This is me & Personal Development

THIS IS ME

Image 1: The writer, Kalila Snow Jan.

 Me is a simple, casual and crazy person. My name's Kalila Snow Jan.

I'm still a baby who’s just turned into an adult. Sometimes I think, although I'm physically 18, mentally I'm mature enough to be 22. I don't really think age is a big issue, I make a lot of friends with people who are younger than 10 year-old, older than 45 year-old. I love being young.

"Where are you from girl?" I am always asked. 'I'm from China.' my usual answer. 'Are you serious? But you don't look Chinese!' Everybody says the same thing after my answer every time. I am not kidding here, people. I am from China.

Now I live and study in Malaysia, have to stay here for 3 years to finish my degree. I study photography and graphic design which I really enjoy to study. I've already been living here in Malaysia for 4 months, I'm getting used to everything now, just don't really like the weather here, too humid for me, cause I grew up in north.

As I said, I’m a crazy person. I’m crazy about life, art, music, dance, new things, socializing, traveling and partying! People say I’m a vibrant, fun, energetic, nice, sociable, cute, interesting and open-minded person. They basically pointed everything on me.  I’m a not-giving-shit person, some people judge, some people give advices; I choose to be friends with people who give advices. I get nervous sometimes, but always have a Kalila-awesome way to cover my jitter. I'm not a detective; I don’t like exploring and touching people’s private things. I hate to be a part of people's little dramas. And I hate gossiping around.

 My philosophy, don’t ever give a shit, be myself; shit happens, don't worry, be happy.

People like things and hate things, so do I.

I don't care that much about the food; I basically eat everything when I'm starving. I drink everything when I'm thirsty. I also drink alcohol, but I'm not a drinker, I don't like alcohol's taste, and it makes me sick sometimes. I like watching TV and different awesome movies, I like reading books too although I don’t read that much. Sometimes, I love cooling myself down, chilling at my own place and listening to some music and songs I like. I have a lot of hobbies, I play the guitar and the drums, I love dancing. I started dancing when I was little, a ballet princess does not suit current me, but little princess Kalila. I can’t do ballet anymore though.

Image 2: Me dancing at Sanlitun, Beijing.

 I love dogs and wolves, especially wolves; I grew up with a lot of wolf-fairytales, I think wolves are the coolest animal in this world although I’m a little bit scared of them. I love wolves and dogs, doesn’t mean I’m a dog-person, I like cats too; I always find cats mysterious, they are quiet all the time, and they all have these beautiful, colorful, charming and big eyes. People always like flying-creatures, such as birds, owls and eagles; I like crows, bats, owls and eagles, I find crows charming because their beautiful black feather; I find bats mysterious because they hide

Image 3: Wolf howling

in the caves and god knows what they do every day; I find owls cute because they have such huge eyes at night; I find eagles sexy because they fly in the sky, and the way they hunt makes them look even hotter!

Since I’m studying to go on this art path, I’d very much like to talk about what type of art I like.

Photography is my favorite. I love taking pictures, and I love browsing other photographer’s work. I like landscape pictures, and some portraits. Pop-art is one of my favorites, it’s one of those CREATIVE art, always has some meanings through the painting; and it’s always with different colors to make the painting glow. Gothic, I’m not really a gothic person, but I do admire gothic art, and gothic architecture.  Tattoo and Graffiti are a type of art, they are creative, and I would very much like to call it Special Art, I do seem like I love tattoo and graffiti, and yes, tattoo and graffiti are my best favorite art. 

Image 4: Photography.

  Image 5: Pop-art

My favorite colors, -black, is a permanent color, it doesn’t get dirty, and it always suits everything. –Hot Pink, a passional color. Life needs boring daily schedules, and also needs a little bit of passion; black+hot pink is a great mix! –Green, means nature, trees, grass and it gives you a different fresh feeling.

Music is a part of my life too; I dance, jump and get happy because of music.

I prefer Rock’n  Roll type of music, not all those gangster rap songs. Dubstep, is my favorite, it is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London, United Kingdom. Its stylistic

Image 6: Skrillex live show - Dupstep DJ

origins are dub, grime, 2-step and drum and bass. There are several great Dubstep musicians, Skrillex, is a young, successful, and great American DJ, I really do like his mix. Modestep, is a band from the UK, includes a drummer, a Chinese guitarist, a DJ, and a vocalist; their music is great.

