1. Dressing is important

Remember the times where you were stuck at the salad bar, unable to decide whether to go for Caesar or Thousand Island dressing? Yeah. Yeah I've been there too.

Kidding. Of course I'm referring to the way we dress and present ourselves. I realised in 2015 that it is so important to dress up correctly for the appropriate occasion.

I'm not here to write about wearing things that are trendy or "in" - that's for another debate. I personally prefer being trendy, of course, if you ask me.

It's more about wearing the right things. In army, during my medic course, we were not allowed to book out in shirts that did not have collars - so polos and shirts were alright but T-shirts would get you to book out at 10pm instead of 6pm. That was the enforced side of things, about how the army forces us to look alright and not dress shoddily walking out of camp.

Then there was the social side of things. I hung out with a lot of friends this year mainly because I had so much free time on the weekends. I think this year has been the best in terms of meeting up with no agenda - not having to rush home to complete an assignment or having to meet up just to discuss a project.

And on different occasions, sometimes you need to dress up, and sometimes you don't. I remember wearing a shirt to a CG 27/13 class barbeque and it was probably about as overly-adequate as it could have gotten. The rest were wearing slippers, tank tops and shorts, and there I was, with a shirt. And it wasn't even that bad until it came to the barbeque part; I had to excuse myself from the barbeque pit because my shirt was rather thick and I was afraid I'd get a heat stroke.

Oh, and remember those times everyone else wore jeans and there you were, uncomfortably scratching your exposed legs and unknowingly letting the whole world know you're wearing bermudas?

2. Money is precious

This is probably the first year in my life whereby I have had to support myself a lot more than what I expected to. No longer did Dad and Mum provide me with a daily allowance, and that was no biggie either because I'd spend weekdays in camp and only spend on the weekends.

Ah, weekends, that is the problem.

At the start of the year, I set myself a target of spending no more than $50 a weekend. Well, that promise did not last very long, and soon enough, I was spending over $100 per weekend, and left with little in my bank account.

And buying my phone for $828 in April did not help things, either. Then there was the need to buy a concession pass after I was posted to my new camp in July, and that required an extortionate $85 per month.

Remember the many hang-outs I have had? Yeah, that added to the financial burden.

Bangkok is another thing altogether. I think I've spent no less than $350 for everything excluding the flight tickets because Dad was rather kind enough to sponsor me (thanks Pop).

Driving is sucking a lot of money out, too. Mind you, I have to set aside at least $1.2k for that, despite having $1k sponsorship from Dad (thanks Pop... again).

But I'm just going to continue spending on clothes and food though, am I not?

3. Friendship is timeless

I've learnt to love my friends so much more in 2015. Some have arrived in my life, some have left abruptly; some have made me the happiest person, some have let me down so much.

2015 was a very good friendship year for me, though, because I finally got the time to burn and meet up with so many people that I did not manage to last year.

TeamYOLO dominated my 2015, because we met up practically once every 2-3 weeks, so we were never really far away from each other. Towards the tail end of 2015, Skype with them was never uncommon business. We paid for food that was overpriced, we went to places that were overhyped, and found so much comfort in each other. I talked about my problems, and they would listen; every good news I had was shared to them. I think we'll be fine in 2016, having made time for each other already on the first day of this year.

Energio was, unfortunately, rather low-key last year, and that is something I am working to make amends for lost time. We are more than a band, and we are looking to explore beyond music in 2016, and go into just hanging out as friends. Not that I ever want to give up jamming with these guys because jamming and singing with background music are two completely different experiences and if I had a wish, I'd want to go on stage with these guys again.

Then there were the individuals who I must mention for making my 2015. Mel (or mel, because that's how you love it with the small letter 'm'), thank you. You are one of my best-est friends, and I hope 2016 is a chance for us to hang out more and finally embark on our food tour.

And to the 3 ladies and 1 gent - Jamie, Meng Leng, Huda and Ryan - thank you for making the Bangkok trip exceed my expectations. If there were to be another overseas trip, I'll want all 4 of you to come with me again. Especially if it involves shopping.

Yeu Jiunn and Gerald, thanks for making my Brunei trip a lot less mundane. The endless talking cock sessions and how we are so comfortable making fun of each other despite having known each other for less than 2 months before the trip still makes me wonder a lot.

To my EMT mates, thanks for the post-6pm-RO rubbish. I can still vividly recall us reading Pakalu Papito tweets across the room, and creating a workout regime because there was little to no exercise in that 12 weeks (although I pulled out of many of those workouts...). Special thanks to Sergeant See for treating our section so well and to Luke and Anders, my buddies, for being so light-hearted and understanding my puns.

And of course, how can I forget my BMT mates? It's a shame we haven't met more after we POP-ed, but nonetheless, I still love the days we tanked so much shit together and having each other's back. Blasting music in bunk and then having everyone join in to sing is just one of the most satisfying things ever - at least to me.

And to 4E1 '12 and CG 27/13, it's a shame 2015 hasn't been that great to us and we didn't hang out much. To the former, well, we've already made up for it with a smash of a party on 2 January 2016, so that's alright. To the latter, thanks for the short barbeque, and hopefully there will be a hell lot more this year!

4. Emotion is overwhelming

If there was one gigantic thing I learnt in 2015, it is this.

2015 has been a year where I underwent a huge mental transition - I thought after years of being so realistic and thinking with my head, I yearned for a change. At times before 2015, I felt a bit cold, a bit distant from the action and the love. It was never a great feeling, and even though it did help me make decisions a lot faster, it also implicated my relationship with people.

So, as the year passed by, I could tell that things were changing. I was becoming a lot more emotional, a lot more personable and - for once - my heart ruled my mind. I was following my emotions, and that was good, because I made a lot more friends and became a lot closer to my current ones.

But then, that was where the problem arose. Being so heart-driven meant my expectations of others rose. I put my heart into making sure everything worked, be it at work or at maintaining relationship with others. I was so engrossed with trying to achieve the ideal that I was often left disappointed and crushed. I pictured the perfect scenario, and even though my mind says I'll never get that and I should probably be a lot more realistic, my heart overruled all of that and I was actually enduring tough times in the last quarter of the year. I was defeated, annoyed and tired.

It's not often I let myself disappointed, because I have had similar experiences in the past despite having used a mix of mind and heart-ruling. So stupidly, I decided to use all my heart instead, and it was a bit damaged resultantly.

Thankfully, that phase is over and I am so glad to say 2016 will be a fresh start, and I hope to be able to come to a perfect compromise; I want to use my mind AND my heart, and not just either one. I know people say we should put our heart into things, but if we do, we'll never get it right. You have to follow your logic too.

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2015 was a blast, and I wished I had another go at doing whatever I did again. But 2016 is also a new opportunity for me to do so much more and go beyond my comfort zone.

2015, 谢谢你出现在我青春里。

Song of the day:

One Direction - Perfect

(And if you like midnight driving with the windows down

And if you like going places we can't even pronounce

If you like to do whatever you've been dreaming about

Baby you're perfect, baby you're perfect)