Shannon on Film

"Seek what sets your soul on fire"

Golden Hour Shine

"But these are days we dream about when the sunlight paints us gold."

Unspoken Truths of Chinese New Year

The festive of luck, prosperity and wealth.

However, don't ever forget it's real happiness of it;

the festive of reunions, bonds and health.

Happy Chinese New Year!

- Shannon -

I Kinda Graduated...

Hey ya'll lovelies!! Well, It was just yesterday (Saturday) that I graduated but to some who might already know, I'm currently doing my progression in Degree so apparently I didn't pay to go for my Diploma graduation (That explains the the title very much) because it means you need to go twice and have to pay twice and well, I can't afford that much money spend on graduation honestly even if it's a 'one time thing'. Degree will be that 'one time thing' for me so yea! ;)

TWENTY

Hey ya'll lovelies! I just celebrated my 20th birthday yesterday and so it came across my mind that I should blog about how I feel right now.

    Turning 20 got me jumbled up on feelings that I can't even describe honestly but if I were to put it into the simplest form it would be mixed feelings. I'm guessing you know how mixed feelings feels right? I feel happy but anxious at the same time (with other feelings that I can't interpret it). Happy because I'm finally going into adulthood life but anxious because I have no idea whether I'm ready to step into adulthood with piles of responsibilities waiting for you at the end of the road.

    As I look back into my teenage years, I don't feel nostalgic honestly just because I didn't like my past self who was timid and shy. But I'm thankful for those years of trying to find ways to be the opposite of what I was. I would spend hours searching for personality quizzes from time to time to find out whether have I improved myself and even search for articles on how to be confident and positive back then. Of course, it did worked out a little. Today, I could say that I'm confident enough to face my fears and shyness at some point (not much but better) and I do have to say it's all thanks to those who have helped me.

A Bigger Splash

    One crazy(?) fact about me; I don't swim. BUT why am I in Swimming Club KL? Well, ya'll already know I love taking photos and I'm working hard on my blog so I only went there for the Instagram posts heh. BUT not only that of course, I thought I'd try out their drinks and some snacks there and yea I did! :)

My First Portrait Photoshoot (As Photographer)

"The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are." 

- Unknown -

    As some of you may know that when it comes to portrait photoshoots, I've ONLY shot portraits of my friends most of the time or just volunteer myself to join my university's orientation as a photographer. BUT this time it's different because I finally stepped out of my little usual photoshoot activity and went on with taking a slight risk to shoot with a stranger I met on The HUB app.

Appreciation Post

    The first time of my uni life if I flashback to the day of orientation, I met some new friends and well, it became a little rough as time passes. I'm not sure why but I guess that some friends were not the fated ones who would be by my side whenever I needed them BUT as each semester goes by, I did met 3 friends who I believe they were the fated ones where we were genuinely comforting and also backing up each other when we were down. We would also support each other in every other way best friends could do and I truly am proud of having them by my side. This post was requested by them and I promised to write about them each individually with my own words of thanks so here it goes girls. HAHAHA

    Throwback to the first day of orientation, I didn't really know she existed in my group just because I'm the type who doesn't mingle around much and was not the sociable kind of person but after it ended I went down to the entrance to get picked up by my parents and while waiting; there was a girl who came to me and introduced herself with a big smile on her face - It was Clarisse. I was kind of awkward of course but she made it less awkward by smiling and laughing and we ended up exchanging phone numbers until I realized she was in the same orientation group as me. From then on, we chit chatted a few times and as time passes, we became close friends and of course I'm proud of it. :) Until now, she was the lovely girl with all smiles on her face and I think that's her charm as a girl. Her sweet smile would comfort you at moments when you feel down and her jokes would cheer you up and sometimes just face palm just because we couldn't help it so yea. Here are some pretty pics of Clarisse ;)