I love nature, although I hate bugs, I guess it’s because bugs look weird to me and ugly. Nature is a part of my life too, sunlight makes me feel happy; rain, thunder and lightning make me feel emotional and imagine, I always have all these weird stories and fantasies on my mind when it’s raining. Snow is my favorite! When it just snowed then sunlight comes out afterwards, it always makes me have this little voice on my mind “wow! Life is great!”

Well, this is me, at the moment. People change by the time, I might change my style, mind or my favorite stuff in the future, and god knows what will happen. Just let time tell.

 

References

Image 1: The writer, Kalila Snow Jan.

Image 2:  Me dancing at Sanlitun, Beijing.

Image 3: Wolf howling, http://sport-wallpaper.com/162_howling-wolf-moon.htm

Image 4:  Photography, http://www.cherrybam.com/photography-graphics.php 

Image 5: Pop-art, http://nailsbystephanie.blogspot.com/2011/03/trend-pop-art-graphics-inspired-photos.html  

Image 6: Skrillex live show – Dubstep DJ, http://www.dubstepeden.com/2011/06/08/skrillex-the-mothership-download-mediafire-zshare-zippyshare/











PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

This was one of those simple questions used to be asked when we were little.

Now, my question is, “what did I want to be when I was little?” I wanted to be a cop, like my cousin, so I can save the world. I wanted to be a doctor, so I can invent a type of pill to make humans immortal. I wanted to be a teacher, so I can pass on my knowledge to the kids.

Time goes by, I’m gradually turning into an adult; recalling what I used to want to be makes me think I was a truly LITTLE girl. Things all changed, they are totally different from when I was young; cops are not upright and brave heroes anymore, doctors can’t actually do anything to make human race immortal, not many teachers really do care about passing on their knowledge. So, what is my dream now?

A dream of an 18 year-old, what do you expect it is? A pilot? A famous TV actress? Or a lawyer?

My dream is simple and casual; I want to be a traveler. There are always a lot of questions for a traveling dream; how are you going to get money for your trips? Do you want to travel in your whole life? What if something bad happens to you?  These are always good questions for travelers, I love adventures, and I love enjoying myself everywhere in the world.

 Image 1: Cartoon tourists

I want to be an actress, because I don’t only have to be myself in my whole life; I want to be a movie director, because I love watching movies and I love stories; I want to be a photographer, because I love taking pictures and I love art; I want to be a graphic designer, because I will feel proud of myself if I see people wearing or using the design I designed. Actually I still have a lot of different occupation dreams for my future, I am greedy, I want to experience all of the occupations I want to be, and I will.

Let me answer the questions have been asked when I told people I wanted to be a traveler. Being a traveler isn’t only traveling the whole time, we need to settle down somewhere in the middle of the trip when we are running out of money; god never stops you when you truly want to do something, it might sound really hard to settle down somewhere suddenly, but it might be fun if you tried. Settling down and looking for a job to save some money for my next trip is what I’m going to do when I have no more money to travel; what do I want to do while I’m settled down? I want to be anything, a photographer, a graphic designer or a worker in a shop; I don’t care whom to be, as long as I’m still alive to experience all the different occupations in this world, includes cleaning bathrooms. People might think cleaning bathrooms is not a good job, whereas I don’t think so; defining something good or bad depends on how you regard it. Bad things happen all the time, we just have to let ourselves convert the way how we think it is, bad things might lead us to a beginning of a good thing.

Do I want to travel in my whole life? This is the best question, it’s pretty hard to answer too; traveling is a part of life attitude, I’m not sure if I want to travel in my whole life, but I’m sure I want to travel in my entire young life. I think adventures are all designed for young people, if you don’t go ahead when you are young, you might not have a chance to go ahead when you are old. Life is a mysterious thing, you don’t know what might happen in the future, you don’t know if you are going to change your mind next minute; I never expected a husband, a bunch of kids or a love family, but I believe I will change my mind someday.

What if something bad happens to you? Like I said earlier, defining something good or bad depends on how you regard it. Bad things happen all the time, we just have to let ourselves convert the way how we think it is, bad things might lead us to a beginning of a good thing. If I die in the middle of the trip, I will still think it is worth to die while I’m traveling; it might sound crazy, but I think it is; I don’t want to die without doing anything valuable in my life.

So do what you feel like to do, do what you want to do when you are still young and still alive; nobody wants to regret their whole life when they are in the coffins.

Dreams will come true if you chase them.

