A very happy new year, dear readers! Whew, 2015 is (finally) over and it's time to start afresh once again. The reason why I wanted 2015 to end was, simply put, it was starting to "bog me down" and it slowly became more of a big weight on my shoulders. I mean, I did some things in 2015 that were wrong to downright despicable. While I'm not going to name any specific instances, I AM making sure that those mistakes will be corrected this year and those little bad habits of mine will be discontinued this year.
Anyway, if you have eyes and have been tracking the look of my profile pictures, you'd be surprised to see a vast array of colors on the new design. The reason behind this was that I wanted the new design to embody the start of the new year, and whenever I think of the beginning of 2016, I immediately think of a fresh, bold look that stands out. Like, you know, a new experience, a new set of colors, a new look while still retaining some familiarities and fragments of the past. So, I upped the color, made the strikes on the back bigger, and gave the Girls & Peace logo a clean, white overlay, and voila! New profile pic design!
You can definitely see that there's an underlying tone in this blog post: brightness. My blog is bright, my profile picture is bright, but is my attitude going to be bright? Simply put (again), yes, yes it is going to be bright.
The past few weeks or so, I "retraced my steps," so to speak, and I tried to find out who I really am and what my "default" personality is really like. I made a list of all the things I like and genuinely have a passion for and, in doing so, I'm sure I found out who I am—a Girls' Generation and tech-loving cheerful lad who just wants to make the world a better place through the use of various technologies.
With that in mind, I wanted to gain the two things I've struggled to find during the last few months of 2015, the two fundamental building blocks that defined who I am today—my hope and optimism. Without these two, my life just became a miserable and bland set of day-to-day experiences with no absolute value. Without them, it was as if each day was just another day where I would wake up, put my clothes on, go to college, eat there, and go home, and then sleep again. Now, I'm talking about very "abstract" things here, things that can be said but not really seen, but I found those two things—my hope and optimism—while I was in the comfort of my best friends and in the comfort of people I love and who love me back.
Speaking of which, there's a specific person that added me on Facebook yesterday and I just wanted to thank that person for making my 2015 so special despite the various obstacles that came with each passing month. I would also thank my bestest bros, Capacia and JR, for letting me hang out at their houses while my Christmas vacation was ongoing. These two (and their families) have been so welcoming of me, and I haven't expressed to them yet how much gratitude I genuinely feel towards them all. This 2016, I promise I'll continue to foster what I'm sure is going to be a lifelong friendship with these two bros of mine.
Of course, I also have some female friends who I want to be thankful for, the first one being my big sister, my sister dearest, +Elaine Avriele Santos. No other female has significantly impacted my teenage life more than Elaine, and, honestly speaking, no other girl in my list of friends are on par with her. Elaine, of course, will always be my first and only big sister. As for my other female friends, I want to thank Ate Betina, the prime minister of APC Speaks, for being so supportive of me whenever I would make a speech and stuff. Also, Ate Betina caused the biggest epiphany I've ever had, and because of her, I can sleep soundly at night knowing that I now know how to deal with that specific issue.
Hey, while I'm on the topic of fostering friendships, I'm going to try and build a more meaningful and lasting friendship with all my friends, equally of course. In doing so, I have to be open and lend out a helping hand more often. The main problem that often comes with helping out people often is that there will be others who will (might, and can) take advantage of my kindness. As I've heard before, the best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one, and the solution, in this case, is to apply common sense. I'm not going to really get into the details right now, but I'll definitely know whenever someone is going to take advantage of me.
That's all in my personal life, and as for my other activities, I'm going to focus on the things I love and my hobbies more. I'm DEFINITELY going to put my main passion—which is programming—first and I'm going to prioritize my second passion, public speaking, and finally I'm going to prioritize writing and other works of literature. As for my other hobbies, some will be focused on less and I have some hobbies that need to be cut off—which is gaming. I'm going to give up my gaming life (and others) in favor of activities that I find to be of more use to me. So, yeah, more on programming, public speaking, and writing (blogging included, of course) while less on gaming and other activities that I don't find purposeful.
With all that being said, I hope 2016 will be a better year for us all! May 2016 be one of the best years ever! Happy 2016, everyone!