want and get?
My foreign banking accounts and SIM cards.
Q30 What did you want and not get?
The VISA from Canada. Q31 What did you do on your birthday?
It was a normal day, studying English as usual. But my leader bought me dinner before my birthday.
Q32 What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
My wife determined to RUN with me.
Q33 How would you describe your personal fashion this year?
Nothing, white and black as usual.
Q34 What kept you sane?
What I really want.
Q35 Which celebrity/public figure did you admire the most?
An open source front-end engineer whose project helps me a lot about my website establishing.
Q36 What political issue stirred you the most?
All of them lmao. Each rule they’ve made for me accelerated my process.
Q37 Who did you miss?
No one.
Q38 Who was the best new person you met?
The Cambridge master who appears in Q1.
Q39 What valuable life lesson did you learn this year?
Do not lose yourself, keep your goal and keep moving toward it. Don’t spend any time with anyone who doesn’t deserve it.
Q40 What is a quote that sums up your year?
Discernment. Judgment. Execution.
