Wednesday, December 31, 2008
i'll say goodbye to 2008
and here i am ... writing out this last entry for the year ...
i must say ... this year has been a very eventful year ...
and as the last hours of it go by ...
i guess i'm actually gonna miss it alot ...
where do i begin ?
there's so much to say ...
so much to reflect on ...
so much that i have learnt ...
so much i have seen ...
2008 really has been a year that i've experienced the highest of highs ...
and also the lowest of lows ...
i've made many new friends ...
strengthened some old friendships ...
lost some friends ...
lost some friendships ...
the first two months of this year,
i found myself finishing up my second year in NP
and at the same time anxiously preparing for my overseas attachment ...
the anticipation and the expectations ...
the amount of preparation work ... the amount of mental preparation ...
not to mention my jumble of emotions ... it sure was a trying time ...
but still ... it seemed to me that this was something to really look forward to ...
as something that would really change my life ...
and true enough ... it did not disappoint ...
so on the very last day of Feb ... on the 29th no less ...
there was this rather large group of us at Terminal 3 ...
the larger portion of the people sending the smaller portion of us ...
and so on that day slightly more special than others ...
i started on this journey that would last exactly 177 days ...
to begin to describe this journey in words ...
is something that will take a rather long time ...
but i will try to give a summary of it all ...
the first few days over in Beijing ...
felt like it really was a holiday ...
with no responsibilities ... and nothing much to worry about ...
getting to know everyone at Olio ...
Shirley, James, Marshall , Maxine, Angela, Alice, Jack, Lily, Li Shifu. Xiao Li, Xiao Wang, Lu Shifu, Liu Sha and Chen Ping
as well as my fellow attachment mates ...
Anthony, Yiling and Min Wee
was a truly enjoyable experience ...
soon, work set in and i had to pick up the ropes in a quick hurry ...
having never worked before in my life ...
my learning curve sure was a steep one ...
the inital few months were rather interesting ...
as there was an endless amount of things to learn ...
we met lots of people ... from many different countries ...
many whom we speak to regularly and learn many interesting things from
we met many Singaporeans whom we also befriended
Sean , Dennis , May , Meifang , Vanessa , Jennifer, Michael, Gan. Clara, Joyce and Glen and so many others ...
without all of them i don't think i would have survived this entire journey so well ...
the work soon became repetitive and the usual politics came in ...
suddenly we detested work ... and longed for it to be over ...
new blood came and some staff left ...
Hao Ting , whom i'm sure the four of us are gulity of dragging all over Beijing at times , came first ... as a part-timer ...
Fairy our new admin , who never fails to be cheerful ...
Amy, whom we all detested.
Peter , our new AM ... i tell you ... without him ... i'm sure i wouldn't have lived my last few months there happily ... he sure has a way of motivating people and he's really just pro at being an AM ...
due to the Olympics period, Olio hired several part time staff , Ferry , Terrence and Ann.
all these people have made a difference in my life there ... be it small or large ...
for the first time ever ... i celebrated my birthday overseas ...
it sure felt different ...
and i was pretty glad that my friends back here didn't forget me ...
even Wei Jie sent me an email ... that bugger ... i was rather touched ... *tears*
there were also dark periods of time ...
when i felt really lonely ...
so far from home ... and putting people in such close confines ... seeing the same commnunity day in day out ... sure lead to some disputes and arguements ...
times like those i really felt like crying ... but i just stonewalled myself ...
i did lots of silly things over there ... as many of my close friends know ...
i actually folded a thousand stars ... haha ...
thinking back ... it sure was silly ...
but i never did regret doing that ...
so many things happened there ...
these memories ... i wouldn't mind going through it all over again ...
i got to see the Olympics ... though mostly on TV ... haha
i got to do what i wanted ... eat what i wanted ...
it was freedom ...
but of course ... all good and (thankfully) bad things must come to an end ...
and i left Beijing on the 23th of August ...
on the way back i made another friend
(:there's much that i've not said ... about what else happened ... but there's really too much to say ... i'll just remember them through the thousands of pictures that i took i guess ... of the fun times ... i mean like no one takes photos when they are down are they ?
moving on ...
homecoming was weird ...
i felt like Singapore was so different after just under 6 months overseas ...
i'm not if it was me who changed ... or it was everyone else ...
or maybe everyone and everything just changed ...
i was bitching about the prices of things when i got back ...
being in beijing for that short amount of time made me feel like Singapore is this super duper expensive place to live ... but i survived ...
met up with my friends whom i haven't seen in 6 months ...
somehow things felt weird ... at least initially ...
but i guess as of now ...
it's back to somewhat like what it was last time ...
but of course ... things can't go back to the way they were ... not that i want them too ...
holidays were truly holidays ...
