Hello,

If you're a new viewer, welcome and if you've been reading my blog since the hey-days, welcome back! Well, where do I start...

Blogging was not something that came to me naturally. Other than writing my law or international business assignments in university, I hardly wrote anything substantial. Does love letters and poems to ex-lovers count? It was around 2006 when I started a 'blog' documenting every bit of my mundane college life at the time. You know, those "today class was whack, and I ate sushi for lunch". Yes, I shamefully admit that I was like that but over the years, my writing style changed and I've also grown into an almost-thirty year old sans the drama, silliness and everything that shaped me into the person I am today. 

I have so much to thank blogging for, and for my friend Amanda Choe who introduced me to the glamorous lifestyle of bloggers cause I was such a newbie at the time I never knew that blogging could propel a person into a different lifestyle choice compared to the traditional pathway of an Asian college graduate. I kid, I kid but truth to be told, I might have ended up in an advertising agency or work in marketing for a brand at the current moment. Wait a minute, I actually did that for a few years *shrugs*

It's not that I hate working, I just felt like throughout my childhood I was given almost everything except freedom and creative outlets. My father never believed that art could give a bright future. All that has changed now thanks to the internet. People are more cultured, more exposed and there are many ways to make a living other than being in corporate. Just look at world's top bloggers and youtubers with their six-digit paycheques. Who would've imagined back then that this would be the world we'd live in now?

Blogging has opened up my world. I've traveled near and far, interviewed key people and A-listers, received great goods and be involved in campaigns that may have changed the industry and lives. As much as I tried to move away from writing on my blog, it is tough. I have clearly fallen in love with it, despite the hate comments and people telling me I'm a horrible writer and that I should stop. After all, I realised that this is MY story and they're in MY own words. I have no need to be someone I'm not. After all the years of blogging I finally have come to terms with so many things. I am somewhat content, but hungry to be a voice that could someday make changes. 

Wow, I should stop now. This is what happens when I start (and this happens in real life too by the way)...

leave me comments, feedback, stalk me  ♥


Hanie Hidayah