Ah Pok ah, Ah Pok! (Ah Pok is my nickname in the family.)

Quick backstory of how ‘Ah Pok’ came about: I was around 7 years old, having chicken pox. My sisters were discussing how to spell ‘curry puff,’ and I exclaimed, “P.O.K la!” because my mum usually calls it curry ‘pok’. Thus, this nickname was born. Hahaha.

So Ah Pok ah, Ah Pok! You cheeky little monkey! Oh, how much you have grown — in weight, in the weight of your wisdom, and in the weight of your impact on the people around you. I mean seriously, look at you in this photo: wearing a very demure, very mindful, cute little white dress, and yet pulling off a cheeky expression. You live for that contrast. You teach the zen and healing art of Kintsugi, yet you inject it with fun, laughter, humour, and life’s philosophies.

You hid your quirkiness and sassiness for a season during your mid-twenties because the adults in your life, and society, insisted it was time to trade your effervescent energy for something more… ‘mature’. But come on, you’re not cheese or wine — you’re a free-spirited human being.

You lost yourself in those moments, trying to ‘get your shit together,’ trying to fit in, trying to do good at the expense of yourself and your mental wellness. You didn’t know then that you were wired differently, living with severe combined ADHD in the 98th percentile, and it was tough on you because you felt deeply misunderstood in almost every room you stepped into.

And yet, little you — you were doing your best. You were trying to survive in a world that didn’t yet have the language to understand you. You carried so much, so quietly, and I need you to know that none of it was your fault. I’m so sorry we had to go through this, but this is life, alright? I promise to make it my life’s work to protect you and reparent you, to dote on you, and to heal the little unhealed parts of you that I haven’t even discovered yet.

Somewhere along the way, you found your way back. ✨
You lost your spark in your mid-twenties, but slowly and steadily, you reclaimed it in your late twenties and carried it into your thirties.

Through personal development, therapy, working with a life coach, and subconsciously healing yourself through creativity, you reconnected with your truest, most authentic, most natural self.

You reclaimed your sense of wonder, your curiosity, and your playfulness, and I am so proud of you. 💛

Because the truth is, you can be 20+, 30+, 40+, 50+ and beyond and still be cheeky, quirky, and brimming with that spark that makes you you.

I’m so glad that I reclaimed myself in my late twenties and into my thirties. When I look back at this photo now, I see that I’ve returned to the original me — the one I was always meant to be — after feeling and being lost for a while. Maybe if I hadn’t gotten lost, I wouldn’t have known how beautiful it feels to finally come back home to myself.

Winnie, I’m proud of you in soul many ways. You have triumphed through all of your unspoken struggles, and because you know how lonely and painful that journey is, you constantly find ways to help yourself so that you can, in turn, guide others in their own healing, however that looks and feels for them. You are just the guide, the catalyst.

Through your lived experiences, empathy, humour, unique way of seeing and feeling the world, creative healing, clay, Kintsugi, and contemplation of mortality, you will eventually create a impactful and empowering powerhouse of creative healing modalities that foster self-connection — for yourself and for the people around you. You are here to share your unique gift of experiencing the world through creative means.

Little Winnie is VERY, EXTREMELY PROUD of you. I’m sure that if you both met in a parallel universe, little Winnie would run up to you, throw her arms around you, and say: “Winnie jie jie, I WANT TO GROW UP AND BE JUST LIKE YOU!”