To give you guys a heads up, this is a blog from the perspective of an introvert who’s with a bunch of people who love to party, since that’s already been established I would just like to say that, I. Don’t. Dance. Period. Strobing lights, catchy 80’s music, the dance floor, disco balls, and of course, people…that’s what our Christmas party theme was all about, and the second I learned about our theme, my mind automatically planned how I could be absent for our event, the introvert in me cannot process the amount of extroverted activities that I am about to do on that day LOL(Sorry guys I can’t help it HAHA).

But before I started to share about my first YOYO's Christmas party experience, let me introduce myself  first, my name is Daniel, your resident Graphic designer and I love video games, I love my drinks hot, I love ramen, I love reading books, Comics, Manhwas and Mangas BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY I love silence & solitude, there is a point to why I introduced myself this way, and I’m not just doing it to write more words for this blog okay? lol! But more on that later.

Our Christmas party actually consists of two venues, the first one is where we ate our dinner first, exchanged gifts and also shared our wins and OPOciations with each other.

Another highlight from our christmas party was us meeting our new member Antoniette (Tonie), who will join us in few more weeks as a HR Lead. It was nice meeting you Tonie!

I really enjoy it when we do events with the company, it’s always interesting to see what YOYO’s planning for us, but as I mentioned earlier this was the first event that I almost dodged intentionally, as an introvert, in my early years I’ve experienced a couple of loud environments that’s filled with socializing and dancing also (In short I’ve had my fair share of bar hopping when I was younger lol!)  and from what I learned in the past, it’s really not for me, I expected that I wouldn't be enjoying this event if I went through it like my other experiences in the past, but boy oh boy was I wrong!

When we first arrived at the venue, all I could think was “Yep I knew it this is not for me” but then we got to sit at our booth and I saw Hazel, ate Mau, Reese, Nori and the others already dancing, I can’t help but to join them for the sake of getting along.

At first I planned on dancing only for a short while but it got really fun and the dopamine spike and adrenaline really helped me get my groove on, and just like that before I even realized it I danced through two songs straight already!

If I tell you that the younger version of me will be dancing as I did on that day, I’d say that I’m joking, because we both know that that’s not something that we do, and it’s literally very far from my comfort zone, which as i’ve mentioned is silence and solitude, and then when we’re not dancing, we toast, drink some tequila, socialize, rest up, gather some energy then dance again! It was a fun cycle.

It’s also cool that we could request music to the DJ and it always feels awesome when we hear the music that we requested gets finally played or we hear a music that we love, so much so that sometimes even if we are all tired from dancing, we’d get up and push through, you’d think that we’d be all tired but it was a fun experience and we never felt like that’s the case, specifically from my experience, when “September by Earth, Wind & Fire” played all I could think of was “I SHOULD DANCE THIS” which in my surprise made my body move straight at the dance floor, but the funny thing is there’s this person trying to get my attention, but I was so busy enjoying my dancing I unintentionally ignored him for a short while, and I realized he was calling my attention because I didn’t have my mask on, (Not a proud moment indeed, but a funny story to tell lol, but don’t worry I tested the next day and didn’t catch the Covid),

For the first time in my life I enjoyed dancing in public, and to think I was so quick to make an excuse to get out of the experience, but in the end I’m just glad that I pushed myself to go through with the Christmas party event, it also helped a lot that I was with a bunch of awesome people, and maybe it’s just that, it’s not about the party or the venue, it’s about the people you do it with, so if you’re a mega introvert like me with the same mindset that I mentioned earlier in this blog (told you that had a point, hahah!) Take it from me YOYO is a wonderful home to expand your comfort zone in.

And with that, I wish that we all have a groovy Holiday, and see you all next year!

Till our next groove,

Daniel