Hello 2022, Please Be Nice!

Hi everyone, it’s finally a new year. I hope all of you had a great start to enter this new year. I’ve said this many times before, “damn, time flies so fast!”. Whether it’s pandemic or not, time always ticking and without we realize, it flies just like that. But, obviously the pandemic makes it feel much faster than we expected, right?

When we first entered 2021, we thought and hope that the situation will get better. But, the reality chose the other way. The situation was getting much more out of control and we experienced far worse than 2020. But, if you are reading this now, you have done well and congratulations you’ve survived the worst! Even though 2021 wasn’t as good as we expected, but there’s always a good thing in everything.

If I have to describe my 2021 in one word, it will be novelty. I had few new experiences that I’ve never had before. And I can say that those experiences were the highlight of my 2021. The first thing is I experienced a burned out. I think I just hit the lowest point of my life, where I don’t feel happy at all. I feel negative and I hate it so much. I never knew that I growing up was this hard. When I was there, I was thinking if I am actually not as strong as I thought or it is something that everyone will get eventually. When I was in that state, I feel very emotional and sensitive. It was very irritating and hurt. I really don’t know the root cause, but the trigger might be my workplace environment. I don’t want to blame the situation or what, but everything happens for a reason. So, there might be a reason behind this burn out, even though I don’t know for sure what it is. Well, anyways I’m already get back to my cheerful and bubbly self. Thankfully, it doesn’t take that much time to recover.

The second thing is there are many of my friends that got married and suddenly I became an aunt to their baby! I have some niece and nephew, but being an aunt to my friend’s children is novel to me. It wasn’t in my life vision plan. I remember that when I was small, I was treated nicely with my mom’s friend. As if I am their children. My childhood memories made me wanted to be a nice and fun aunt to them.

The third new thing is I finally tried paragliding! I’ve been always wanted to do paragliding (way before Yoon Seri make it a trend). There is no word to explain my feelings up in the air. It was thrilling, joyful, amusement, and peaceful. I think I know why people wants to fly like a bird. It was a very awesome experience ever in 2021. Also, I flew with my best friends, which doubled up the fun.

Also, I would like to say that I survived 2021 most of the time because of K-dramas. From Vincenzo, Hospital Playlist 2, Police University, Hometown Cha Cha Cha, to Lovers of the Red Sky. Thank you for all of the related drama’s teams, you’ve made my 2021 bright and livable. I think I could express my emotions thanks to the shows I watched during 2021. I couldn’t imagine what my life will be without them.

There are few things that left unchanged even in 2021 that makes me feel good. The fact that my favorite idol groups like 2PM and Super Junior still going strong and they still hang out like when they are younger and at their peak popularity made me realize that they take their members seriously. I thank God that I got to know them and thankful for them. Please keep this friendship going on.

I also started a new routine last year and hopefully, it continues. I started to do a reflection journal. As I’ve entered the “life-quarter crisis”, I started to read and watch contents regarding self-improvement. I’ve always been a very cheerful and positive-minded person, but I really hit the lowest point of my life in 2021. Thanks to the contents I read and saw, I started to gain my strength and started a positive routine. Well, actually since I was a kid I’ve been trained to write a self-reflection journal at school, but doing it voluntarily and not has a huge gap. After I did the reflection journal, I started to sort myself out. I made a reflection journal based on the movies or shows that I watched and make notes of the lessons I got from it. Well, there isn’t a fixed way how to do the reflection journal, but I this way suits me the best. I watched one of the older video of Dulce Candy, and she also recommended to do this kind of journaling. It really helps me to grow as a better person. You can see the snippets of my journal below.

2021 wasn’t an easy year for all of us, but we finally get through it well. Let’s hope that 2022 is better than the previous years. Most of all, to be sane and joyful throughout the process. 2021 taught me a lot and the most important lesson is to trust God’s timing no matter what. Good things will definitely come, we just need to be prepared for it and do our best. 

Happy New Year!! 

God bless your days in 2022!

Epilogue

In 2021, there was an incident regarding Kim Seonho. He was getting much more attention thanks to 2 Days 1 Night and the most recent drama of him, ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha’. Then an incident broke and his popularity was scratched. Long story short, the truth revealed and Kim Seonho was “accepted” again by the society. He canceled the “cancel culture”. His incident really broke my heart, but as his fans for some time, I know that he is truly a good person that just simply make mistake. This incident once again reminds me that entertainer, celebrity, or whatever you call your favorite artist, is also a human being that also make mistakes. I was really afraid if this incident broke his mental harshly and he choose an extreme option. Thank goodness, he is stronger than I thought and there are many good fans out there that still stand by his side. He also shows that the good deeds you do will get back to you eventually. 

So, be good!