i did all the playing i wanted ... all the going out i wanted ...
ate all the singapore food i wanted ... not that i really missed them ...
i mean ... there are so many singaporean food outlets there in beijing ...
and so many different type of foods to try ...
before long ... school started ...
and man was it tough ...
the first thing i said was ... i'd rather spend 6 more months working ...
and i wasn't proven wrong ...
not by a long shot ...
lectures and tutorial and workshops on things i totally did not think would be useful to me thus began ...
i mean ... after starting this lectures on ERP Systems ... i swear i won't go into ERP ... not for all the cash this profession offers ... it's not worth killing my brain cells over ...
the one thing that was supposedly something i would do ... well ... i wasn't really interested during the lectures at all ... lol ... project management ...
class selection was done before sem started and the remenants of our first year class gathered for one last semester together ... but i doubt we'll ever be the same way we were again ... too much has happened ...
the end of 2008 also means the end of another phase of my life ...
the ending of my 3 year course in Ngee Ann ...
*this part onwards written in 2009*
-didn't know this would take that long ... brought my laptop out but reflections sure take ages-
my almost 3 years in Ngee Ann is coming to an end soon ...
and ... it seems like just yesterday that i stepped in Ngee Ann for the first time ...
i've said many times why i chose to enter Poly rather than JC ...
and many times, my reasons have come back to bite me ...
in times when i'm down ... they only taunt me more ...
you see ... majority of my peers and friends chose the JC route ...
to put into perspective ... in Ngee Ann ... there are only 3 VS guys in this batch
which makes for not alot of friends and connections in this place ...
thankfully i at least have a small handful of close friends ...
and a slightly larger group of people i would consider friends ...
and of course the two people i wouldn't have survived without , Hsein Tze and Shane ...
and more recently Nick ...
lots of things have gone by ...
lots of memories that will be talked about in the coming weeks leading to "Graduation"
BAOC '06 ... BAOC'07 ... Serve Cambodia'07 ... Chalets ... Outings ... Attachment ... Projects ... Class ... And so much more ...
the things that have happened ... i wouldn't change for the world ...
the good and the bad ...
recently i've been trying to come to terms with all the not so good things that have happened ...
and realized that there have been so much misconceptions and miscommunications ...
and i'm glad that some things have been cleared ...
of course ... it's impossible to ask for things to go back to the way they were ...
but i do hope that many years down the road ...
we can all look back ...
and laugh at our silly thoughts , actions and whatnots ...
in 2008 ... i really did do alot of stupid things ... haha ...
other than school ... after coming back from Beijing ...
i was trying to reconnect with old friends ...
and meeting up with old friends ...
thanks to Facebook ...
i started to get in touch with Pri School friends ...
even met a few by chance ...
also met up more with my Sec School friends whom i've fell out of contact with for quite some time ... my seniors and my peers ...
it's funny how i will always regard them as my seniors even though ... from what they tell me ...
they no longer regard me as their junior but just one of them ...
the whole bunch of them are in army or ORDing soon ...
even my peers ...
2009 is the year of ORDing ...
and i'm merely enlisting in 2009 ...
guess ... sometime in May ?
at least that's what i hope ...
been hearing lots of stories from them about the Army ...
some good ... many more bad ...
yet ... believe it or not ... i'm actually looking forward to it ...
hahahaha ...
i'd prob make a new bunch of friends when i go in ...
so i suppose that'd be a good thing ...
school hasn't been on my mind much this year ... what with attachment being a major part of the year ... and other issues ...
i've been constantly thinking about what next ...
where do i go from after NS ...
they say that you have those two years to think through ...
but really ... not really fully considering what i wanted to do ...
is what landed me in BIT in the first place ...
looking back ... i would have wanted to go for Mass Comm ...
not that i regret taking this course ...
but i would have wanted to take something else given the choice all over again ...
one thing that has been constantly on my mind this year ...
would honestly be girls ...
funny how this would look when you read it ...
some of my friends say ... you're going through that phase where you want a girlfriend ...
blah blah ...
but idk ...
what do i really want ...
i've said many times that i'm not the sort to mess around ...
perhaps the guy up there has plans for me lar ...
but i guess ... for 2009 ...
i'd like to try to focus myself on other things ...
if you're still reading ...
well hold on for a lil more ...
this is coming to an end soon ...
2008 has been a great year ...
all the good things ...
and all the bad things ...
i honestly have no regrets doing any of the things i did ...
and i spent lots of time with my family and friends ...
and i realized that ...
it's not till something is gone ...
that you realize ...
how good it was ...
2008 was actually a great year ...
and now it's gone ...
The time now is 1.42pm, January the First 2009
Happy New Year Dear Reader
(:
aiky wrote in white | 11:16 AM
