thoughts on the 31st of march

"March 31st 2014:

its been some long days, finally have some time to myself. we had our graduation dinner last friday, one month before the end of school. i went for the free food and to take photos with friends. i quite liked this chapter of my life i think...although i don't think i've ever spent so much money in my life. growing up and "experiencing" what the world has to offer tends to cost quite abit financially. i've been eating out so much, buying so much more, and traveling more than i ever have in the past 4 years. which reminds me that i've finally settled plans for my last two months of holiday in summer (foreseeably so, until/unless i quit my job during summer, take 2 months of leave during summer, or get pregnant, give birth and get maternity leave during summer) - what with me vacillating between rather strange ideas for the past several months e.g go for a zen retreat and see what its about (i heard they whack you with a wooden pole if you make mistakes), go look at animals in the savannahs of africa to see if i glean some special wisdom from observing nature~(LOL i really think you can tho), or go to some place filled with icebergs to observe environmental degradation and feel very empowered to change the world...and other very ridiculous ideas on hindsight LOL

i like traveling, but i don't like to over-romanticize it for what it is: at this point, me going places to look at stuff on my parents' money. everything is made possible because of my parents and their hard work. my dad never says no to anything i want. he travels alot for work, but seldom takes holidays off for himself - whether to "see the world" (why do parents with responsibilities never say they have "wanderlust"?) or to get away from accumulated stress. i'm sure he'd like that too, but he's really thrifty with himself but inexplicably generous with me. my love and respect for my dad is something that exceeds any love and respect i have had for anything else and i don't think this will ever change. all the schooling, experiences i've been lucky enough to go through, lessons i've managed to learn - the entirety of which took 23 years of my parent's hard-earned money, tireless concern, and love - should culminate in me giving back as much as i can now that i will begin to provide. probably one of the main reasons why i'm so excited to finish school and to start work!"

pictures above from graduation dinner, bali in march, and bonus pics of my dog being cute.

BTW i'll be in bali again from may 8th-16th -just to have a good time with friends! all friends reading this, or not yet friends, if you happen to be in bali lets meet up i'd bring you to a good place to eat if we're in the same area! i can be very talkative when engaged. or if not, i'd gladly give recs if its your first time there (putting this here because a few diff groups of friends/acquaintances said they would be in bali this may thanks to cheap tickets!)