Thoughts on a Monday evening

Was thinking about life, work and chocolates (ok maybe not chocolates) as i walked home this evening.

Reflecting back on the experiences that i've had, i feel much tougher and resilient now than when i first started work 6 years ago. I still get stressed, and i still get anxious, but i now treat challenges that would have fazed me a few years ago with startling equinamity.

I used to think that my personal growth had plateaued after college. To some degree, that's true. Deep down inside, i'm the same person that graduated from university. But i have a wealth of experiences now, tough and sad, good and bad, that i can draw upon each time something new comes around the corner. Setting up and helping to lead a 16 member a capella group is not nearly on the same scale as managing a team of 79 people and a budget of millions :)

At the same time, the personal growth that I experienced in college was what enabled me to deal with and learn from all the work experiences over the past 6 years.

I like to think of my time in college as growing my potential, while my time in work has helped to sharpen that potential from a rough-cut diamond into a more polished one (although still a work in progress)

To sum up : I'm battle-scarred, but not weary. Each day is a chance to learn something new, to make a positive impact on the lives of those around me, and a day to make better.

Ajantis is enjoying the air-conditioning....

MHA? AHM? HAM?

Finished the Army Half Marathon in 2 hours 4 min 50 seconds! I was running it at my normal marathon/long run pace, so i still had energy towards the end. Also got stuck at the start due to the human jam, and at the middle part due to several traffic lights (!). But all in all, i'm satisfied. I finished, i wasn't half dead, and it was fun running through a new and different route.

Several observations :

(1) Having to get up at 4am to get to the race point was way too frickin early! I haven't gotten up this early on a regular day for quite some time. So i'm currently scratching my head over what to do for the rest of the day. It feels strange to have so many hours free since i usually get up at 11am or noon :P

(2) Went to bed at 10pm last night so i could get a decent amount of sleep. Again, a new personal record for me. And surprisingly, I actually fell asleep pretty fast.

(3) Way too many people are up at 830am. The train home was surprisingly crowded. Then again, maybe i'm the abnormal one since i always get up around noon on a Sunday :)

Next step : Standard Chartered! Now i know i can do it!

On a slightly more random note, i've been hooked on a Sandi Thom song... Oh i wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair.... For those in the know, Sandi Thom became famous after doing a 21 day world tour webcast from her bed room. Apparently, at the end of the tour, she had 100,000 listeners at a time. Mind boggling, isn't it?

Ajantis is a punkster with ham in his hair...

Wowowow

Half Marathon in 2 days... can't wait!

The past week has been kinda surreal. Something really cool and unexpected happened on Thursday. It was flattering to be sure, but i'm not sure what to think about it. It's too soon to say anything about it, but i'll know more after i have a meeting in 2 weeks' time. For those who know... chill on the requests for discounts already :)

Ajantis is happy that it's the end of the week...

Marathoning

I collected my race packet for the Army Half Marathon and signed up for the Standard Chartered Marathon yesterday.

So it's set. I'm gonna run the Half Marathon this coming sunday and prepare for the full marathon in December.

I blogged about doing the half marathon around this time last year. The same feelings of excitement and anticipation are still there, tinged with a little bit of apprehension. Why? Cos 1 week after blogging about it, i hurt my achilles tendon by over-running. It was bound to happen, really, given that i had no proper running shoes or soles, flat feet, and that i was increasing my mileage every week. So i'm really hoping that lightning does not strike twice in the same place, so to speak.

After all this marathoning is over, I hope to cut back on my training and devote a bit more time to volunteer work and catching up with friends. We'll see.

I took a career test the other day. The results were not that surprising. I'm perfectly suited for HR management, organisation development and training, non-profits, and quite suited for general management. If anything, this test, and the reactions from my friends, have all convinced me that the MBA seems like the right way to go. Haven't felt this clear about career paths in a while.

Saw Click with Fish the other day. For an Adam Sandler movie, it was actually quite good. And had a good time catching up. The art world does seem like another dimension tho (sorry Fish!). But then again, i'm not really a visual art kinda person. Too static for a ADHD person like me :P

Ajantis is AD? or HD?

Planes in a snake!

Movies i saw on the plane :

1) Friends with Money - blech even though i like chick flicks
2) Ice Age 2
3) Over the Hedge
4) Take the Lead - i seem to like dancing movies a lot
5) The Inside Man - my favorite movie. Jodie Foster is such a great bitch in this movie.

Random trivia :

Did you know that mangosteens were allowed in the US up until now? and that people in the US have been trying to import them since 1903?

Books i've read in the past few months

1) Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
2) Naked Economics

Currently reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Did i mention that i like Neil Gaiman?

Games I want to try :

1) Final Fantasy 11
2) Dead Rising
3) Pokemon DS!!!
4) Tales of the Abyss
5) The Longest Journey part 2

Yes, Ajantis is a geek...

CC = Career Confusion? Career Counselling?

Just had a long conversation with H.

Somehow we were both under the impression that living in the US wasn't an option. But after I made a passing mention, we both realised that the US was on the table again....

One of the things bugging me about living in Canada was not having any idea of what career to pursue. To be honest, I was looking at the possibility of doing entry level jobs for quite a few years.

H asked me two questions that helped to clarify things. What do you like about your job right now? If you could choose between teaching and managing people, what would you prefer to do? My answer to both was that I liked working with and managing people. Which is why HR consultancy has always been a possibility.

So now it's clearer. I will do either an MBA or a PhD, sometime in 3-4 years when i've saved up enough money. A PhD if i wanna teach, a MBA if i want to move into management or HR consultancy. And it means that we might live in the US after all...

Wow. That was a major shift. But i feel a lot better and clearer now.

Ajantis is careering his counsel...