For this blog post, I am sharing the top nine things that make me unique. These might be related to my physical characteristics, things I enjoy, or just about how I live my life!

1. My unusually coloured, rather beady eyes

My eyes are brown, so by “unusually coloured” I certainly don’t mean something like purple or pink, but they are a shade of brown that doesn’t quite reflect my Chinese-Indonesian heritage. Everyone in my family has very dark brown eyes, some of them looking even closer to black, but my eyes are a lighter brown, and my irises (that is, the coloured ring of the eye) are rather large for an Asian person. This complements my skin colour in a way that is a bit unexpected.

2. My wide variety of laughing styles

It’s not something I am able to really control, but depending on how humorous I find something, I laugh in many different ways (which in themselves, are funny). I have been told I have a funny breathing laugh (a laugh that’s through the nose, with the mouth closed), I have a very loud and jarring cackle, I have a snigger, and a giggle, and possibly something that would be more like a sniggle. If I find something exceptionally hilarious, I get that empty, silent laugh, where my eyes are squeezed shut and letting the air out is a struggle (but doesn’t everyone have that?). Also, I do snort sometimes when I laugh. 🙊

3. My bold sense of style

I love clothes and I love expressing myself through clothes and my appearance.

Most of you who know me know that I used to have bright red hair, and at one point purple hair, and I love seeing people express themselves with their unique hairstyles and colours. A company that also supports people expressing themselves through hair colour is oVertone, a cruelty-free hair colour company that sells a range of products to tame or create a brightly coloured mane of hair.

When it comes to clothes, aesthetic is typically defined by crop tops, boots, and raw stone/crystal jewellery, and I love wearing bright colours (my favourites are orange and electric blue). I also love unusual cuts of fabric, and unexpected fabrics, in unusual colours! This often means asymmetrical hems, fuzzy material, and a bright colour!

4. My affinity for nature

Nature is something I find it difficult to be without. I need to see lush green, rivers and lakes, mountains, clouds, and flowers. Although I live in the city, nothing beats a walk in the local park, and I find road trips to scenic areas or to other nature-rich parts of the world to be breathtaking.

5. My appreciation for all kinds of music

I have very broad taste in music. What I enjoy listening to most and what fuels me most days is classic rock, indie rock, rock, and pop with a dance or indie edge. But I listen to anything including Japanese pop, instrumental jazz, heavy metal, rap metal, and hip hop. I also try to find the good in every piece of music, appreciating what some people would consider to be out-of-tune pop, whiny folk ballads, heavily sampled dance tracks, and music that sounds more like speaking in an undesirable accent rather than singing.

6. My seven ear piercings

I have six lobe piercings – three in each ear, symmetrical – and what they call the elusive “snonch” piercing in my right ear. My ear anatomy means I have a flat area between the areas where a snug piercing and a conch piercing would normally be, so I have the perfect ear anatomy for a snonch piercing. When I was younger I would mismatch earrings a lot of the time, and wear the biggest earrings possible. As I got older I would make them match and be symmetrical, but I would mix different coloured metals (gold and silver). I go for a more minimalistic approach these days, and one of my left piercings gives me a bit of trouble so I actually leave it empty most of the time now.

7. My history of hobbies

I am notorious for having had a lot of hobbies and interests in the past. I won’t list every single one of them, but I will list a few.

Although it wasn’t specifically a hobby, I had an interest in teeth. So it may not surprise you that I used to want to be an orthodontist. I didn’t mind going to the dentist at all – in fact, I quite enjoyed it – and cleaning my teeth and maintaining a good oral hygiene routine was something I cared about. Orthodontists specialise in aligning your teeth, and this was something I particularly liked. I knew that as a child I was fascinated by the different types of teeth humans have, and exactly how teeth plays a big part in our daily life. As an adult, I still don’t mind visiting a dental hygienist to get my teeth professionally cleaned every six months. 😀

I partook in semi-professional concert photography for a while, and prior to that I was involved in nature photography. I loved photography a lot, and learned film photography in university, but now I’m happy to just share photos taken from my smartphone.

I have an incredible fascination with rocks. I used to want to be a geologist. I am enthralled by different kinds of stones, rocks, and gemstones. I love Stonehenge. I love jewels. I love it all!

I used to be a dancer. I did ballet for ten years, obtaining my teacher’s certificate. But I didn’t stop there – I also did tap and jazz!

I also played a number of musical instruments. I started with piano, went on to learn guitar, and then taught myself some drums. I was never quite so good at drums, but I completed sixth grade piano and I wrote some songs on my guitar and published my own EP.

I also used to be a gamer, clocking many hours of Minecraft and Commander Keen, but regularly playing first-person shooter games – especially old-school ones like Doom and Quake. I also enjoyed games like Kings Quest, Earthworm Jim, Worms, and Thexder.

8. My fascination with true crime and unsolved murder mysteries

One might raise an eyebrow at this, but unsolved murder mysteries, missing persons cases, and stories of serial killers will have me thinking of days on end. I don’t get nightmares about them, but I get so fixated on motives, evidence, and the events that play out. I often find myself in dark corners of the internet reading Reddit threads about certain murders (the one that befuddles me the most is the unsolved case of the Setagaya family murders), feeling disappointed when it comes to unsolved deaths or missing persons (the case of Joyce Vincent, whose natural death in her apartment went unnoticed for over two years), or reading about concepts and phenomenons that tie into societal issues (like “missing white woman syndrome” – the phenomenon that missing white women garner more media attention than any person of colour, regardless of social status).

9. I don’t do easy.

Perhaps one of my most infamous but unique qualities is that I despise giving up. It’s evident from my hobbies and how far I’ve taken them – both out of enjoyment and profession – that I don’t give up easily. I always push to do the best I can in every aspect of what I’m doing, even if there is no massive gain at the end other than a feeling of satisfaction. Occasionally even if it means some kind of grief is experienced, I will push myself. This might not always be a good thing, I have to admit. But when it is, I always strive to be a better person and be better at even the skills I already excel in.

Over time my physical endurance has also improved significantly, with me pushing personal records in weightlifting and rock climbing and always pushing myself beyond what my energy might limit me to. Overall I just strive to be a better person every day and to do better than I was doing yesterday. 🙌

I hope you enjoyed this post and some of the things I’ve shared; if you have been reading my blog for some time or follow me on social media, you might already know some of these things about me. 😊

What about you, what makes you unique?