22 is the year of many milestones in my life. They help me grow and even change who I am as a person in some significant ways. Reaching one by one lead me to achieve self-actualization and get closer to my dream: live a meaningful life.

Graduation from university
In Vietnam, graduation is traditionally considered as a momentous event in life. Most of students complete their university course at the age of 22. After that, they truly become adult and have to earn for living by themselves whatever they choose to study further or go to work.
Graduation has the same meaning to me in that way. I have got my first full-time job ever, a campaigner in marketing team for a technology start-up, following my career goal of becoming a marketer. What is more important, I make my own money and support my family. I now have full responsibility for my life. That feeling is indescribable.

Getting sick
It is undeniable that we often ignore our body until we fall down. Luckily, I realized this before any tremendous consequences could happen.
I got several traffic accidents. Though none of them were serious, my left ankle was continuously injured. This has no effect because I am young now. However, the status will be worse when I get older, especially in the cold season. Besides, I have headache, stomachache and common flu regular.
I realized that I had to do something. I am young and my life is still a long journey ahead. Then, I start doing exercise, improving my daily meal and reducing stress. Because health is the thing that if we lose it once, we lose it forever.

Hit first rock bottom and change my whole life purpose
What is worst among all, I got anxiety disorder and it was getting closer to depression, which used to ruin my life day by day.
During that hard time, I was always thinking about my problems form colleagues, friends and even my family but I could not find any solutions. All in my head is negative thing. I was stuck, insecure and vulnerable while chasing after something that I called “happiness”. I lost my concentration at work in spite of insomnia. I lost my friends despite bad behaviors and even hurt my family… My health was ruined, both mental and physical size.
I decided to go to a doctor and after 6-month treatment, everything was getting better. I learned how to balance work and life and keep myself stay positive. I pay more attention to my health my emotions than before. Last but not least, I practice facing directly to any problems, no more hiding or running away. I set a whole new goal: live a meaningful life, not just happy any more.
After all, I believe that if we are able to be resilient and turn the negativity in our lives into motivation to make a change, we will be on the road to success in no time. This is why it’s better to hit rock bottom sooner rather than later.

I am now 22, and there are a lot of milestones to achieve. Que sera sera!

I had a dream that I finally made it come true a year ago. The feeling of fulfilling your dream is something more than happy or satisfied. It is beyond the words. And at that time, I “met” Living Dream, where all dreams are heard.

At first, I applied for copywriter position at Living Dream. My initial aim was to earn money. However, the very interview changed my mind. Actually, it was not an interview at all but a close talk. I told the founder, Miss Hoa, my long journey to reach my dream. And she shared with me her story with Living Dream. She wants to build Living Dream as a place where dreams are heard and dreamers are encouraged to make it come true. Whichever types of dreams are, they all deserve to be heard and encouraged, from dreams about personal development to social impact. This philosophy aligns with my values. In some aspects, I cannot live only for myself. Other people’s smiles makes me smile from the bottom of my soul. And I found my place here.

Living Dream is a social impact start up. We are not colleagues, we are teammates. There are more than tasks, missions or economic benefits that connect us. We want to join hands to make society a better place for dreamers because of the importance of dreams in individual development. And I find it meaningful to be a part of Living Dream.

That is the reason why I am still here for nearly a year and absolutely longer.

My favorite compliment that I want to hear most is “You are creative”. I often seek for a new solution if I have enough resources. And it is legible that I am attracted to any area that request creativity.

I love writing. I can spend several days siting by the window with a cup of coffee and imagine a certain story. Building character and circumstances is really challenged to me. I love drawing. Though I have some problems in combining color, I am still fond of playing with pencils. Sometimes I edit available photos by software, turn them into mine. I also like photography. Capturing a moment of life and sharing on my Instagram is the effective way to blow off my steam.

(My instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anpy_tia/)

In view of career, I want to do something that requires creativity. From my experiences, I think I can be marketing.

At university, joined in marketing team of a club, we were responsible for content and images on Facebook fan page. This was the first time I heard about marketing. Then I read more books about this area and feel attracted.

In my second year, I had a chance to intern at a marketing department of a Japanese cosmetic company. Digital marketing is the next notion that makes me curious. I was trained about content and search engine marketing at a basic level. Fortunately, I was responsible for creating content for some websites from planning to executing. Besides, I learnt how to run Facebook Ads and Google AdWords to reach more customers.

