28 Things I Did During 2008

1. Acting as emcee for NTU International Games 2008 with Mr Teo Ser Luck as our Guest-of-Honour and btw, Channel News Asia came to report. This event also supported Singapore's bid as the host of Youth Olympics Games 2010 and we won the bid by beating Moscow!

Yes, the yellow kid is the kid who used to stutter during his childhood.
From the personal side, I grow so much as a person from this event.

In a more personal side, if you wonder if that's the shortest hair I had for the past few years, that's not even close. I cut my hair botak for charity just a few weeks before that ;)

2. Teaching bahasa Indonesia in class for the first time. OKAY, it is only 9 students in one class, but please, the youngest person in the class is the teacher.

3. Openly announcing my support for Barack Obama for President.

4. Playing a competitive badminton for the first time outside my school, and lose it badly. Really badly.

5. Celebrating Valentine day alone.

6. Winning 3 golds and 2 silvers in badminton for Indonesian International students in my campus. Behind every successful team, there is a great captain. For Juventus, he is Del Piero. For our team: me.

Yulia and myself during one of the deciding matches


7. Opening a new blog in Bahasa Indonesia. I always feel more comfortable writing in English, but finally I decided to write in my native language as well. Not too bad....

8. Writing my first short story in English: Rose, My Rose.


9. Writing a controversial post to support Ronald Susilo against his former fiancee Lee Jia Wei. This post is quoted by The Straits Times.







10. Celebrating my 22nd Birthday with some of my best friends in Singapore.

Yes, that was one of the latest times you can see me without wearing specs.

11. Writing one of my best posts ever. The title is Kaka: I Belong To Jesus. I received lots of comments and even more E-mails to thank me for writing that inspirational post. This has been a pleasure for me a post that not only entertains, but blesses you as well.


12. Writing for a published publication: Gema Kebangkitan - Catatan Harapan Anak Bangsa, a project suported by Indonesian Ambassador for Singapore. My article is titled: Dear, Can We Have More Susi Susanti? Please...


13. GRADUATION DAY!!!! YAY!!!

With my 3 angels: Mom, Dad, Yoky. I am so so so so so so so proud of y'all.

And now I can proudly write my name: Benny Ardi Pandowo, B.Eng (Hons), Minor in Entrepreneurship :)

14. Going for a paid interview "trip" to Jakarta. I was the only one there with just a bachelor degree and the rest of the people have master degree. Nevertheless, I heard that I was the only one who get the job... and I half-heartedly rejected their offer because of some personal reasons. Nevertheless, it has been a great experience.

15. Accepting a UOB job and officially become a banker.


16. Experiencing a miracle at ICA. Guys, miracles do happen!

17. Becoming a fan of China after Beijing Olympics 2008 and decided that I must go there next year.

18. Making a resolution: Get married as soon as possible because I love kids.

19. Volunteering for The Salvation Army

20. Visiting Singapore Science Centre.

21. Visiting KTV a few times and have a record of singing 4-hour straight. And losing my voice soon after that.

22. Going back to one of my bad habits: drinking alcohol. One day I read in Men's Health Magazine that alcohol is bad for muscle development and decided that I must give up this habit. This has been 2 months and I haven't drunk any. Well done!




23. Absolutely thrilled with Obama's victory. Change has come to America!

24. Cheated by someone and accidentally visited a gay club. What an eye-opener!

25. My friendster account was GONE. It's just gone missing. Gosh!!! I now primarily use Facebook, and enjoy it.

26. Rediscovering my past-time hobby: Drawing.

27. Attending T. Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar and was totally blown away! I used to like to dream a lot and dream big... and overtime, I feel that I don't need to do that because it will cause misery when we fail to reach those dreams. However, T. Harv Eker reminded us that indeed, we are only limited by our own thinking.

28. Batam-Bintan Trip!!!




Looking at the big picture, I think 2008 is a pretty great year for me, with some life transition events (study-work), and some self discovery. Everyday I know myself a bit better.



Next: 2009 Resolution.