E-Epilogue

I would like to say congratulations to all athletes and committees that participate in the Olympics this year. Finally, your hard work was paid off. Despite of the pro and cons, it was a great event. Indonesia got a gold medal for Badminton Women’s Double, which is very cool! Indonesia was well-known for the badminton skills and this time the gold medalists were women! Well done. I watched some of the competitions (though mostly were where the South Korean team participates, since I watched through the Korean channel), and very thrilled with the event. The excitement was real, but it would be better to watch it live! Hopefully the next summer Olympics it could be filled with audiences. Amen, everyone?

Further Reading:

https://sea.mashable.com/life/18633/44-things-you-forgot-happened-in-2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/special-series/2021-year-in-review.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/29/entertainment/best-pop-culture-moments-2021-cec/index.html

JCP FEATURES: GROW UP

"I want to get through these hardships 

and hold your hand"

- Future by Red Velvet (Start Up OST)

The drama “Start-Up” was trending in November 2020. The drama not only watched by K-drama fans but non-K-drama fans as well. This drama inspired me to make this JCP Features since the drama not only portrayed romance, friendship & family, but also mentorship. Have you watched the drama? If so, what do you learn from the drama?

As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, lately I felt burnout and the root cause would probably because of my workplace culture. Even though I just realized about it a few months ago, but I think it’s connected with the main topic I wanted to share in the first place.

The first time I encounter the word ‘mentor’ was when I entered university. On the first day of orientation, newcomers were accompanied by a mentor. My mentor was not really made a big impact on me, but she introduced me to the fun part of being a university student. Well, back then I have few mentors that actively participated in my life-changing journey. Even though the harsh reality separated us now, but once a mentor will be a forever mentor. Anyways, what I wanted to underline here is the importance of a mentor in our lives. After I came out to the real world, I finally realize that having a good mentor is as hard as finding your soulmate. The Oxford Languages defined “mentor” as “an experienced and trusted adviser”. And this definition has summed up all the criteria of being a mentor. Mentors themselves not always need to be older, but they might have more experience than us. Also, most of all are trustworthy. Being trustworthy means they could frankly speak about the harsh fact that we might experience or tell us the ugly truth they’ve experienced. For the past few years, there were many motivational speakers and people we looked up for that seems like a mentor to us. But, unless you know them personally, I don’t think they could be called to be a mentor. As mentioned before, a mentor should be the one we trusted. We could trust someone if we know that person personally right?

In the drama “Start-up” there is a character called Han Ji-pyeong. He is a manager of an investment company and a successful young career man with lots of hardship while he is young. Long story short he happened to become a mentor for the start-ups CEO in Sandbox, the Korean Silicon Valley. There are 3 other mentors and each mentor have different characteristics and personalities, but one thing for sure that a trust is shouldn’t be separated from mentor characteristic. A character named Alex Kwon is the most wanted mentor because he is surely an expert in the world of start-up, but he couldn’t gain the trust of the participants. Another mentor called Won Doo-jung is the CEO of a big firm in Korea. He surely has a personality that people would love to look for, but also he failed to be truthful and even make the mentees uncomfortable and lose respect for him. Han Ji-pyeong himself also not a good mentor at first, but he truly cares about his mentees. At first, he always disagrees and says the bad things only. His mentees feel discouraged and spoke up about their uncomfortableness. After some point in the story, he changed and he truly helped his mentees to be better each day. On the other side, the most senior mentor of four is Yoon Sun-hak. She is the CEO of SH Venture Capital (where Han Ji-pyeong worked) and also the head of Sandbox. She has the experience and also trustworthy, but she also had a painful past. Well, everyone has their own past and goals. Not everyone is perfect, but to be transparent and truthful is what it takes to be a mentor. Life is not always full of rainbows and tastes sweet, but there are some rain or even storm and it can bitter. Having a mentor helps you to be prepared for those bad days and have someone that can support you since they can understand your feelings because they might have experienced the same thing as you.

As I watched the drama, I learned how wonderful it was to be a mentor. I was kind of regretted that I didn’t apply as a mentor like some of my friends back in the university. But after a second thought, actually being my lecturer’s assistant for around a year also considered being a mentor. I became the person my juniors trusted and I could share some experience with them. I feel so grateful for them as they came to congratulate me on my graduation day and I’m also proud that they have successfully graduated on time. I realized that have a mentor title is not always proof that you are a good mentor, but your action is what it takes.

Even though I didn’t closely keep in touch with them, but seeing them to doing well ensure me enough that they’ve become a decent person in this wild society. Thank God I didn’t hear any bad news from them. I never thought that being able to share what you know will be this valuable experience. Actually, I, myself haven’t keep in touch with my mentor for a long time. As I’ve said before, everyone has their own goals and to-do list, which might have them to be focused on their checklist. It’s not that mentee is not important, but in reality, we have to face our own problems too. I think becoming a long-life mentor is not for everyone. It needs dedication. As long as your mentee is doing well on their own or even they became a mentor themselves is a sign that your duty as a mentor has finished. I think it’s okay to finally let off their hands so that they can grab someone else’s hand and guide them.

