A Somewhat Rewind of 2013

The reason for the delay of the 2013 version of my annual year-end review is a trip I took to Budapest. This year, I celebrated New Year's Eve the Hungarian way, which involved a lot of colorful wigs and ear-defeaning trumpets. Definitely something refreshing, but that's a story for another day. 

In hindsight, 2013 could be seen as a very successful year to me. I'm quite satisfied as the resolutions I put up at the beginning of the year have pretty much all been implemented. For the sake of simplicity and succinctness, I will use bullet points to list the most important events. 

• March-ish 2013: my Vietnam trip. This was probably the highlight of my whole year. Loving medicine, I got my 2-week internship at the National Children's Hospital where I learnt a ton and lost another chunk of naivity about "the Vietnamese way of living". Loving adventure, I got my 2 weeks travelling along the coast of Vietnam from Hue southwards, during which I also learnt a ton and lost a (luckily almost empty) backbag to some random robbers. I fell in love with Hanoi and had a happy time forming new bonds with strangers as well as refreshing good old relationships with both family and friends. I will always be able to look back to this time with fondness and a smile on my face. 
• April 29th 2013: a birthday I didn't hate but, on the contrary, somewhat enjoyed. I think something like that only happens once in a decade to me. I still hate being the center of attention on occasions of the kind. 
• May 2013: Mai a.k.a Dr. Fly visiting me in Giessen. One of the most important realizations I made after her trip was that Matrix' Morpheus was right: Some things in this world change, other things don't. Mai is the perfect example for both. Dang, now I miss her. :(
• June-August 2013: the preparation and subsequently exam phase of the Physikum. All I can say is: it wasn't an Abitur fail. At all. I still don't know exactly what the key to my success was, maybe it was both luck and my new studying method, but the important thing is, that success gave me new hope, courage and a hint that I've finally found the right path that leads to effective studying. And, admittedly, it stroked my ego a little bit. :P Damn I forgot how good that feels. 
• August 2013: losing my Vietnamese citizenship and becoming German on paper. I always thought that it wouldn't change a thing, but I was wrong. I said I'd always be Vietnamese at heart, but now that I'm somewhat German too, I can tell that my heart's opening up to "being German". If not, I can't shake off the feeling that I'd be selfish and unfair. That's just great. I mean, it just adds up to the trouble of me not knowing where I belong...
• September 2013: my Ibiza trip with uni friends. One of the many gifts I rewarded myself with after the Physikum. That trip took away a lot of my firsts: first time getting away so far and for so long with friends, first time drinking Sangria (which leads me to the conclusion: nothing beats Tequila), first time riding real motorbikes and speeding up to 100 km/h, first time coming in contact with fire jellys (only one word: ouch). All in all, still a very nice and relaxing trip. 
• October 2013: trip to Amsterdam to visit Thảo. A lot of talking, laughing and bonding happened. A lot of happy for a mere timespan of 3 days I'd say. Also, I kind of have a huge and most likely long-lasting crush on the city. :3
• December 2013: trip to Budapest to visit Ngọc Anh. This one I'm still processing. :P But hey, this trip stole my first NYE's spent abroad!

Well wow, look at that. I remember my struggle to find stuff to write about for the same post in 2012. This year, the whole post almost just wrote itself. So much for succinctness, haha. :) Not to mention that there's quite a lot of stuff I didn't list because they couldn't be described as "events", which not in the least make them any less eventful. 

For example, to stay to true a 2013 resolution, I did get a tutor job at uni and earned some extra money. This partly made it possible for me to finance the numerous trips I took this year. Then, trying to fulfill the resolution of getting more me-time, I picked up basketball which was my holy source of endorphins and hence savior in a lot of stress situations. Also, I finally read a book for fun - my first after 2 years of uni: The Hunger Games trilogy. Writing, music and filmmaking are the three things I didn't get around to yet, but hey, one step at a time. I still consider the me-time resolution implemented. The feeling of having reached the goals you put up for yourself, well damn that's a brilliant feeling. I love 2013 for that. 

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that as much as 2013 was my year of "action" so to speak, 2014 will very likely be a year of character development. It's like writing a book. Actually, it is exactly that in a sense, because I'm writing my own life story, aren't I? While character development always more or less happens parallel to story progression, at some point, the writer needs to slow down and focus more on what's happening on the inside of the character than what happens in his/her surroundings. I have a gut feeling 2014 will focus on what's inside of me. 

Why? Because my predicted character development isn't just a hunch, it's a real thing that has already started. Towards the end of 2013, I had my first personality crisis since a very, very long time. The dimension of "crisis" hasn't happened often. I got hurt and hurt people. A lot. Currently I'm still stuck, though not in crisis mode. 2014 will be a busy year for me to figure myself out. 

Sometimes I really hate my complicated self. I'm tiring even for me at times, how are other people supposed to live with it? I'm definitely not someone easy to be with. Yet apart from family, there's always one person who always comes to my mind, the only one who has enough patience to put up with my shit: Quynh. While I put all my relationships in jeopardy the past couple weeks, worsening the bonds I shared with people I care about a lot, including family, even if I didn't mean to and didn't know how to stop it, my friendship with Quynh remained without a change. I think the first day I visited her in Mannheim was actually victim of my emotional crippledness, but then she won the fight I couldn't win with her unearthly patience and simplicity. I don't know if she knows she kind of saved our friendship, and somewhat pulled me out of the bottomless pond of misery I was drowning in. I can't describe how much appreciation I've felt for this girl who's becoming more and more "family" to my entire family when she left after Christmas. 

Anyway, I don't want to get into too much detail of that troubleling stuff. This post serves a different purpose. I shall get to my 2014 resolutions now:

• Finding and starting to work on a dissertation thesis. I will get my doctor title! Shall! Must! Will! Preferably together with my medical degree or sooner, just don't be later. 
• Geting back on track with basketball to the point of at least knowing all the rules. 
• Maintaining the hobby-work relation I've established last year, but paying more attention to do-nothing time too. It has proven its importance since the beginning of this semester after I underestimated it when creating my weekly schedule T_T
• Gaining better control of unhealthy eating habits (before it was chocolate, now it is popcorn). 

This already sounds so much less exciting than last year, except for the first point, haha. :) Whatever, I will try my best nonetheless, because in 12 months I want to sit somewhere and be as content about those months as I am now about 2013. :)

I'm ready for the next challenges, so bring it on, 2014.