2025 Closing notes

2025 is wrapping up. I’m reminded of the need to be grateful for all the things that happened in my life for the past year. As each day went by, I learned something new and grew up bit by bit. In January, I was still on the flight back to Hanoi after some freezing days wandering around the streets of Bloomsbury, wondering what to do next with my life. The New Year atmosphere of 2025 still lingers at the back of my mind. Sometimes, a moment is memorable not because it is rare. But because it brings a sense of change into our life trajectory. On the way back home from Noi Bai international airport, at my usual window back seat, I decided to take a gap year and go to Japan. It was so sudden even to myself, let alone other people. From my family, my friends, to my mentors, my colleagues, my professors. It was hard to explain to each of them why I made that decision. There were simply too many reasons constituting to that decision-making moment. Many of them seem completely irrelevant. If I said that it was partly because of a book I read six years ago, who would feel convinced by that? 

For the past few months, I spent many evenings reading into complex systems theory. There is a specific idea I find helpful in demonstrating my decision-making process here. Some significant events happen because of some very small and random events. If we view a decision-making as a complex system, then it is highly sensitive to initial conditions, meaning its occurrence might be due to some trivial events from years and years ago. Many reasons seem trivial by themselves. However, when putting them together to form a holistic picture of our history, their collective influence is significant to the later trajectory of our life, including what decisions we make, what types of people we become, what worldviews we adopt, etc. It is this beautiful reasoning that piques my interest in this field of studies. It helps me resolve the fragmentation of my experiences and understandings, allowing me to realise how they all interact and connect with each other. It, indeed, enables me to make sense of my life as a cohesive story. Despite many difficulties in learning a new field of knowledge without instruction, I feel lucky that this year, I’ve had time and energy to stay with this interest without burning myself out “a bit” too frequently like in the previous years. 

After finishing my second year of studies at UCL, I spent my summer helping a professor with his book project. He was a funny, really friendly, and passionate person. He taught me things that I couldn’t find in class. Recently, I received an update email from him, saying that our book proposal received offers from some publishers, and that he would move to Hong Kong soon to take on a new role at HKU. I was strangely excited as if I was the one who went through all those wonderful journeys myself. During the summer, I also continued my summer tradition for the second year in a row, which is to commit myself to learning something completely new. Last year, it was graphic design. This year was macroeconomics. I took two months finishing an online course from Oxford Lifelong Learning, having a lot of enjoyment in writing essays and analysing economic policies. Another thing I learned was business problem-solving. It was a lovely coincidence that I found the Forward learning programme offered by McKinsey&Co. then signed up for it out of curiosity. The concept and method of structured problem-solving are the most useful things I learned from the programme. I finally had the chance to apply them into some projects I’m joining in Japan. 

Sometimes, what we learn doesn’t even have to be complicated. I worked as a research assistant for a PhD candidate for less than two months, and the only task I had was to collect and transcribe data for her longitudinal study. It was a very small and simple task. However, as I recently led a scientific study for the first time, that task turned out to be more meaningful than I imagined. It taught me how to design a simple yet effective sampling schedule, how to give data collection training to team members, and how to organise the research’s database. Often, we wait for great opportunities to come. The past year taught me that even a small opportunity could give us something significant. As long as we are willing to put in the efforts and learn. 

My time in Japan is not long. Therefore, I decided to focus on maximising the variability rather than intensity of my experiences. I took on classes which differed greatly, from marketing and finance to supply chain and operations management. I’ve been working for an alcohol company in a marketing project which aims to expand their domestic market share. I’ve learned to face rejections, to move on despite setbacks, and to believe in myself. Somehow, amidst that “chaos”, my next steps are becoming much clearer. Not completely and definitely. But, they are clear enough for me to move on without trembling and feeling anxious all the time. One can say that this is just a side effect of growing up and gaining more experiences. For me, it is because I dared to jump into many new things. The path doesn’t just emerge “one day”. It emerged because we sampled possibilities and found out which possibility could be our future. 

Most importantly, along my journey, the wonders came as I welcomed more people into the path I was walking. I still spent a lot of time venturing on my own. However, the number of people and the depth of the connections gradually increased. I met wonderful people who are vastly different from me. And somehow, I learned to be comfortable with the fact that we will always be different from each other. I learned to truly respect and be fine with the fact that other people do not have the same beliefs, ways of thinking, and ways of doing as me. I learned to accept that fact without abandoning myself, my beliefs, my ways of thinking, and my ways of doing. This, above all, lets me accept myself more fully and more honestly. I accepted that I enjoy writing but not novels, more like essays and reflective pieces. I accepted that I could never live comfortably in either hard logic or philosophical reasoning, more like in the middle of both. I accepted that I love theoretical learning but still really like executing my ideas; I just need a balance. Because I accepted all my conflicts, characteristics, enjoyments, and passions, I also accepted that in order for any venture to succeed, we all need a team. A team where each individual can contribute their uniqueness to the mutual work and goal. Unfortunately, a team is also the hardest part to manage in any venture. Yet, if we can make it work, it is going to work. 

Well, what a year, isn’t it? I lost my grandfather. I left my family, again. I went to a different place to satisfy my curiosity and my desire to experience many things when I’m still young and free. I cried, I laughed, I smiled. I calmed down. There are things I still cannot face. There are things I learned and accepted. After all, the year taught me that sleep, food, and rest are the best things one can have in the world. They keep the machine function properly and efficiently. They sustain our energy and efforts. As time passes by, we’ve learned many things but also unlearned many other things such as staying up late or skipping meals. As 2025 is ending and my Japan trip is also coming to an end (in less than 2 months), I feel gently excited yet anxious. But above all, I feel fulfilled for everything I could go through for the past 12 months. And I hope you too. No matter what happened, we all have a tomorrow to look forward to. The past cannot change, but we can definitely do something different when the tomorrow comes. 

I wish you all the best in the last days of 2025!

BY LYNN NG.