Hi friends! Sudah lama sekali sejak terakhir kali saya berbagi cerita di sini. Saya bahkan tidak ingat kapan terakhir kali saya publish artikel di tahun 2025. Banyak cerita yang ingin saya bagikan, tetapi waktunya terbatas (atau terkadang hanya karena malas š ). Hidup menjadi sebuah perjalanan yang fantastis seperti naik roller coaster, but I enjoy it, Alhamdulillah. Bagaimana kabar terbaru tentang hidup saya di awal tahun 2026? Selamat membaca!
Life Update sebagai PhD Candidate di Awal 2026
How is my life update for early 2026 in the PhD journey? More than seven months passed in my second year. I passed my confirmation review and my ethics application (in mid-2025), and I have almost completed my data collection. As a PhD candidate (yes! I am officially a PhD candidate after confirmation review), these phases are not only part of my academic journey, but life-changing experiences. The experiences are cognitively, physically, and emotionally stimulating, and sometimes feel exhausting, yet they taught me many things.
From my confirmation review, I learn to build my confidence. The ethics application helped me practice resilience, as well as detail-focused and broader-context thinking. As for the data collection, I cannot explain it. One of my supervisors said this is āonce in a lifetime journey.ā However, my data collection taught me to see things from various perspectives.
Personal Life Update for Early 2026
As human beings, we can only plan, but the results can be unexpected. The most surprising moment in my life recently was getting married (itās almost 3 months now, yeaay!!), in the middle of data collection. It is not entirely out of the plan, as if I just suddenly married without thinking it through. We (my husband and I) were talking about it for a few months before we decided on the date, but marriage was not on my mind when I chose to enrol in a PhD.
However, the marriage exposed me to more journeys. I learned about new cultures (we have different nationalities and ethnicities), I visited new places (my husbandās country), and I met new people (his family, now our family). The journeys are leading me to more roles in life, including a wife and in-laws.
Blogging Journey
Life as a PhD candidate and a newlywed makes me reflect on many things, including my blog. I love writing, I love sharing. But I donāt want my blog to just share knowledge without my soul in it. I want my writing to speak to the reader, so they can imagine it as they read. So, I decided to share more of my perspectives on what I read, places I visited, or experiences I had, if it will be helpful to my readers and respectful of my privacy.
So, friends, if thereās something youād love to read on this blog, leave a comment or reach out via email or social media.
Auckland, 8 February 2026