In my third year, I begin a freelance job as a copywriter. Beside, joining in a national contest about marketing and intellectual property brought me the big opportunity to have a closer look about marketing. Marketing does not always requires creativity but somehow I feel more attracted.

In my final year, I interned at strategic planning department of a Korean bank. It is not totally related to marketing but I learnt other “office skills” and once again I consolidate my interest in marketing. I also began to work for Living Dream in marketing team to help spread positive manner. My main responsibility is to prepare content for websites, blogs, fan pages… I am about to joining in a project to build and popularize Living Dream brand. It must be interesting.

I used to have internships related to logistics, administration and sales, but I am still interested in marketing. I know it will be hard because my major is not marketing and my experiences is limited now. However, I like to be challenged and conquer my limits.

At present, I am attracted by marketing as it requires creativity. But if one day, I find another field that challenges me to be creative, I will absolutely give it a try. Who knows what lies ahead! I believe that following passion is never wrong. Just keep calm and keep going. That is the life I want.

This is actually my essay for scholarship from a Korean Bank. When finishing it, I do not care about the result anymore, I just feel thankful because I have a chance to evaluate myself again. Purposes shape my life to be more meaningful in my way.

WHAT MATTERS TO YOU AND WHY?
When I start to do everything, I always ask myself: What is the target of that? My inner resources are limited, hence purposelessness, even for a moment, is a bane. One day, my mother held my hands, and showed me how to “read” my fingerprints. Surprisingly, most of my fingers have the whorl shapes presenting a person who cannot work without purposes, that is exactly me. This gives me clear thoughts about what I consider the most valuable doctrine of my life – purpose.

Purposes keep me stick to my plan. “All roads lead to Rome”, but which one is the safest and shortest? Meanwhile, the risk of lost is always present somewhere. This makes purpose become a beacon, follow that light and I will find my place, I believe that.

To me, purposes are the sweetest fruit I want to pick up. Every turn I take, every trail I track, every path I make on my way to the final destination, they will all become my memories. However, what I treasure most and what I can remember through times are what I have achieved – purposes. They remind me the lessons I have learned from each journey to create the person I am today and lead me to become an even better individual in the future.

Achieving a purpose gives me the feeling of a winner and successfully conquering my limitation. I usually consider myself as a countable object, I divide “me” into different parts for certain activities. By this way, I balance my life to reach as many targets as possible. Frankly speaking, sometimes I put myself in difficult situations due to these circumscriptions, but through that time, several skills are gradually fined, which make me stronger bit by bit. I try to avoid lining my stories with “I wish, I could…” For I have attempted my best while being bound by self-set circumstantial constraints, regret is waste of time. Thinking back what I have experienced then learning form failure is more worthy.

Purpose is the first stage in the process I create my value. I set a limitation thanks to a purpose, and that limitation awakes my power to draw my way. It is like my favorite quote from President John F. Kenedy: “Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”

These things are what I see and what other people think about me. Understanding who I am and finding the inner peace help me to determine which really mean to me.

This is really a tough questions. After taking quite a lot of psychological tests (a lot in types of the tests and the number of times taking), I finally found some “texts” that can describe my complicated characteristics. They are Libra – I/ENFP – Right-Brained Person

Libra
My birth is on October 20th, which mean I was born under Libra zodiac sign. Though there are many arguments around the practicality of Astrology, it gives me adjectives to name some of my quality. Here is the list:

Tactful: The Libra-born natives are experts at getting things done, but they cannot be called cunning. They are too good to exploit the emotions of other people.
Charming: They have a very pleasing manner of talking and also choose pleasant subjects to talk about, which makes people feel happy in their company.
Indecisive: One of the most difficult things for a Libra is to take a decision. When faced with a choice, it is very tough for them to select what is best for them
Laid-back: The Scales, though mostly energetic, can sometimes be lazy and may tend to take things easy. It is not physical laziness, but they wish to avoid any kind of stress or emotional challenges.

These things are not always right but I help me a lot to deal with my positive and negative sides. And as a (kind of typical) Librans, I spend most of the time balancing everything and remaining that status as long as possible

I/ENFP
MBTI is a famous personality test designed to assess psychological type. I have taken the test several times since I was in high school. “NFP” part remains unchanged while “I” and “E” share a quite equal proportion. It means I am a “Mediator” or “Campaigner” depending on the particular situations.

