When I started into the workforce, I made a promise to myself to have a good balance between work, personal and spiritual life. I didn’t want to end up like last time at my first year in culinary school where I completely went off the radar and stopped talking to everyone. So, I ended up doing a few things to have a little fun while working.

As you guys may or may not know, I’m really into rhythm games. So my friend showed me an arcade game called “Pump it up”. At first, it was really hard because I’m not used to moving around the pads, but later on I started to get into it. It’s very addicting because there’s not really any competition. It’s all about self-improvement. Along the way, I met a ton of new people that plays the game. We talked, hung out and they even teach me how to get better at the game. I can’t thank them enough for all their help. Now, they kinda know me now since I always go there at least once a week. It’s funny how I met just one friend in the Pump it up community and then it became like 50.

Other than arcades, I tried to travel as much as possible to explore, try new things and to get out of my comfort zone. One of the cooler trips is Taiwan. I love love love that place so much. I wish I can go there again. I’m not going to talk too much about it because I have already mentioned it in part one. But to summarize, it reignited the fire inside me, opened up my eyes, and see life in a whole new way.

Lastly, I’m starting to hang out with some of my old friends that I knew since middle school. Some I known them for more than 10 years. Today, we’re like brothers and sisters in arms; taking care of one another and keeping each other in touch. I felt so bad in the past because I went off the radar for over a year because I was as full time student and worker. Yet they still understand and accept me as their brother. They’re like a second family to me.

I was listening to my old playlist. There’s a song called “Beautiful things we miss” by Matthew West. It talks about how we’re always climbing our own mountains, we’re always looking down because we don’t want to trip over any rocks or branches. What we don’t know is to take some time to relax and look at your surroundings. Seeing how far we come in our journey. And realizing how we’re so focused in life, we lose touch with our loved ones in our lives.

“Open up my eyes, Lord

Keep me in the moment just like this

Before the beautiful things we love

Become the beautiful things we miss”

Before I end this series, I just want to say a big thank you to some people. Toronto Pump it up community, my friends from Montreal and most importantly, my second family. Thank you for all your support for making this all possible (I think I missed a few on this list but you guys matter too).