Life can be as simple as just waking up right about when the sun rises (or to be awake to witness the sun rising), reading about something just to learn more about it and how it applies to life, cleaning up the space, preparing a simple meal and enjoying the food together… Going to sleep after a good day of peaceful activities – with occasional small exciting surprises – and waking up to repeat the same things the next day.

No unnecessary worries about money, food, social media likes, etc.

2. Routine life
Rising early and going to bed early has its perks, and as much as I (thought I) disliked routine life, it turns out a having a routine enabled me to do more things and think more deeply about things, as my mind is not occupied with questions like “what to do next?” “what can i do?” “where shall i go?” etc. As such, I find myself more capable of staying focused and even become more creative. Now, even when I’m back to my own life at home, I still try to put a routine in place, so that I lessen the burden on my mind daily.

3. Being open and honest about feelings

The Cambodian people are pretty honest about what they feel, from what I had observed, and that really helped shape me and my honesty now. We tend to judge ourselves a lot before we even verbalise things, so we always assume people will judge us too, for the way we think or feel, But the first step to overcoming vulnerable/ scary/ questionable feelings or thoughts is to be really honest – with yourself, and/or with others. Sometimes we are able to get out of it ourselves, and other times, people around us can help us with our blind spots and get us out of the rut.

It also – obviously – makes decision-making much faster, especially in a group. And really, it brings people closer together 🙂 

4. Work hard/ have discipline

Having a simple and routine life doesn’t mean you should just let the days breeze by, you have to have the discipline to work hard and keep moving and moving, and not just live by the day or hour.

Set your own goals and pace your learning so that you do not stop growing and learning. Just because the pace of life is slower, it does not mean that you should go slower too. In fact, with a simple and routine life, you can actually accomplish much more! Just don’t give in to laziness and the Zzz monster, haha.

5. Make things happen instead of waiting for things to happen
In my upbringing (and education I suppose), I’ve always been provided the resources and/or methods – or at least, the direction – to complete a task. So when put in new situations or difficult scenarios, I often find myself lost or only using what is provided, or waiting for solutions to be provided. One important thing I learned from a friend in Cambodia is how to proactively look for and create solutions.

The example is when we had to clean up a newly rented space. I saw that there was not many brooms, so I just took the broom from someone else to sweep the floor, so that I was doing something, but this also meant that someone else now had nothing to do. The friend in question went ahead to connect a broom head to a stick to use as a proper broom and started sweeping away, so now more of us were moving.

I was feeling a little ashamed, but also in awe of her, because why didn’t I think of that??? I would never have thought of that, honestly. Because of her and that incident, I now actively look for solutions when the situation seemed hopeless/impossible.

6. Don’t ever take things for granted
Things like clean water, fresh air, transportation, good weather and more… they are so unpredictable in the village, or even just in developing countries like Cambodia, Nepal, India, etc. These are things that are easily accessible back home in Singapore that we never thought much about them – except when something goes wrong, then we complain about it lol.

The accessibility and stability of such essentials is the good work of the government in managing sources and resources, so we are really, really blessed. If not for good governance, there will probably be water shortages or electricity outages every now and then (which is normal in developing countries).

All in all, be thankful – for everything. All glory to God 🙂

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As I’m finishing this draft (after more than half a year omg), I am sitting in the temple at New Delhi, a place I had dreamed of coming to ever since I started learning Hindi. I am very thankful and blessed to have this opportunity to kind of “extend” my gap year after I have started work for ~6 months.

Right now, work is still a big fat question mark, especially with the DORSCON orange status now, I am not confident I can secure any job now, so I guess… we shall wait and see how God’s plans will unfold… 🙂