My Top 5 Goals for the Year 2025

I wrote Chinese characters on a lantern in Shifen, Taiwan

Happy New Year, everyone! Yes, I’m writing this towards the end of January to celebrate both the traditional New Year and the Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year…because I’m partly Chinese! On both sides of my family! My maternal grandfather (the Lolo I live with) is related to the Molo family, a Filipino-Chinese clan of Old Manila. Their patriarch most likely came from Mainland China. Lolo’s father, aunts, and his grandmother spoke Spanish fluently. They also excelled in the arts and in academics. That’s why Lolo always tells us that his paternal relatives were more highly educated than his Filipino-Spanish maternal side. 

On the other hand, my paternal grandmother hailed from the Yu family in Pampanga. There’s a good chance that these ancestors were Han people from Taiwan. They later changed their surname to “Yumul” to assimilate among Filipinos. My grandma married into the Filipino-Spanish Sanchez family from the Visayas. Both clans fought against the Japanese invaders in World War II as guerillas.

So yes, I descended from two very goal-oriented families! Hence, I wrote this short list of what I want to accomplish this year:

#5 Visit Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I loved what I saw in vlogs about Kaohsiung! Plus Taiwan as a whole has a special place in my heart. It will be great if I can practice speaking Mandarin there. 

#4 Improve at arnis. The sport is super fun! More importantly, arnis is excellent for self-defense if you will treat the movement patterns as templates of how you ought to move to defend yourself instead of steps to be rigidly executed regardless of the context.

#3 Take up advanced training in cerebral palsy (CP). Transition services are my niche in occupational therapy, but I thank God because I’ve done quite well in handling kids with CP even if I haven't yet taken a more specialized certificate course. It will be great if I can undergo one as soon as possible. However, attending workshops will also be very helpful.

#2 Finish my thesis. I want to graduate this year! I’ve submitted all the requirements but the ethics committee hasn’t given me the go-signal to implement my research. 

#1 Visit my family in the West and attend an international conference there. I hope I can do these at the same time to save up on plane tickets. Plus, I’m excited to see my nephews! 

I hope I can fulfill all five goals this year because if there’s one thing that I absolutely hate, it’s having blocked goals. In fact, I was miserable during this time in 2024 because it dawned on me that most of my aspirations as a child will never come to be. At the beginning of this month, I wrestled with those feelings of failure again. I talked to my mom about it. She asked me if I’m doing my best to obey God and if I feel fulfilled with what I’m currently doing. I said “yes” to both questions. It was then that I realized that the Lord has given me far more than what I deserve, which is why I should be thankful even when I don’t achieve my goals. 

Moreover, looking at my family history is a great reminder that even if things may seem out of control, God is the one orchestrating the events in our lives in ways that bring Him glory — and that will give us the greatest joy! You see, my Chinese-Kapampangan grandma could’ve married another Kapampangan. Many Filipinos back then preferred to marry within their ethnic group. She married a Spanish-Bisaya instead. On the other hand, my great-great grandmother from the Molo side could’ve married one of her affluent relatives (yeah, that was their thing hahahaha!!!). Yet she married an ordinary man. Their children then married into a Filipino-Spanish family that had no worldly wealth yet they were godly and upright in character. That generation is gone. But we, their children, still love the Lord. 

If God can ordain all those events for His glory, which has been a blessing to me, then surely He will take care of my minor concerns like my wish to go Kaohsiung to eat niu rou mian. He will do the same thing for you! He will take care of our heart's desires but He will not necessarily grant them to protect us from harm. Xinnian kuaile, everyone!