On the End of my First Year in Bishan

Eleven months ago, I packed up from Boon Keng's McNair Lodge to come to my new nest. Here in Raffles Boarding, we do not get the grow-ups' freedom that we got in NUS High Residence, and nor do we get the Holiday-Inn-feel we got at McNair Lodge, but it is in such a place that I met my important partner in life and spent an extraordinarily fruitful year. It is always with mixed feelings when we are on the tail of another year, but this year, for the most of the time I was in seventh heaven, bustling with my daily work and basking in pleasure with my new friends. Still a spindle, I spins on my own orbit, but the difference in JC is that my trajectory is bound to intersect with many of others'. New marvels, new discoveries, and new learning points, both pleasant and unpleasant, made up the greatest teacher called "experience" and led me to see what real life holds for everyone: opportunities and challenges, triumphs and heartbreaks.

I used to use a metaphor to dissuade the pessimists: life is not a bed of roses, but it is not a litany of dismay either. For a brave heart the brighter side almost always outbalances the gloomy one and the direction we should look is always forward. Counting the highlights of the year, there were quite a lot of new marvels, and speaking of the mode of life, I must admit that independence plays a very important part in everyday's life. Planning your own schedules, following your own pace, choosing your own activities and taking care of your own welfare as well. One loop wrong, and we may have to think of remedies for that. Here our knowledge about both people and life has greatly expanded and our stamina best strained. Daily life can be tiring but being in a friendly class and staying with people you love can outweigh all the downsides of a frenzy life.

My current work for the Public Utilities Board as an intern makes me further cherish my life as a student. It is indeed the golden years of a being and the time when all the excitement and fresh experiences can build our characters. And indeed, it is also the hard time that we learn about rules and authorities, and handle them with care. Working life can be very different and monotonously straining, but the upbeater is to keep to your goal and always visualise the end.

Christmas is coming and again here I have to spend a snowless Christmas. Nevertheless, it will be a brilliant one, I bet!

Merry.