    Another person is the one who I actually saw her for the first time during orientation and literally couldn't help but compliment her that she was so pretty and made her put on the embarrassed laughter HAHA. Her name's Annabelle and well we weren't that close for the first few semesters but at some point we started hanging out together and soon after; we became as close as ever. To be honest, if you asked how we got so close, I have no idea how to answer it just because both of us didn't know how we ended up being a gang that makes lots of people question us if either of us weren't beside each other. All we know after being close was both of us originally had in mind that we wanted to get close to each other and I think its awesome that we really got closer to each other. She's the one who gave me lots of advice on literally almost everything and always reminded me not to give up on what I wanted to have and achieve in the first place. Of course, I am proud of her too for everything to be honest, she has done so many things for me and I hope that one day we'll always continue to back each other up whenever we go down. Continue to scroll down if you wanna see how pretty Annabelle is: 

    Last but not least, the person who has been with me ever since middle school though we weren't that close during that period of time. We got close during our high school years and I'm not sure how too just because we were actually in different class but it ends well anyway so its good hehe. Her name's Jia Ai as I would jokingly call her either "False Love" or "Add Love" just because her Chinese name sounds like it. I would also call her Nasty just because she calls me Stinky LOL. But anyway, she's been with me for quite awhile now and I must say that we do have arguments at times but we'll just end up being together again and that makes me happy too since it shows how strong our bond is. we registered to the same university together and we also stick together through almost majority of the group assignments and I can say we make a pretty great team as we helped each other out with what we don't understand or can't find. She's the one who would actually comfort you in many ways she can too and I appreciate that just because we both experienced the worst case scenarios in relationships and we both understood how painful it was as we hug each other with love and sincerity and even telling each other to always never be easy on others to avoid people from using us easily. We've been through so many things together and I do hope that we'll always continue to be together as we continue to create even more interesting and thrilling memories in the future. Please scroll down to see the very chic model, Jia Ai HAHA: 

    These 3 girls in the end was the one who made my university life interesting I can say. We would go to cafes we've never been before, hang out on holidays where Clarisse would drive us out and btw, THANK YOU FOR DRIVING US GURL!! HAHAHA and also we would help each other out in assignments and studies if we can. We've been having  each other backs for quite some time now and I really do feel grateful for having them come into my life. I also do hope that we'll be together forever despite our different locations, and careers we choose and also that we would try our best to meet up once Annabelle comes back to KL. To all 3 of you, thank you for being a part of my life and making it so interesting that I couldn't even catch up sometimes hahaha and also please thank me after reading it all the way here. Also, I realized I have very little of ya'll portrait pictures, especially Clarisse and Annabelle so fast fast let's meet up and take some pictures! AHAHAH I also fulfilled your requests on writing about you people so.. THE END. Love ya'll!!

Sincerely with love, Shannon

What’s Next?

    On the April of 11th, I’ve finished my finals and technically; it’s the last day of diploma life too. To be honest, I don’t really know about my coursemates but I feel like there’s so many more other things I wanted to do together still. But sadly, I wasn’t able to do it and literally low key wants to reverse back to the day to the very first time I talked to them; it was the fondest memory of all in my life and I’m already missing it so much.

Things that makes me happy

   From hoodies and long comfy sweaters to sneakers and sport shoes; those made me happy. But unfortunately, those are the things that made me happy for only a short while as I avert my eyes on something that's even more important; things that were meaningful in my life. :) 

    I remember the time where my family would go out on Saturdays with another family to have dinner together. In fact, it still happens now. We see each other grow taller, older and more mature and we see each other going from primary schools to Univerisities. Some may have gone to out of their comfort zone and study abroad and some may have stayed and continue their studies, but one thing that didn't change was the gathering we have between two families where we would tell stories about our weekday happenings. Even though one member in a pack is not around, remembrance is always the key in keeping us together as Saturday buddies and these every Saturday get together are what makes me happy & I love that. 

    I also remember the time where we would text each other in our group chat; 'When can we meet up', 'Where should we go?' are questions we always asked each other in Whatsapp and the times when we could find time to meet up; we were excited for it. Whether it's going to the movies or just leisurely walking around malls with no destinations in our mind, we were having fun as we share our stories from each of our univerisities and school stories. We might be on our different pathways, but our friendship was so tight that even though we told ourselves we were busy and had no time to hang out, we'd still be able to find the time to meet up and have fun. The four of us, sometimes five or six; we made a group of great friends during our high school days despite the fact that we had different characteristics, we were a group of friends that was trying to pull each other from the ground together and one thing that made me happy about it is we are still doing it till now. I thank God where I am able to meet you girls and I hope that we will be able to meet up soon! ;) 