I’m still in the university studying for my future; I just started my life adventure. I study photography and graphic design, which I really like to study. I don’t expect I will become a famous photographer, or a brilliant graphic designer, but I want to. I’d like to study some other things too, like Music Production, Filming, Acting and more. Chasing your dream = being hardworking, no chasing no dreams.

Some people want to ask me why I chose to study photography and graphic design since I want to be a traveler; well travelers are not always travelers, I’ve met a lot of travelers in my life, they all had different majors when they were back in their universities. I‘ve traveled alone couple of times in my teenager life, I really did enjoy it.

We learn a lot when we are traveling; we learn different cultures, we learn socializing, we learn different languages, we learn how to save, we learn how to take care of ourselves, and we learn how to survive.

My life adventure has just started, I just started my degree class this year, still have 3 more years to go, everybody has plans when they are about to start their university life, so do I.

I have several plans for my future when I finish my degree; first of all, I want to keep studying; campus life always makes me feel young, and we are young, we are supposed to study, aren’t we? I know none of my parents will pay my tuitions to support me to keep studying, so I should depend on my own, be supportive to myself! Studying hard for now to get an online scholarship is my first plan; even though my scores can’t be accepted in the future, I still have another plan for me to do when I graduate, find a job as a photographer, graphic designer or a teacher who teach photography and graphic design to save some money for a trip to Europe. I haven’t been to Europe yet, and I really want to go to Europe.

 Image 2: European flag

Europe isn’t a big place, but a super expensive place; transportations and food cost a lot, so it’s going to cost a lot of money for me to travel there, but I have a better plan-hitchhiking.

I have never done hitchhiking in my life, but I’ve met a lot of hitchhikers; some people think hitchhiking is a dangerous activity, I don’t think so, hitchhiking is the exact type of adventure I want to try in my life. I’ve met an Israeli hitchhiker while I was traveling in China, he told me some really interesting stories happened to him while he was hitchhiking in Russia, stories are stories; they won’t become your true stories if you don’t start an adventure. Hitchhiking is becoming my most wanted dream.

Image 3: Hitchhiker

Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, tramping, hitching, autostop or thumbing up a ride) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long.

What’s the benefit of hitchhiking? First of all, it does save some money for you to travel the world, although it’s not easy to hitchhike around the world; transportations are becoming extremely expensive nowadays. It does give you enough time to enjoy the nature. And you don’t know who’s going to take you to the place where you want to go; it makes you know more about how to talk to strangers and it makes you have to know how to survive.

Some people love road trips, they love driving all the way to the place they want to go; and some of them don’t really like hitchhikers, they would rather die than picking up a hitchhiker on the road, which makes me think it is a ridiculous thought.

Here I am, studying degree class in a university in Malaysia, and still have 3 more year to go. I also made plans for me to do in these 3 years of my university time.

We have vacations every year, what do people want to do when they are on vacation? Some of them want to renovate their house, some of them want to party every day and every night, some of them want to travel; well I’m one of those people who want to travel, I am not a stable person, I always want to go on the road.

The first place I want to go is “All over Malaysia”, I always think, since I am already living in Malaysia, why don’t I make a trip here? There are two parts in Malaysia which is interesting. 

Image 4: Malaysian flag

Malaysia is a country that consists of thirteen states and three federal territories in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of 329,847 km². The capital city is Kuala Lumpur while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government The country is separated into two regions — Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo — by the South China Sea. Malaysia borders Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. Located near the equator, the weather is characterised by tropical climate. Malaysia is headed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and politically led by a Prime Minister. The government is closely modeled after the Westminster parliamentary system.

After Malaysia, there is definitely going to be Thailand, Singapore, Philippines and other south Asian countries for me to go for my other vacations in these 3 years.

Well, this is my dream, a will-come-true dream, and my personal development plan, being a traveler and wandering around the world; which people think it does not really relate to what I am studying right now, but it actually does relate to everything; because I can be anybody I want, and I can do any job I want, as long as I have money to travel, and as long as I experience.

 I want to see this whole world because I am already existed in this world.


 

References

Image 1: Cartoon tourists, http://www.travelettes.net/how-not-to-look-like-a-tourist/

Image 2: European flag, http://www.enna-europe.org/ennaws/news/read/1:270:Member_states_report_on_the_social_dimension_of_the_Europe_2020.html

Image 3: Hitchhiker, http://mobilitydigest.com/ask-the-reader-getting-from-jfk-to-newark/

Hitchhiking: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchhiking

Image 4: Malaysian flag & Malaysian introduction, http://www.worldmapfinder.com/En/Asia/Malaysia/