I hope it’s not too late to wrap up my 2022. There have been so many things happening in 2022 i.e. Covid, inflation, war, cost of living crisis, etc. I tried to keep up to update with what was happening in the world but also at the same time, tried not to let them impact me too much. There are things that happened suddenly and out of our control, which Nassim Nicholas Taleb described as ‘black swan’ incidents. What we can really do is to strengthen our antifragility and grow within these incidents.
It was an up-and-down year for me in 2022 but I would say it’s more ups than downs. Even though I finished none of my new year’s resolutions, I am still very happy to have the chance to do some amazing things, explore a few wonderful places and have some fun throughout the year.
Contents
- Master’s Degree Graduation Ceremony
- Grew more in my career – Harford Control and TEDxBrayfordPool
- Did speeches at different events – TEDxBrayfordPool Salon The Way We Live, International Women’s Day Conference, Master Degree’s Experience
- Progressed my language learning – Recorded my first French video and finished Advanced Business French C1
- Traveled to 13 cities – Abroad: Lanzarote, Salou, Barcelona (Spain); Bordeaux, Toulouse, Saint Emilion, Arcachon (France). UK: Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, London, York, Peak District, Malham Cove
- Learned wisdom from different authors
- Had fun in concerts and music festival
- Met new friends at professional events
- Continued my love for dancing and Started my TikTok dance account
- Did something new – guitar, driving and coding
Master’s Degree Graduation Ceremony
I am so happy to finally have our graduation ceremony at the beautiful Lincoln Cathedral. I am grateful that the university didn’t let us down and they organised the graduation ceremony for us in January. It seems like ages for me since I graduated from MSc Events Management at the University of Lincoln. All the memories of the master’s degree came up when I saw my lecturers, tutors and of course, my lovely coursemates: writing essays at the library until 2 am, going out socials at Quak night, having picnics with international students and the Castle, having lectures at the DCB building, planning the Eventure at the Tower Cafe, having to isolate and do online courses, all the happiness, achievements, failures, doubts and loss make me part of who I am.
No matter where I am and what I am doing in the future, the memory of the University of Lincoln and all the people that I knew from the university always have a special place in my heart.
Grew more in my career
Marketing Manager at Harford Control
It’s my second year at Harford Control. This year, I had more responsibilities and even grew more within my career. I had more confidence and got more familiar with different areas of marketing (i.e. marketing campaigns, lead generation, social media, Google PPC, video editing, copywriting writing and so on). I also looked at creating new assets for the company and explored new opportunities for helping grow the business.
I went down to the office and met many of my colleagues for the first time. It was so good to see them in person. One of my main achievements this year was exhibiting at the PPMA event. It was true teamwork from brainstorming the main messaging, designing the graphics on the stand and collaterals, creating one pagers and animation video to promoting the stand through different media such as digital channels and different publications. I have learned so so much from this experience and from the team.
I appreciate the support that the Harford team provided me along the way. They have always shared with me their professional knowledge and supported me wherever they can. It’s also great to receive recognition from the team and our directors which make me feel even more motivated.
Marketing Manager at TEDxBrayfordPool
I was recruited as the Marketing Manager at TEDxBrayfordPool this year. I feel so honoured about this! After speaking at TEDxBrayfordPool in 2019, I have always been grateful for the opportunity and the experience. It has sort of changed my life. My confidence was boosted and my speaking skills improved massively after the training. There have been many speaker invitations coming to me too.
During my volunteering at TEDxBrayfordPool, I got to interview many previous speakers about their experience of doing a TEDx Talk. It was amazing to have a chance to talk with them and learn more about their great ideas.
Did speeches at different events
(TEDxBrayfordPool Salon The Way We Live, International Women’s Day Conference, Master Degree’s Experience)
I have done three public speaking this year including the TEDxBrayfordPool Salon: The Way We Live; the International Women’s Day Conference; Master’s Degree Experience as a successful graduate.
TEDxBrayfordPool Salon – The Way We Live: We explored people, places and society and dived deep into the way we live in Lincoln Minster School.
It was inspiring to hear so many experts discuss city regeneration and reimagine the “forgotten” Waterside East. It’s interesting to understand how public spaces like New York High Line are designed and to discuss how we can better use the area of Abbey Wood and Waterside South area in Lincoln through taking advantage of unused spaces and organising community activities and events. I felt really honoured to share my thoughts on the way we live as a panel guest.
International Women’s Day: We discussed so many topics at the conference such as asking for funding as a female entrepreneur, overcoming the glass ceiling of women in the workplace, working in a male-dominated industry and company, tackling the cultural differences in professional lives, handling the balance between business and family life as a woman and so much more.