    Time flies as God continues to write my life stories whether it's a companion or new friends to meet. They were all a great existence that came into my life. A companion that would be patient with my crazy self as he accepts me for me where we could have fun times together going through cafe websites and going to that destination we want to whether it's under hot suns or pouring rain. To top it off, friends that I could make jokes with are one of the things that makes me smile all the time. We might have some dramas between groups but we were able to pull it through somehow even though it might not be a perfect landing as we convinced each other to look on the bright side everytime we see the dark side coming on us. From doing things we love together to always thinking of where should we eat for lunch every single time after our lecture ends, these are the things I feel happy and I hope this things will last forever; at least longer than the objects that I have at the palm of my hand. 

    The moments and memories I have in my mind until now, from having my tears of joy being shed from touching moments to the sound of laughters coming from my friends where they would wear smiles on their faces without fail; these are the things that makes me happy as I continue to hope I can see those moments every single day of my life as I thank God for their existence on this earth. :)  

Just like how these tiny flowers grew beautifully, I hope the little moments and things in life will continue to increase more as we appreciate them from the bottom of our hearts like how the roots put their faith in these flowers too! 

Sincerely, Shannon. 

A New Year's Warmth

  Every start of the new year; a big round table full of our favorite home-cooked dishes, a big collection of red envelopes given by our elderly or those who are married, a big gathering of one's family and relatives together under one cozy roof and most of all, a big smile on each of everyone faces is what I see ever since the first day of New Year started - every single year, without fail.

  Before every new year, all families clean up their houses from living room to their storeroom to get a 'new year' feeling in their house. As they clean every corner of the house, the start of buying new year's cookies and snacks comes into picture too where you'll see red-cover containers filled with Chinese New Year cookies all being set up on the living room table waiting to be eaten by us sweet tooth. From the sweetest peanut cookies to the most delicious pineapple tarts you've ever tasted; they are what we call the sweetest temptations during Lunar New Year. ;)

  Every New Year, everyone including myself wants to start anew with our own lives and forget about the past. But we clearly all know that the past we have in our memories will not vanish the way we want to, it'll only remain in our memories as it can only fade year after year until we truly forgotten about it and have no remaining scenes playing in our memory lane. Fortunately, we still can start fresh like those freshmen who starts their first day of school (just a comparison). Everyone, young and old has the rights to press the restart button inside of them and live a new life full of what they hoped for; from being more faithful to God to gaining more motivation to start their studies and get good grades or even just start taking up a new hobby one have always wanted to.

  The moment when you really experience yourself the gathering of your family members and relatives from the east to the west or from the north to the south, you'll realize its one of the most lively and the warmest gatherings you'll ever attend in your life. Every year just once, you'll see yourself facing the camera lens to have your picture taken with a bunch of relatives you've known for life and maybe sometime not closed but became closer after a meal or tea and that's when you'll realize that you're blessed by God with so many awesome wonderful relatives who are always attentive to you, blessed with an awesome scrumptious meal and being able to sit in a table full of your cousins that you may share your uni life with instead of sharing it to your siblings and parents.

   I do hope that the warmth and happiness I've felt will be felt by all readers who are reading it until the end. Wherever you are, I do hope you'll feel as warm as I am during this Chinese New Year. May the Lord bless you with his wonderful praises and creations for you, your family and your friends. ;)

A reunion meal is always the best during Chinese New Year! ;)

Sincerely, Shannon.

A New Start

  It's 2017; the start of a new year where we all would wish to have a better life than the one we previously had in 2016. As we start off with the new year of 2017, we realized that we had made a promise to ourselves that we would achieve that particular goal that we came up with in the year of 2016 like, girls tend to promise themselves not to eat so much the following year whereas the boys would promise themselves not to play so much games in 2017; I guess it's what we call it - new year's resolutions. 

