"Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes"

Happy New Year 2016 and 2015 In Review

By Patawee Promsen

January 7^th, 2016

Spring semester begins!

Life gets better when it comes to the second semester at school. I took three classes in Spring and they’re all wonderful. I met three new professors who gradually became my beloved ones. Then in February came my first snow. I realized later I didn’t like snow that much as it made my days harder although school might be close. lol Then Spring came in mid-March. The campus turned so much beautiful than I’ve ever imagined. The Azaleas made the Old Well worth visiting. The Dandelions made me feel like the Sun was shining all the time.

"Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes"

Home is where the heart is

I came back home in May and stayed home for two months. It was the happiest moment of the year. I stayed in Bangkok for estimated one week; met friends, visited many places I had longed for, spending the memorable moments with the beloved ones. Then Koy and I travelled Taiwan in late May. We wandered around Taipei all three days we were there. Taipei is such a very lovely city with many fictional characters we like. Koy was there because of Helly Kitty while I was there since it’s Jimmy Liao’s homeland and I’m a big fan of him. After that trip I went back home in Lampang staying with my family. In June, I visited one of my best friends home in Sisaket. We also crossed the Thai-Cambodia border to Siem Reap to “See Angkor Wat and (unfortunately, we’re still not) die”. It was an impressive journey. I also went to Li, Lamphun to do my master’s thesis fieldwork. The Karen community I worked with is called Huaytom village. I got to know more about their collective and communal history and identity transmitted through narratives in everyday life.

a journey t0 the inca land

I said goodbye to home in late July. It’s never been easy to go back to study in the place where no one was there with me. However, I had an exciting trip awaited for me by then. Mai and I decided to go to Peru in the early July. It was the unforgettable trip after all.

FALL (and it's my turn to fall)

Fall 2015 was the darkest moment of my life. I felt like I almost experienced depression. I didn’t want to do anything. No more inspiration. No more fun in life. I skipped the classes. I didn’t even do schoolworks. My academic life got worse and worse until I had to drop two classes eventually. It was a crack in my life, an experience I promise myself I would never let myself experience it anymore during my study years from now on. Anyway, I still had a chance to get to know more about the South. P’Rongpong let me accompanied him to Virginia, so it was my second time traveling to this state. We went to Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg and also Virginia beach. It was a short nice trip though I still believe Thailand’s beach is the best! We also went to Asheville. Again, it was my second time there. Revisiting the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains was good but still prefer the last year trip to this one. It was not a good time for me, but it’s still worth remembering what was going on (in my mind) during those days. I can even call it a turning point in my life. I was like… being able to realize something… something I had always been ignored.

dearest december <3

Coming home in December! Being with family and going back to the field to do fieldwork.Thailand was pretty cold this month.
Goodbye 2015 and welcome 2016!I have to Thank everyone for being a part of my life in this tough year. :)