Thanksgiving is one holiday we don’t celebrate in Singapore. Celebrated primarily in North America, it was originally meant to give thanks for a good harvest, and to rejoice together after much hard work with the rest of the community during the year.

That’s what I want to do here, because I feel that this time of year is important to take stock of the lessons learn in the past 12 months, to give thanks to the people who have helped you through, to celebrate and fortify ourselves for the challenges ahead.

Nothing is more important or essential to Little Red Ants than our clients. This year, we’ve met many who believe in our creative direction and vision and were willing to let us craft their videos for them, and we say thank you to these special people. Thank you for everything you’ve helped us with, especially the teachers who took time off from their busy schedules to help us with the videos, Gladys, Jingfang and Audrey, who lent their support and believed in us. Special thanks to Nizam, Yun Shan, Cher Ling, Lina, Mabel and Jing Yun for trusting us and being there on late night and weekend shoots with us. But that’s not all the clients we have. Thankfully. To everyone we’ve worked with, thank you and hopefully, we’ll get more chances to work together in the future.

To give thanks once more, we managed to have a successful retreat this year! In Penang no less. Which brings me to the next group of people I’ll like to give thanks for.

To Darren – Like what a certain interviewer said, you’re the rock upon which Little Red Ants is built upon. For your dedication, for your technical knowledge, for the scratches in your car, for your skill with black tape and for your strength, thank you.

To Kang Li – Like the same interviewer said, you’re the deep thinker who takes everything in and churns out super-lame jokes. For that, for your willingness to try new stuff, for being the company welfare officer, thank you.

To Yan Zhao – We’ve been spending lesser time together (that’s 2 hours of my life back) and you’ve a red sportsvan to drive now! For your ideas, for your concepts, for your emails and for your berting (that’s PR to you) skills, thank you.

To Adeline – T-Rex has found happiness! For keeping me company while I drive you to Shalom, for helping me with CPF, for your wonderful artworks and penmanship, for editing everything and for taking 1.5 hours to come to work everyday, thank you.

To Keyuan – To summarize, Keyuan is LRA’s very first employee! He finds it weird to work in a company where bosses outnumber him, but he has since grown resigned to his fate. For your willingness to learn, for the amount of time you’ve saved us from looking for another motion graphics artist, for your horrible font choices and spelling mistakes, thank you.

To Kevin – You’ve been a very welcome addition to our lives. For editing bloody fast fast, for introducing bands to me, for the welcomed kopi during your breaks, thank you.

To all our collaborators young and old, to our talents, to everyone who worked with us this year, a big thank you!

I think that Little Red Ants has grown through the past year. And we’re all proud of its growth. From 5Ds to the new Sony FS100, from scratching our cars with the massive new crane to the spanking red sportsvan, from 5 ants to a whole company of ants, we’ve come a long way. But the hard part is always just ahead.

For 2012, my possible goal is to start learning again. Although time management is always a little tricky, there’s no time like now to start. Learn new techniques; learn to tell stories a little differently, or with a fresh eye or a new perspective. Learn a new language, or relearn an old one or learn skills that I should have learned long ago (swimming for instance).

So, let’s put the thanksgiving on hold and look forward to a renewed 2012. Happy New Year!

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