I shared my stories of working in 4 countries including China, Cambodia, the Czech Republic and the UK, transforming from a silent fresher to a mature professional woman and finding my own voice in different cultures successfully. I felt inspired, powerful, and grateful for the support of the female community. There are so many bold and brilliant voices in the room. Thanks to all the panel speakers to share their journey of being a woman in their professional lives.
Master’s Degree Experience for international students
I presented my experience of studying a master’s degree at the University of Lincoln twice this year for international students and for MSc Events Management postgraduates 2022-23.
I always love to share my master’s journey with students and hope they can get one or two useful things from my experience whether it’s academic study, exploring opportunities, overcoming cultural shock or improving employability. Thank you so much for inviting me back to the university continuously.
Progressed my language learning – Recorded my first French video and finished Advanced Business French C1
I recorded and published my first French-speaking video in April this year. It has always been my goal to create a French-speaking video and I did it! 🇫🇷
In the video, you will find my experiences of learning French, my level of French before I prepared for the exam, and how I manage to succeed in DELF B2 with 3 months of preparation. English Subtitle is available.
Since I passed French DELF B2 last year, many peers have approached me to ask for tips for learning French and taking the French DELF B2 exam. Therefore, I created a video to share my secrets about learning French.
From content brainstorming, writing scripts in French, English and Chinese, shooting videos, editing videos, finding A/B-rolls, integrating background music, putting subtitles and distributing on YouTube, Bilibili, and Red with different formats, I have spent over 50 hours producing and distributing this video. I would like to say a massive thank you to Many Hong for helping me by proofreading my French script.
I wanted to give up a few times on producing this video because it was just so hard to use my fourth language to record a video. I practised some sentences over 30 times just to make them sound native. As you can see, the background in the video changes from sunlight to night light.☀️
When I create some useful content and the viewers can learn something from it, I feel a sense of fulfilment and achievement. This has been my motivation to make videos on YouTube and write posts on LinkedIn.
Advanced French
I continued to further improve my french language by following the class os Advanced Business French C1 at Institute Français du Royaume-Uni.
It has been a great journey discussing business reports, finance sheets, marketing mix, hr as well as the global news in French with my teacher and classmates. As my teacher said in the class, French is a language itself and it’s very important to use French to understand what is happening in France and the world and to know other people’s world views. That is what I love about learning a language whether it’s Cambodian or French- it can help you open a whole new world!!🌎
Thank you to my French teacher who is an official translator for French ambassadors. Super experienced, professional and friendly!!
Traveled to 13 cities
I felt really lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to 13 cities this year.
Abroad: Lanzarote, Salou, Barcelona (Spain); Bordeaux, Toulouse, Saint Emilion, Arcachon (France)
UK: Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, London, York, Peak District, Malham Cove
It was fascinating to explore different cultures and saw UNESCO sites in person, from the active volcano at Timanfaya National Park, Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Place de la Bourse and Basilique Saint-Michel in Bordeaux, Wineries in Saint Emilion to Dune of Pilat in Arcachon. All the travel experiences were just amazing.
I love getting a Uber in Bordeaux. All the drivers that we met are so nice and friendly. During the journey, I had the chance to speak French with them about the culture, city, people and of course food!
As a great fan of food, I couldn’t enjoy more the original tapas on the seaside, the big and fresh oysters at the local market, and the tasty wines at the wine yards. You can actually see it from this photo.
Apart from travelling abroad, I felt lucky to explore more within the UK. The Roman Baths, Clifton Suspension Bridge and M Shed in Bristol, Botanic Garden and punting in Cambridge, enjoying city life in London, Christmas market in York, an authentic farmhouse with a hot tub in Peak District, Malham Cove in Derby, etc. The UK has so many great places to explore.
I felt really lucky to join the New Music Festival featured by The Guardian. It was organised by my very good friend, Carrie Sun and her university. It was great to find out about more different genres of music. Besides, what really surprised me is I met my high school friend in Guangzhou, Shiya Gu, in Cambridge. We went punting together on the beautiful river of Cambridge. Even if it was just a day, it was so nice to catch up with my old friend and speak some Cantonese!
In a Chinese old saying, it is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books. I have met so many people and learned so much during my travel. I hope to explore more places in the future.
Learned the wisdom from different authors
Talking about books, I am not a person who can read 50 books a year but I do like to take time on reading the book that I am interested in. I combined some books with audiobooks and found them really helpful.