  As a girl myself, I always make the most common resolutions I can ever think of like dieting so that I'm able to fit in my new pair of jeans I bought a few days back. Well, there are random ones like continue not to get involve in relationships for the next I don't know how many years of life and trying to not get too much attention in university so that I can just graduate peacefully. Well, come to think of it; some were successful enough to be continued while some are not. I guess it all depends on one's mind of determination and motivation to achieve those goals. ;) 

  The most common new year's resolutions that I've heard from peers are not spending too much money, them wanting to go on a strict healthy lifestyle where exercising and healthy eating is what they only care about and even them wanting to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Okay, the third one; not so much. But those resolutions they have made was last year's. During the year of 2016, all I see is no changes (no offence though). Some have changed but most of them; it's a no or a little only. I guess it's hard to follow those footsteps you have made for your own to follow huh. Even I myself had troubles following them most of the time due to lack of motivation. But we all know it's our own fault that we turned out the way we didn't wanted to anyhow. 

  After all the failures and successes we have made throughout the past year, I think it's our own choice to follow what we want and feel right for now. We may face a few consequences ourselves but that's how we learn our lessons right? ;) So just be yourself and believe that you can reach any goal that you want if you put your mind to it. Happy New Year everybody!

Trying new things are one of my new year resolutions too! ;) 

Sincerely, Shannon 

Why do I write?

  "English is my favourite subject and it'll never change." This is how I'd answered to most people who asked me what was my favourite subject in the past and to let you know, it still is - in the present. From learning alphabets to grammars and new vocabularies for the past 18 years of my life from kindergarten, middle school to high school and now university; my favourite subject never failed to surprise me as my eagerness to learn and explore them starts to grow bigger and bigger in my heart, mind and soul.

  English language has been my sole of confidence every single time in class; always hoping to get the highest mark in the class while I have my ups and downs of course where I may get the second highest or even a tie with a classmate whose English was great too. I loved those silly yet fun competitions as I start to wonder what I wanted to do with the language I fell in love with since young other than just competing - Write. 

  Starting from simple sentences like "I like an apple" to writing more longer and higher standard sentences was how I came to love writing essays and stories and even blogs. Sentences surprises me in a way that it connects the next sentence that I'll write on a piece of paper with pencil leads and ink pens continuously without fail. Each sentences has a meaning and the 'meaning' behind it has a sense of satisfactory completion in each completed sentences. They are like trains that continues to move as you write them without stopping as the overflowing words slowly starts to form sentence by sentence and into an essay. Even if you only know a thousand of vocabularies and simple sentences, essays can be formed easily if you take up the effort and think properly on what you want to write. 

  Writing essays enables me to express my innermost feelings without moving that lips of mine. Essays can be hard to be written within an hour when you're starting to learn how to write an essay of 120 words in the past, but as you practise to write simple essays with the thoughts of sentences forming in that brain of yours; you'll write them automatically without even doing mind maps and points at the side, on a paper to let yourself refer to it while you write. Forming sentences is the first step as you step on the second by writing short essays. It worked for me. 

  It gave me a sense of peacefulness and happiness when I write and that little happiness in me grew even larger than I expected as I discover numerous blogging websites. Since then, I started writing without fail as I express my thoughts through words of writing. Being able to write made me really happy since I was able to express my opinions in another way instead of using sound as my source of expressing my thoughts. I was quite the quiet child in the past and maybe even now at times as I was always afraid of talking where I might hurt someone's pride or maybe even offend or insult a person just by telling funny jokes and riddles. Communication through social life feared me horribly as I continued to stay as quiet as possible so I wouldn't hurt someone and make someone dislike me just because of that one word, sentence or even opinion that I give or voice it out. But as I write, I realised talking is good too since writing may not be as 'famous' or 'well-known' than talking since voicing out opinions and doing presentations are all using sound as a source of sharing and presenting. That's why, I'm starting to learn how to give honest opinions without insulting or hurting a person's heart and pride. 

  Blogging can be said its like 'breathing' to me. Without writing, I'd probably be a person who undergoes depression right now. It helped me to express my anger, my advices and most of all, myself as I write anything that comes out of my mind with a meaning behind it of why I form that sentence and who I want to dedicate these sentences to - The readers. I want to inspire people with my inspirational writings and I do hope they get inspired. From travelling blogs to inspirational blogs, I want to share my essays to the people who would read my blog till the end even though it may be long. 