Currently, I’ve got no one to look up to whenever I had a hard time at work since my current workplace doesn’t have a mentoring system. I never thought working will be this mentally exhausting, but surely having someone you can look up to at work is really important. This job is my first long-term work experience and I finally learned that fully responsible for your job only is not enough. You have to be happy and enjoy your job. No wonder many quit their 9-to-5 job even though they get paid a lot.

Relying solely on other people is not good, but having someone to rely on is pretty important, especially in this vast changing phase. Unfortunately, I had to face this harsh truth myself, but learning from a real-life experience is not so bad. I hope you have a mentor that you can always look up to whenever you face a hard time. Also, you can be the figure others look up for whenever they have a hard time.

Further Readings:

https://hbr.org/2020/08/what-efficient-mentorship-looks-like

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marvinkrislov/2020/01/09/mentorship-good-for-the-mentored-and-good-for-those-mentoring-too/?sh=491e399142b7

https://sheleadsafrica.org/power-of-mentorship/

https://dandavidamazona.medium.com/sandbox-fulfilling-your-life-purpose-start-up-k-drama-analysis-cc1b57f7ea86

JENNIFER’S PASSION 2020 AWARDS

Hi Everyone!

Taking a little break from my (pending) JCP Features project for a while for a special rewind of 2020. (which is late for 3 months already. I'm sawrryy!) Like I used to do every year in this blog, I reflected on what happened in that year. This time I will do it in a form of awards for every little thing I appreciate in 2020. Since 2016, I have the habit of watching year-end awards and inspired to do in my version this year. 2020 was an unusual year for all of us around the world. The things we used to think it is natural, we couldn’t have anymore, and unexpectedly, we lost many things in 2020. Even so, let’s start 2021 with new fresh energy and hope that all this pandemic drama is over!

The awards will be separated into few categories, such as TV Shows & Music, Foods, and Random stuff. All the awardees listed down below are purely according to my opinions and just for fun.

TV Shows & Music

I spent half of my 2020 watching TV and listening to music, so I have a lot of favorite things to award in this category. I also noticed that many of my friends and acquittances (from Instagram) watched Korean shows during the quarantine days, so I believe many of you might be familiar with the awardees listed down below.

Update: The House Detox is now not just a pilot show. It's become a regular Monday TV Show.

Foods

I loveeee food. Well, I used to be a picky eater, but after hanging around with heavy eater and foodie friends in university, my palette changed. I started to eat most kinds of food. The foods I used to dislike? I ate them now and loved them. I was influenced by my mom for disliking pork, but hell yeah, it was one of the most delicious poultry in the whole world (but it all depends on how they serve it). I dreamt to be a food blogger actually and I travel for trying delicious food out in the world. Also, this year I learned that food does not only give you energy, it gives you comfort. From the food, we could receive warmth. More about this you can look up my Instagram post, here and mentioned a bit of it on my July’s JCP Feature, here.

Random Stuff

This section will be filled in with everything that I like other than TV show, music, and food. Beauty stuff, fashion, and many more.

I have a hard time choosing all of the lists above because I like so many things. This list pretty much sums up how my 2020 be like. Well, as you can see 2020 is not that bad, it’s just hard. I just wanted to thank every medical helper out there wherever you are, so have done well. I hope we can work hand-in-hand to fight this pandemic soon. Please don’t forget to use your mask wherever you go and please wash your hands regularly.

I wish you a great 2021 and hopefully, the world gets better and we finally can have a real warm hug and freely see each other again. Thank you for the support in 2020 and I hope I can have more exciting posts in the future (also reviving my YouTube Channel!). 

Stay safe and be happy everyone!

Love ya,

Jennifer

Further Readings:

https://www.soompi.com/article/1443162wpp/21-k-drama-superlatives-from-2020

https://blog.naver.com/rlawhw1664/220495518202

JCP FEATURES: 486*

“Loving yourself is not a selfish act”

I found some similarities in the dramas that I watched in July, it’s about mental health or psychological illness. I wonder why they choose this topic as their main background. I came to the conclusion that modern people (people nowadays) tend to not knowing their self-worth. They become easier to feel lonely, too much stressed, always comparing themselves to a figure they saw on social media. According to Carl Jung, “ The man whom we can with justice call ‘modern’ is solitary”. So, it's been studied before that in the future time, people will feel get easier to feel lonely since they live in solitude when human nature is social beings.

Let’s take a look at the rhinos, they live in solitude and now they become an endangered species. Sometimes being alone is important, but keeping a balance between alone and socializing is the right answer.

