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By Yannie Chan | December 30th, 2015

Three random thoughts from a Hong Kong millennial.

1. My 2015 has been full of firsts. I mean, most of the year, I felt horribly lost, unsure about where I’d like to be in five years, but that has also pushed me to do lots of new things.

I quit my job. I travelled to Europe alone, rediscovering my love for filter coffee, poetry and bookstores. I made my own tomato pasta sauce.

For about five months, I got to experience what it was like to freelance full-time — essentially it’s 60 percent funemployment and 40 percent no-rest-til-deadline because it’s your name on the line.

The Loop founders included me as part of the team and offered me this column space, which is crazy amazing. Read my interview of my grandma — it’s the most personal article I’ve ever done.

2. The best thing I did for myself this year was trying to love properly. Most of the time, I could accept the flaws of people close to me, but I continued to judge and secretly demand that they change.

I couldn’t fully respect their shortcomings as part of who they are. It makes it hard for me to trust, because I’m too terrified that people’s awfulness will one day take over their awesome side. I lash out and I hold back, and that hurts me as much as it does my loved ones.

Letting go of part of that fear has been quite satisfying. No one puts it better than Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh — it may sound dramatic, but it’s pretty on point:

“You are part of the universe; you are made of stars. When you look at your loved one, you see that he is also made of stars and carries eternity inside. Looking in this way, we naturally feel reverence.”

3. My favorite weird read of the year is… the secret world of yarn detanglers:

“The most acclaimed project in the group’s tangled history is known to knitters as ‘the Stash Disaster of Epic Proportion.’ In 2011, a Sacramento knitter was cataloging her entire stash of yarn in her backyard — only to leave it out during a rainstorm. She tossed the 30 to 50 balls of soaking-wet yarn into the dryer, producing further chaos.”

    • By Yannie Chan | December 30th, 2015

    Three random thoughts from a Hong Kong millennial.

    1. My 2015 has been full of firsts. I mean, most of the year, I felt horribly lost, unsure about where I’d like to be in five years, but that has also pushed me to do lots of new things.

    I quit my job. I travelled to Europe alone, rediscovering my love for filter coffee, poetry and bookstores. I made my own tomato pasta sauce.

    For about five months, I got to experience what it was like to freelance full-time — essentially it’s 60 percent funemployment and 40 percent no-rest-til-deadline because it’s your name on the line.

    The Loop founders included me as part of the team and offered me this column space, which is crazy amazing. Read my interview of my grandma — it’s the most personal article I’ve ever done.

    2. The best thing I did for myself this year was trying to love properly. Most of the time, I could accept the flaws of people close to me, but I continued to judge and secretly demand that they change.

    I couldn’t fully respect their shortcomings as part of who they are. It makes it hard for me to trust, because I’m too terrified that people’s awfulness will one day take over their awesome side. I lash out and I hold back, and that hurts me as much as it does my loved ones.

    Letting go of part of that fear has been quite satisfying. No one puts it better than Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh — it may sound dramatic, but it’s pretty on point:

    “You are part of the universe; you are made of stars. When you look at your loved one, you see that he is also made of stars and carries eternity inside. Looking in this way, we naturally feel reverence.”

    3. My favorite weird read of the year is… the secret world of yarn detanglers:

    “The most acclaimed project in the group’s tangled history is known to knitters as ‘the Stash Disaster of Epic Proportion.’ In 2011, a Sacramento knitter was cataloging her entire stash of yarn in her backyard — only to leave it out during a rainstorm. She tossed the 30 to 50 balls of soaking-wet yarn into the dryer, producing further chaos.”