Life without it's challenges would be such a bore, but don't ever feel that it was a mistake to take on something that seems like there is no clear solution. That's why it's called a challenge. In its anguish and victory over it, do we truly define the moments in which we feel alive.

Being a person who was raised in a city, the country side scares me. Even after staying in it for almost 7 years, there are some things about the vast Australian outback that leaves me with a kind of unsettling feeling. It's not that Australia has most of the world's most poisonous creatures, that much actually makes me feel a little at ease. It's the "quietness", the calm, the country feel, that makes me feel like there is something really really wrong.

To be honest, I miss the chaos and raw primal energy that comes from a city. I miss the hustle and bustle, the noise and the culture that a sleepless metropolis possesses. I grew up in that cauldron of fire and for better or for worse, that insanity is part of my DNA. One I can't open wield in country town where I am.

For years, when on university campus, I could not sleep because silence and darkness was what greeted me at night. These days, renting an apartment next to the train tracks acts as a nightly lullaby and a reminder of a time when I used to live, even if it was considered suburbia, in the city. It is the best thing I can do in the face of a situation that is a perpetual work in progress, even if it does little to ease my constant craving to return to a world where a sharp wit isn't just your only weapon and the culture is one I still enjoy listening to on a warm, unyielding night, sipping my ice cold chocolate drink.

Contrary to what religious doctrines say, greed can be a force of benefit to all those who employ it in their service. Even if you aspire to have everything when you already have everything, it doesn't mean you don't work hard to reach for all the things you want, neither does it mean we don't selfishly protect the things or the people we call as our own. Of all the so called sins, greed has always been that nagging voice at the back of many people for a greater ambition, ones that perhaps have changed the course of human history for the better.

The way I see it, you can either be content with what you have or you can always reach for things that people tell you are out of your reach. Even if you fail to get it, you know you at least tried, maybe even develop a quality that never gives up. If you do succeed in reaching for the unreachable, then that's just another thing to cross from your seemingly unending list

They say that material wealth can't buy happiness. That may be true, but the journey in succeeding to achieve that complete set of material wealth would definitely make someone happy.

Australia is an unusual place, even for someone like myself who is used to living life a little differently. Not that it's a bad thing, but it goes to show, no matter how much of an oddball you paint yourself to be, there will always be someone or some place that will redefine what it means to be different. The point really isn't about how different you are, but what you can do with your own uniqueness.

While I'm learning that a lot of my own eccentricities don't always fit with the common Australian culture, it doesn't mean I can't feel comfortable being where I am. It takes work, but then again, rarely anything good in life comes free with no effort required.

It was the year of great expectation.

The year of unduly burden.

The year of wandering doubt.

The year of steadfast conviction.

It was the year of joyous union.

It was the year of great loss.

It was the end of a chapter.

And the beginning of something new.

The year was 2011.

And this was the life in which called my own.