When I was still writing my very last undergraduate exam a month ago, I had an indescribable feeling of joy, nostalgia, and bittersweet. In first year, I had a lot of aspirations of what I want to do, in second and third year, this school life felt like it’s never going to end, fourth and final year, I got more confused as to why I picked chemical engineering as I get more exposed to the ‘real’ world and everything just gets more complicated.

It felt more like riding a roller coaster. Maybe life is a roller coaster ride.

Phase 1:

When you first start something, say a project, you get so pumped and crazy with the planning and super excited about this new beginning.

That’s when you decided to get into the cart, buckled up and starting to ride up the first hill.

Phase 2:

When you reach the top of the peak and see carts ahead of you start rolling down and hear a lot of screaming, so the adrenaline rushed in and you have a split second of doubt and want to get out. And yet, there’s nothing you can do about it except anticipating your turn to come.

That’s when you are in the middle of the project, you start to have doubts to whether this is the right thing to do as there are a lot of problems to solve and uncertainties. Most of the time you just couldn’t figure it out, and question yourself why you even started, but there’s no way back, so you keep going and choose the best possible route to continue.

Phase 3:

Right after you passed the peak and begin to roll down the hill, the weightlessness kicks and you don’t even know how to feel anymore but just keep going until you reach the bottom. The momentum of the carts will keep you moving to the next loop and the next until the end.

When you overcome the first obstacle, the next one arises but somehow, you keep managed to figure them out. Things will just keep unfolding when you keep going. And just when you had a bit of time to recover from the first loop, you realised you are already on your way to the next.

You can either close your eyes, scream out loud, hold on to the anchor and blame yourself for whatever reason that you got on the ride OR you keep your eyes wide open, smile, raise your hands and embrace the wind, feel the breeze through your fingers and enjoy the ride. Either way, you’re already on the ride.

So I came up with a few guidelines and they might change over time as I grow and new things unfold. For now, this is what I would do on my ride:

Be Happy

My way to achieve this is to show self love. Do things that make me happy. One thing I learn about myself is that when I am in a good mood, I tend to be more creative, sociable, productive and confident! By loving myself, I mean smile more, laugh randomly, people around me might sometimes get weird out by me but who cares right. I am happy! Sometimes, I find if I smile more, people around me tend to smile more too. Some actions I have taken to make myself happy:

• Eat HEALTHY food
  Healthy… means, clean food for most of the time when I eat alone. Juicing, making green smoothies, veggies, nuts, complex carbs.. just whole foods in general. I used to be a coffee junkie, coffee brewing is the very first thing I do when I wake up every morning. Terrible idea, as you will start building up your tolerance and shit just goes down hill from there. So now, I’m trying to reset my caffeine tolerance through replacing it with a mean green juice and it’s working very well so far. Never felt better!

• Listen to happy or relaxing music
  I like to listen to Blues and Jazz when I go into deeper thinking and reading. EDM is for when I have to hype my mood up say before a party or workout. Just goto concerts or a jazz club to chill and relax on the weekends and have some fun.

• See everything around you as an opportunity to learn
  Whatever and whoever I encounter, just show a little bit more interest and use that curiosity to learn about them. Learning something new will form new pathways in the brain and new ideas stem from there.

• Make a bucket list and ask myself, hm, what would I do if I have all the money and power in the world?
  I think this question is very powerful. It gives me all the power I need to do whatever I want and keep triggering new ideas and expand my imagination. It is through these unrealistic scenarios that teaches me how to behave realistically. The image of having access to unlimited amount of resources that empowers me to grow.

• Ask questions like where would I go, where do I want to spend my next vacation, with who, or alone? and why do I want to go there? what do I expect to see and learn? It is interesting to compare what actually happen with my expectations. Whatever it is, just have an open mind towards the outcome.

Focus. Never stop asking questions. Keep learning. Experimenting. Just keep going. Hustle. Give your best.

Good things will unfold.