“Mediator personalities are true idealists, always looking for the hint of good in even the worst of people and events, searching for ways to make things better. While they may be perceived as calm, reserved, or even shy. Mediators have an inner flame and passion that can truly shine.
The Campaigner personality is a true free spirit. They are often the life of the party, but unlike types in the Explorer Role group, Campaigners are less interested in the sheer excitement and pleasure of the moment than they are in enjoying the social and emotional connections they make with others.”

Both are exactly parts of me.

Right-Brained Person
This result is based on many tests. The rate is about 55%-45% for right and left brain. Overall, I truly admit that I am right-brained. According to the left-brain, right-brain dominance theory, the right side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks. Some of the abilities popularly associated with the right side of the brain include reading emotions, color, imagination, intuition and creativity.

My strong and weak points
Actually, I cannot distinguish what my strengths and weaknesses. Because in some cases, there is a conversion between them. However, in general, I can list some:

Strengths:
- Ability to work independently: I want to control my life in every aspects, especially time and effort. Therefore I learn to use them effectively. In most circumstances, I would make my way rather than referring to others.
- Optimism: One of my favorite quotes is “You are your only limit”, which means there is constantly solutions for certain problems. The biggest matter is time. Therefore, just keep calm and keep going, the sun always shines tomorrow.
- Faithfulness: I cannot tell lie without careful preparation. As I want to live a true life. Lying is cruel to myself and others, except goodwill lie.

Weaknesses:
- Controlling emotions: Emotions are annoying. They strongly affect my productivity. However, emotions are data telling us about ourselves. Thus, I learn to read them instead of avoiding or hiding. Things are getting better from then.
- Overthinking: Sometimes I pay to much attention to details, try to balance as many factors as possible. This makes me feel stressed and depressed. Gradually, I learn how to accept the limit and ease my mind.
- Health: I consider a lot when listing health as a weakness. But health is the decisive factor to how I enjoy my life. However, I still have taken care of myself well. I easily to get a cold and stomachache.

This is the story about how I lost and found myself again. At first, I want a happy life. It is like my philosophy. Until one day, I experienced the feeling that I should be happy but I could not.

The story began when I made one of my childhood dreams come true and broke most of my limits at that time. I joined in two contest. One is about eloquence and the other is about marketing and intellectual property. Luckily, I made it to the final round, both of them. I could not drop any single contest. Then I tried to balance. While preparing individual performance at the eloquent contest, I had to complete composition with my team for the other one and secure studying at university. I got fairly good achievements. I proved again “You are your only limit” when joining a marketing contest, a new field to me; I fulfilled my passion of speaking and sharing positive value in eloquent contest; I came to Hanoi for the first time as I dreamed. I relatively succeeded. That is my proud achievement until now.

However, it was also my biggest failure. I was too tired to enjoy happiness. Because I paid too expensive: myself. That night, when I had just arrived home from the final round of eloquent contest. My feeling was mostly disappointed about myself. If I had prepared more carefully, I could have succeeded more. At that moment, I saw the message from my teammate that we had to implement the hard copy of our composition in new format before morning. I cried, feeling hopeless. I had no time to take any rest, to calm down myself from a failure. It was about 1 a.m. and I had a flight to Hanoi at 7 a.m. In spite of being exhausted, both mental and physical sides, I had to complete our composition. I knew that I was the only one who could do it. I asked myself “Am I happy?” Absolutely no. I even thought about a reasonable reason to escape, which meant I would not go to Hanoi to attend the final round and pass the opportunity to fulfil my dream. However, I did not choose that way. Responsibility kept me conscious. Next morning, I flew to Hanoi, alone. That was the first time I had a flight. But I was not happy, I did not enjoy. I feel depressed as I lost myself. I did something that did not make me happy at all. “What am I trying for?” Finally, my team had quite good performance. I knew that I shoud be happy, but I could. I tried to smile, tried to be original but from the inside, I was crying heavily. I was hurted by myself.

This story may simple and normal, but it is the last straw, the straw that breaks the camel’s back. From then, I suffered anxiety disorder, a mental illness, for over a year. I thought so much that I could not sleep well at night. I slowly realized I could not feel happy as I used to. Then, I spent more time for myself doing some simple things that make me slow. I learnt to forgive, learnt to accept.

And I am new now. I no longer look for happiness, I look for meaning. That change in thinking gives me the chance to enjoy with what I have. I am more flexible and full of optimism. I am now satisfied with that.