Books: Atomic Habits by James Clear; The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel; How Google Works by Eric Schmidt; Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi; How to Not Die Alone by Logan Ury
Audiobooks: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo; The Three-Body Problem (三体) by Liu Cixin; One Hundred Years of Solitude (百年孤独) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; The Richest Man in Babylon (巴比伦最富有的人) by George S. Clason; To Live (活着) by Yu Hua; Rashōmon (罗生门) by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa; The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (黑天鹅) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb; Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (反脆弱) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Whether it’s personal development, finance, or literature, I found it fascinating to ‘travel’ from ancient times to modern society to obtain intelligence from different authors and areas. Habit is compound interest in Atomic Habits; luck is a big part of your wealth; leadership lessons in How Google Works, The importance of doing what you want to do and don’t hold back the things that you want to say to your loved ones in Before the Coffee Gets Cold; The kernel of relationship in How to Not Die Alone. These books have opened my mind substantially in 2022.
Antifragile and The Black Swan written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb have developed my mind massively. In particular, under various challenges such as inflation, the Russian-Ukraine war, the cost of living crisis, the energy crisis, and recovering from Covid, these are something that I can’t control. It’s similar to what Nassim defined in his book, the Black Swan incidents. It describes events that come as a surprise and have a major effect, which has put society under huge pressure.
We can’t really change the situation ourselves. All we can do is to strengthen our antifragility to grow ourselves from disorder.
Had fun in concerts and music festival
In case you think I am too geeky, I do have an active and fun side other than studying, working, speaking and reading. I felt lucky to have the opportunity to go to so many concerts this year including:
- Lady Gaga
- Ed Sheeran
- Little Mix
- Dua Lipa
- Coldplay
- BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend
- Bristol New Music Festival
It was my first time participating in a music festival, BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend, in the UK. It was so much fun! I had a really great time with my very good friend, Travis Li, who is extremely talented and currently works in music labels in London. We got to see many pop stars and rising stars’ live performances such as Harry Styles, Anne-Marie, Easy Life, Joe Corry, Sam Fender, Rina Sawayama, etc. 3 Days full of music and artists and happiness!!
The best one for me is Lady Gaga’s concert without any doubt!! I cried so many times at the concert. I have danced to Lady Gaga’s songs since I was in junior school. The feeling of seeing her live concert was just unbelievable. Her dance, her performance, her voice, the stage, everything was just perfect. I would never forget this amazing experience. Big thanks to Travis who managed to get the ticket for us.
Ed Sheeran and his guitar, Little Mix and their powerful voice, and Dua Lipa and her dance added so many colours to my 2022. The concerts have been amazing. I felt so lucky to have to chance to see them live.
Met new friends at professional events
Talking about other professional events, PPMA, The Marketing Meetup and Depop Top Seller Summit have been the best events that I joined in 2022. I met so many professionals during these events and understood more about different industries such as the manufacturing technology industry, the marketing industry and the eCommerce vintage clothing industry.
Thanks to my very good friend&entrepreuneur, Siyu (her Depop shop: SugarLizard), I had a chance to join the Depop Summit. It has been great to meet many talents and other top sellers on Depop and understand more about how the platform develops.
Continued my love for dancing and started my TikTok dance account
Dancing has been my passion since I was in junior school. No matter how busy I am, I will always set a time block to dance. This year, I have kept dancing, gone to classes in London, and shot a few videos.
I have started my TikTok dance account and added more videos on my Instagram Reels. Even though I don’t have many followers at the moment, I did enjoy making them a lot. You are more than welcome to follow my TikTok page.
Every time when I dance, I feel like I am in the zone. I can use different parts of my body and different moves to express the music and tell the story. Dancing has helped me a lot in my other areas such as creativity, art, health and confidence. It’s not something I would give up in my life.
Did something new – guitar, driving and coding
I tried many new things in 2022 such as guitar, driving and learning to code. I love exploring different new things in my life, knowing more about myself and finding my potential.
All of these haven’t achieved a really good level but I enjoyed the process of learning them (apart from driving probably). I really want to pass my driving test!! Let’s see whether the driving test will be in my 2023 wrap up haha.
Summary
Voilà here is my 2022 wrap up. I wouldn’t expect you to read through my wrap up as it is more like a reflection of myself but if you did, thank you very much for reading my wrap up!!
Every time towards the end of the year, I would always feel ‘OMG where this year has gone? I have so many things that I haven’t finished!’ However, when I sat down and reflected on this year, I did see I have done a few things throughout the year that I am proud of. Even though I didn’t finish my new year’s resolutions, it doesn’t really matter as I have explored many new places and hobbies in 2022 and things don’t really go as planned – this is called ‘life’.
One of my reflections on myself would be giving some time for myself to relax rather than doing things together. There have been a few times that I felt overwhelmed in 2022. That’s because I tried to fit everything into my schedule and ended up working 12-15 hours a day in some periods which was way too much. I decided to be kind to myself in the new year and schedule some time to relax regularly.
In the end, I would like to say thank you to all my family, friends, and colleagues that have been here in my ups and downs in 2022. My year wouldn’t be so good without you!! Look forward to 2023 and have an even better year ahead!!
