2014 was interesting year for me. Full of new experiences with new people in new city. Lots of traveling. Lots of fun. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of contemplating.

It was started with end of working assignment in Melbourne, Australia. More precisely, on 2nd January, i flied back to Indonesia. I have decided to accept an opportunity that came from a global function in Jakarta Head Quarter. Its been a long time that i avoid this mega city. But i think this might be the time to give Jakarta a try. Firstly, I spent one week in Surabaya to bid farewell with previous function colleagues. Then, i moved to Jakarta, tried to find a home. I decided to find a temporary place before i found the “right” one. It turned out that i found it later in April. The January ended with Chinese New Year celebration in my hometown in Riau province.

Living in Jakarta is not as bad as i imagine. As long as you have patience to face with the traffic, you will be fine. I were lucky that i had chance to meet my “partner in crime” before she moved to Sumatra island. She also introduced me to her best friends who turned out become my besties, ‘the dududers’.

Work life turned out to be a challenging path, the same as previous years only in different segment. I need to learn lots of IT stuffs from basic and become an expert at the same time. I played different roles in different projects. This is like play the necessary role to deliver the end result. High expectation from the company fortunately set a optimum performance delivery. The most amazing experience i had was to work with the amazing people around the world, especially the inner team. We work, we learn, and we laugh together. Thanks, guys!

I think 2014 was the year that i started to follow my passions more seriously. I signed up in music class to learn an instrument. I finally went to Dharamsala, The Holiness Dalai Lama’s home. It was one of my top bucket list’s item. I participated in TEDxUbud and Ubud Writer and Reader and Festival in Bali. Last but not least, i wrote more actively in different platforms.

After one year vacant, ‘runalittlestories’ came back with more consistency. The concept i shared is storytelling. Depends on the category of the article, each category has its own focus. Another thing that i introduced was my photos collection. I realised that a visual media can help the readers to feel the story more. Some time ago, i had time to reread all the posts in ‘runalittlestories’. Of course, they  are not perfect. There were several grammatical errors that i didn’t realise before (apologise :’) ). But, what makes me tremendously happy is by my writing i can reflect 2014 very well, all the stories and the feelings. As encouraged by my best friend  ‘Ty’, keep writing so memories can’t be forgotten. In the end, i really hope that all of you enjoy the stories. :’)

In travelling department, there were several personal and business trips during the year. I went to Bali quite often for several personal occasions, continued with business trips to Surabaya and Germany, adventured in India, and spent New Year Eve in East Kalimantan. Each of the trip has its own story. The hard part is to catch up its writing afterwards. Hopefully i can be better in 2015. *finger crossed*

Most importantly, i am grateful and thankful that i have family and friends that always be there for me, even though most of you live far far away. I can’t deny that there were some downs and tears throughout the year. That is life. There are bumps, turns, and even holes. I can choose to complain about those all the way to the destination or i choose to only acknowledge the beautiful sceneries and memories while accepting the bad ones as learning experiences. And I know without your support, i won’t be who i am now.

To be frank, in the start of 2014, i were not sure what i wanted to achieve. Its like i were in the middle of crossroad. The only two in my mind were to learn a new thing in my new role and to explore India. Plain and simple. Only in the mid of the year, after deep thinking for months, i have decided several steps that i passionately want to achieve in the following one year period.

Half of them already been realised. And now, i am focusing on remaining others. 2014 definitely was a great year for me and i sincerely hope that it also was a great year for all of you. :’)

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and great New Year! 

l.o.v.e.

.runa.