The pandemic taught us that we cannot live alone. Yeah, at first you feel great just staying at home, less contact with others that you are tired of. But then after a few months of doing it, you feel bored and started to feel depressed. Well, even before the pandemic the number of depressed or mentally-ill persons was high. According to Our World in Data, in 2017, more than 10% of the world’s population has a mental disorder. Stress sometimes can do good for us, it can trigger us to be out of our comfort zone and to be more creative in problem-solving. But, a long-term one is not a good one. It might lead to depression and other disorders.

I think the root of the problem is we don’t know ourselves and how to love ourselves. Loving yourself is not a selfish act, it’s a good foundation of social action. When you know yourself, you can love others. That’s when the connection between individuals developed. The Bible said, “Love the others like you love yourself”. Love might sound simple, but it is one of the most complicated emotions. God gave a perfect example, but humans always fail to do it. He gave an example of unconditional love, but this hard-hearted human is unable to do the same. Because God knows about His creation is hard-hearted, He told us to love ourselves first, in order to love others. We are a special creation that God created Himself, that’s why He wants us to love each other like He loves us.

The million-seller music group, BTS have few songs that raise this issue. Their first album title is called “Love Yourself”. They have series of it for the next albums. There are 5 series of it. Once they are called to be a guest speaker at the UN General Assembly. Their leader, RM talked about his past and how he learned how to love himself and he wanted to share it through music. More detail about the BTS album can be read here. The writer made a great explanation about it.

From the lyrics of "Epiphany" by BTS
Credits: Pinterest

I’m not a part of BTS fandom, but I really like the side tracks of their album. They have many hidden good songs with great messages behind them. I totally can get it why they are so loved by many. They worth love. Some of their songs are totally relatable, especially by youngsters. The world is changing and sometimes we might get lost and got no one to ask, but through music and watching movies, I realize that there are some people that feel the same as you. You are not alone. Please know that you are not alone.

In my last post, I mentioned the drama ‘It’s Okay to be Not Okay’. The drama is also great to be an eye-opener about mental issues.

Credits: TvN, 2020 (via Google Images)

“ If you want to make people around you happy, you have to find your own happiness first. Being selfish isn’t always a bad thing. Try to only think about your happiness when things are too stressful. It’s okay to do that.”

- from It’s Okay Not to Be Okay

The past can be hurtful and made you traumatized, but once you accept the fact that you are hurt, “that’s when the cure started.” The last sentence was a line from Shin Ha-Kyun in the drama “Soul Mechanic”. He is a psychiatrist and he himself also “sick”. He got traumatized by the death of his patient before. Then he met this similar patient as before and try to push away that patient because he doesn’t want to remember that accident anymore. But, at the same time, he realized that he has to accept that he is hurt, so the cure will take place. Once you know your diagnosis, you will get to know what to do to cure that illness, right? Same like physical illness, mental illness also the same. 

Captures of "Soul Mechanic", KBS, 2020
Source: https://dramasoverflowers.tumblr.com/post/617619071109840896/great-last-line-from-this-episode

I recommended “Soul Mechanic” if you want to get insights into human emotions. It will enlighten your heart and be grateful for what you have done this far. While watching this drama, I feel relieved that I didn’t have those kinds of hurtful past and grew up well. I came to learn to appreciate people more.

Another drama that took mental wellness is “Dinner Mate”. In this drama, they cure the illness through food. No wonder there is such a word as “comfort food”. Believe it or not, food is not just a thing that you must eat to survive physically, but also mentally. 

Captures from "Dinner Mate", MBC, 2020
Source: https://dramalifechoseme.tumblr.com/post/623695391074942976/gotta-flex-while-he-canalso-where-can-i-sign

I hope after reading this feature and watching those dramas, you know that you are wonderfully made. 

So, please love yourself. Don’t be harsh on yourself and learn to love yourself before loving others.

 If you have a hard time, share with others. Don’t keep it with yourself. Get it out. Remember, loving yourself is not selfish and you won’t be considered a narcissist. It is an appreciation of yourself.

Peace out!

If you or your family or friend that are feeling depressed and got no one to talk to, don’t be hesitant to get help. You can visit https://www.befrienders.org (WORLDWIDE) or local hotline (suicide prevention hotline).

*486 is a secret number to say "I Love You" in Korea. It was widely used during the beeper pager generation. It's a small electronic device that could only receive number only. This code is the same as 381 for the rest of the world.

Read More:

Found this good article from the BBC about managing your mental health during the pandemic. You can read it here.

20 inspirational quotes from the drama ‘It’s Okay Not to Be Okay”.

Why you should watch “Soul Mechanic”.

Resources:

https://www.elephantjournal.com/2018/03/5-qualities-of-the-truly-modern-person-via-carl-jung

https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health