On this very day, 6 years ago a young, hopeful, a little brown, enthusiastic boy landed on the Sydney International Airport. Everything his eyes could touch was a treat to him, tall buildings, clean paved road, sky which was painted with a different blue and bright white Caucasians which he had only seen so many in movies. He felt like his brown skin would stand out and would have trouble fitting in, but in truth nobody noticed.

As he stepped in the queue an immigration officer asked in her stern voice, “What brings you to Australia young man?”. He uttered like he is speaking the language for the first time, ” Hmm, To Study” the boy spurted hoping she won’t ask him to repeat himself.

For the next 3 months, mountains of trouble were to be thrown at him. He will struggle to find directions to his class, order food in Maccas (MacDonald’s), catch an appropriate train and even decipher accent the natives spoke. His confidence would receive a fatal blow.

That little brown boy was me.

Fast forward 6 years, as I sit here on a cosy leather couch, remembering all the hardships and joyful moments and content in my heart for all that passed, there is one thing word that loops in my head.

Gratitude.

I am so grateful that I took the leap. I am grateful for all the little choices I took along the way. I am grateful to all the people that supported me in this journey. I am grateful for the position I am in today.

Maybe some people would measure my success with the riches I have accumulated so far. Some would judge me by the car I rode or the clothes I wore. Some would examine me with the lifestyle I am living and the parties I attended or scale me with the number of girls I hooked up with. But little do they know their observation is as shallow as their mind. They but hold nominal value to me.

Change.

Someone asked me, “How would you sum all this 6 years in one word?” After much though I replied, “Change.”

Though it is not an adjective that describes much, but the word was definitely change.

These 6 years has changed my perspective upon life, changed my desires, shifted my goals and moulded my ambitions. And I personally seem to like this change.😊

So as I sit here in jubilation for reaching this milestone, I urge each and every one of you to reflect those two words.

Gratitude & Change.

Be grateful to all the people that surround you in this moment of life and to the ones that you have passed behind.

And embrace the change and try to be better than the person we were yesterday, not be better than the one next to us.