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Protected: Autumn and summer in three weeks (Part 2)

December 15, 2015 by dazzlingsplendour

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Categories: Me, Travels | Tags: Australia, Bffs, Gold Coast | Permalink.

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2018 has been a year filled with the closing and opening of new chapters in my life. I had experiences - both old and new - which made my days either high or low but that's the norm in life so it's allright! Either way, they're excellent avenues for growth to be a better person for myself and those around me which I hope I've attained. Turning back to say thank You for allowing me and my loved ones to live for yet another year to marvel at His mercy and greatness. Alhamdulillah! Praying that 2019 brings much love, joy and contentment to us all.

2 more days before 2018 ends. My social media feeds contain huge gaps about my life in 2018 due to two reasons: 1) My days and weeks move pretty fast and there're so many things that demand me to be present physically, mentally and emotionally that the last thing I wanna do is to document them on social media. 2) My beliefs that some things are meant to be only for the self and closed ones and not shared in an open platform. That said, here's one of the big things that made my 2018 I'd like to share and stamp on my feed. On 26th Feb, the two years spent in Korea culminated in this: commencement ceremony. I loved the hours spent in class, at the library and online looking for readings and doing the readings itself. I guess the most challenging part was the journey towards completing the thesis. I'm not gonna lie and say the research route was easy. It's not. Finding a supervisor, the meetings with the supervisor, the proposal, the research itself, the writing and later the defense. Each presents its own set of challenges. Even getting the thesis binded was challenging and another drama in itself! One of the things that kept me going was the thought that I already made a commitment to work and the people back home that I'll be present for the various engagements I've given my word to. I've been taking a break from studies but these few weeks, I've been curious enough about the PHD world to actually look up potential pathways. Reading the eligibility requirements for entrance into a PHD programme and the minimum 3 years commitment required were pretty daunting. So I don't know whether I'll ever take that route. Regardless, I'm so so grateful for this part of my life journey. I always believed 20% comes from me and the other 80% comes from my parents, close friends and importantly, God who made it possible for me to complete this journey.

For 2 years when I was away in Korea, I didn't get to go on the annual gfs/bffs trip. Neither did I get to go on my own personal trips overseas. When you're a grad student stretching your dollars to make it last, these trips are a luxury which you really cannot afford. So to be able to go on this trip with these ladies here this time was such a huge blessing to me! Especially when I recall the 2 years when I had to forgo a lot of things and focus on the essentials so that I have money to buy groceries and be able to eat for that week... Being able to travel and see the world like this after those circumstances is really a Gift from Him. Therefore no matter how short your trip was, or even how near, travelling isn't just a privilege. It's a blessing where you're one of the chosen ones able to experience more of this world. If you're on holiday or going to go on one, may you gain lotsa goodness from this Gift. Happy holidays everyone!

A lagoon at Rottnest Island. The waters were such a beautiful turquoise colour that it automatically releases such calm within us. The journey here was the opposite of this calmness though. We missed the 10.30am ferry that we had booked and paid for. The 35 minutes ferry ride (to-and-fro) was so choppy it felt like we were on a 35 minutes continuous rollercoaster ride. I had considered retrieving the life jackets under the seats and putting it on throughout the ferry ride... but fought hard against it when I saw the other Australians onboard seemingly happy laughing and drinking away like as though the ferry didn't just turn 30° on its side! Seeing the beauty that is the island and it's unique inhabitants which could only be found here and nowhere else - the quokkas - made us forget about our experiences earlier!

As we drove north and got closer to the Pinnacles, we could see the environment getting drier. The trees got shorter in height and more sparse before it gave way to grasslands and eventually, the sandy desert. The skies were cloudless too! All of us forgot about the long and very warm drive up when we arrived at Nambung National Park and laid our eyes upon these rocks. Always, the rock landscape is a testimony to the intricate processes of nature that took millions of years in the making and is still in the process of reshaping.

Pink lake was such a sight and worth the 3 hours drive the day before in order to see this place!

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