Have had many good and not so good experiences lately that kinda shaped my recent months. Here're the details…
A friend announced she's pregnant during one evening when we gathered to celebrate another one’s birthday. She's been trying for a baby for a few years and things took a dive when she contracted tuberculosis 2 years back. She had to undergo quite a bit of treatment and that took a very heavy toll on her physical health. And being a little pantang (superstitious), I didn’t really say much when she shared the news. Was naturally quite apprehensive as it's still in the early parts of her first trimester. Let's hope for the best.
Another friend was caught in a toxic relationship where her boyfriend cheated on her and got another pregnant. She wanted to hold on to the relationship and gave all sorts of reasons why she should do so despite being pushed aside, taken for granted, being constantly lied to, etc. Was a superbly messy state of things and was glad she decided finally to call the relationship off. Was roped in to counsel her by one of our common friends. It was not an easy conversation.
A friend happily changed his job given his bad experiences with his boss, and the reputations and prospects of the new company. But within a month of joining the company he fell into depression as he felt he was not given the guidance and coaching he needed and worst still, he felt lots of work was thrown towards him even though was was new and not ready for it. He just couldn't take the load and the constant pressure to deliver. It didn't help for the fact that his peers tendered and overnight he suddenly inherited a whole lot of new responsibilities with no additional resources. He came to me for help and support. He needed to vent.
Another friend was not happy at his job as his boss (who recruited him and with whom he had a very close relationship with) resigned and the new boss who was based at another location and is an academic loaded him all the commercial and administrative responsibilities. He was a junior grade staff with limited experience and was expected to handle several key accounts, many major projects, etc. It took him a good 6-7 months to land a new role and during the period, he looked towards me for career counseling and advice. Again, difficult process despite me being in HR.
Also, the conversation about my late parents apartment and how it is being managed kept coming up. My sister came to me and asked whether the issue had been settled. Frankly, I do not know. My mum passed away some 6 years back and things should have been resolved. I had also passed all legal documents to my brother and asked him to settle the post-death transactions relating to the house. Judging from the annual property tax that continued to be send to my address (as the legal representative of my late mum), I can safely assumed he has not done anything. This will, I believe, come to bite me eventually. I don’t look forward to that day and hope it doesn’t come.
My current house is way overdue in terms of renovation. It’s been almost 25 years and things are falling apart. Had had several issues relating to water seepage over recent years and my neighbours had complained to the management about it. Have kept off renovations for sometime as I had intentions to sell away my place eventually. With the recent COVID and stuff, I had delayed this plan and decided I should continue staying put, at least for a while more. Hence, the need to undertake renovations. Sometime late year year, I got me a little worried when I started noticing a foul odor appearing from my toilet and cracks appearing on my walls and floor. Whether it’s a result of the renovations of my neighboring units, I’m not sure, but certainly, something bad is brewing and it is telling me I should renovate my place urgently. Had initially planned to do it in Apr/ May before my work gets intense but eventually decide to delay it to Aug/ Sep. I need to work on this urgently now despite my work that is killing me given the proximity of the end/ new year and the rate things are falling apart.
There's been quite a bit of shifts in focus at work. Apart from restructuring, there was also new responsibilities given to me. I now report to a new boss. And as with such developments, we see lotsa resignations and people began to draw lines. So the existing arrangements of getting support from the various back support departments when I do any major activation events become unsustainable when these departments began to withdraw their support. And to make it worst, my new boss do not see nor appreciate what I am going through (I don't think he cares too) and continued to pile things onto me, even as I had protested again and again. It's not a good position to be in.
And oh, I had a bout of bad experiences with mouth ulcers and toothaches. And I finally decided to have my root canal fixed. The left lower molar had been giving me lotsa issues and I decided once and for all to kill it. Truth be told, the dentist had previously warned me about this specific tooth some 2 years back but I thought I’d want to prolong the tooth for as long as I could. The procedure wasn’t as bad as I had previously experienced and the specialist was quite gentle with me. Glad it’s over. Finally.
These are a small number of good, bad and crazy things that happened but it should give you a view of what’s going on in my life. I constantly tell myself to be positive, to adopt a positive mindset and that there are many opportunities to learn and to deliver. But my positivity is wearing thin. Hard to sustain.
