Happy 2020! We had a busy second half of 2019 and decided to prioritize other things outside of our BPES website. We’re back! We are excited to refocus on our blog, the website, and connecting with the BPES community this year.

For a long time I have chosen a word or a theme that I want to help guide my areas of focus for a given year. In 2020, my word of the year is “community.” This requires some explanation. To start, I am loving living in Singapore. I have been so fortunate to live in so many different places, that I almost have packing up and starting over again in a new country down to a science. In spite of this, making friends, whether you move to a new neighborhood, city, state, or country is really hard as an adult and still tough for me with each of my moves. I have put down some roots here and I certainly feel settled with a routine and a life that I’ve constructed. That said, my personal relationships still feel very surface level and are pretty limited. Personal relationships are so deeply tied to happiness and quality of life. As humans we are social creatures by nature and I am very interested in deepening my happiness. I read a book in 2019 that really resonated with me around what it means to meaningfully engage in your community, with the definition of community being a bit personal. I have a lot of ideas on which communities I want to engage with and curate in 2020. My BPES community is one area where I want to deepen my connections. My sister started on this journey last year when she wrote about pushing herself outside her comfort zone to join a BPES Facebook group. I am still getting my legs underneath me in terms of what “community” will look like for me in 2020, but the first step is returning to our BPES website and deciding how we will engage with the BPES community.

Look forward to more to come this year and don’t be a stranger! We’d love to hear from our fellow BPES friends in the community. I’m excited to engage, connect, and continue to share our story around BPES.