  You can type on keyboards or even write on papers since it'll still turn out to be a sentence you made and want to continue the next. Writing helped me to understand myself and yes, I am still currently to learn more about myself as I continue to write blogs that would inspire you guys through my experiences. These experiences are real as I share them with everyone who reads it and maybe get inspired by my essay blogs. Through writing, I was able to learn how to love myself and my skills in writing as I thought writing wasn't something to be brag about to other people in the past since it wasn't something 'great' or 'useful'. I might not be great at most things but I do know how to write properly to express myself with happiness through experiences that I have encountered in my past and recent life into essays filled with words that would explain my point of views clearly. 

  "I love writing and I don't and won't care about what people would say like I'm nerdy or whatnot; because this defines me and I'll live with that for the rest of my life." - Shannon 

Just like the ocean continues to roar about their beauty of nature; I continue to write about my life experiences to inspire people. 

   

My six-string instrument

  'As he/she strums and finger picks the six-string instrument, I fell in love with it and I wanted to learn them as soon as I can...' This is how I fell in love with playing the guitar.

  People may think that 'Why would a girl choose to play the guitar even though it'll harden their fingertips as they press the steel strings while playing?' and 'Why would a girl sacrifice her beauty over some simple instrument?'. But all I know is that I am one of the girls and I don't sacrifice beauty over some simple instrument. I play it with love and sincerity in my soul and mind. 

  Guitar has been a part of my life for about four and a half years now and I still love playing it no matter what. Inspired by guitarists like Sungha Jung, Taylor Swift and Trace Bundy who played it amazingly made me the person I am today who is always motivated to learn new chords and strumming styles I've never seen nor heard of before. As I run my fingers through those strings, the harmony and its serenity filled me with completion of peacefulness and I never got bored of it; even now. 

  It may harden the tip of my fingers but that is what made my confidence level to fly up higher than I was in the past. The hardened fingertips made me happy as I know that I've learned something new and I've been working hard on honing my skills the past few years now. I've never regretted playing it and I'll never regret it even in the future. 

  Girls can play the guitar all they want if they love it. It doesn't matter what instruments they want to play, from drums to harmonicas to electric guitars. They are all instruments that can be played by any gender and they can even be a professional in the future if they want to. Nobody can stop them from learning and playing an instrument that is rarely played by their own gender. In fact, they'll look even more cooler playing it; being a girl who plays the instrument that has been played majority by boys. 

  So girls and boys out there, you can play any instrument you want as long as you are dedicated and motivated and also, of course inspired to play it with love and sincerity in your heart, mind and soul. Be different as what I would say and be the one to show everybody how you can play well in that instrument through hours of practices and classes you go to! 

P.S. It's my guitar with Sungha Jung's and Agustin Amigo's signature and also a Marshall amplifier I gotten from great friends. ;) 

  In conclusion, nobody can stop me from playing the guitar - the instrument that I will love playing it forever more than any other instruments in the world! 

Meeting new friends

  Do you have any friends? Cause I do have heh. I've made a few friends these past two days and it was indeed memorable.

  I've recently started my university life as a freshman and I totally love it. But I guess you can say it's not yet to be confirmed since it's just the orientation programme going these past two days. Tomorrow's the last orientation and yes I am kind of sad about it but also excited to start my real 'military-like' classes as I would say. 

  Friends that I've met these past two days has its fun and awkward moments to be frankly speaking. You say 'Hi' and they responded with the same answer and that's it; you never talk to each other again and you'll keep on avoiding eye contact. There are friends who are much more friendlier too I would say; like the ones who would approach to you first when you're feeling like awkwardness and nervousness just crept into your body and your hands feel sweaty from all the overthinking about what should you do to have a good impression. 

  Making friends are like climbing mountains. You just meet them and you start to talk to them more and more, and eventually you will hang out more with them maybe during breaks and after classes. You slowly climb your way up to comfort and you see them as friends who will stay by your side forever. 

  That's why making friends are kinda difficult at times if you're an introverted type. But all I know is that introverted personality of yours doesn't affect you from making fewer friends. Being yourself and just as you are having fun with your high school friends who happens to attend the same university as you helps in meeting your new peers and friends you'll be seeing for the next few years in university. Take it as a life lesson and level up your confidence at the same time.

  Meeting new people isn't that scary after all so just relax and go with the flow as you be yourself and showcase your ability to make others feel comfortable around you. :) 

Food sure does a little part in meeting new great friends together too!