As I celebrated this New Year’s Eve, away from home again, I realized there are only three years left till my passport expires.

It was Dec 2011 when I stood in line at the passport office. “Thank God I only have to renew a passport only once in 10 years” – I thought while inched forward in the queue, and wondered, who I’m becoming in the next 10 years.

Two months later, the 18-year-old me was so thrilled as she made her very first steps in Europe. I got used pretty fast to the life in Germany. Well, maybe too fast. I gained 10 kgs, got a few wrinkles, and more stamps on my passport than my first 17 years combined. I studied hard, got straight 1 (A in american scale), got some jobs, paid my first taxes, and started buying my own tickets traveling around Europe.

Oct 2012, I lost my best-friend. Flowing conversations with old friends trickled down to annual birthday wishes. My first and only time visiting home was after 5 years in Germany, because of reasons. And for the first time, my mother was way slower at mountain hiking than me…

There’re so many mistakes, that I wished somebody could tell me not to do so. But after all, it hurts, and it heals. It took me years to realize what I really love to do. Since then, I’ve worked so hard. Lucky me, my efforts paid off. I’ve also met many new good friends, colleagues and mentors, and learned a lot from them. And through all the thick and thin, I honestly am thankful for my mom, for all her wise words, unconditional support and love.

Yesterday, I had to smile as I looked at myself in the mirror:
I saw an ambitious, independent, and happy 24-year-old me.
A-happy-me.

I’ve come to realize that defining moments rarely announce their arrival. Simply disguise themselves in our everyday lives, hiding in conversations, thoughts and hopes. That when you notice them, they feel strangely familiar, almost like they’ve been there the whole time.

To think that around the world, preschoolers got their first gold star, young mothers had their first full night of sleep, older mothers came home to an empty nest, the newly-weds agreed on a mattress and fathers became grandfathers.
So many defining moments go unnoticed every day, and yet the world unites to celebrate something as unremarkable as the earth completing a full circle around the sun.

As this year wraps up, I wonder what milestones the world has in store for me. Maybe I will buy my first one-way ticket to Neverland. Maybe I will horn some new skills that can bring my life another great direction. Maybe I will finally meet my soulmate and be able to get over the lost. Makes me realize that if every milestone announced it’s arrival like the new year, and was celebrated pompously with champagne and fireworks, we’d all be so much more aware of how far we’ve come.

Come to think of it, could there ever be an adequate testimony to somebody’s year?
Aren’t we all just celebrating new years with our loved ones, knowing that we carry stories no amount of fireworks could hold a candle to.

– Mai Hien –