Ahh, guess I’ve been on hiatus long enough. OurCoffeestops almost looked like an haunted website! (no pun intended)

Having not written a blogpost for so long, I won’t deny that I’ve definitely lost my flair in writing. I can’t exactly think of what to blog about. Not to mention the increased use of Twitter (oh, oh, follow me @ http:twitter.com/theNWCK ), my authors and I are resorting to much simpler means to update about our lives. No, that doesn’t mean OurCoffeestops has become redundant! I actually enjoy looking back at previous posts and reminisce on the older days.

Anyway, it’s been 10 months since I’ve begun my career as an Associate at KPMG. With its ups and downs, I’ve definitely matured from the experience. With the long hours too (my record stands at 8.30AM), I found it extremely hard to keep in touch with everyone, when I say keep in touch, I meant meeting up for a cup of coffee/tea! Just yesterday night, we had a get-together with the uni mates at Sue’s. After a very long time. We couldn’t really remember when was the last time everyone was able to gather together like that. But, it was good. Cherished every minute of it!

I’ve realised true friends are even harder to come by in your work place, but I’m glad God has shown me some. Seriously, you have no idea how much He has looked after me at work even though I turned my back at Him for months. Living my life like the prodigal son was carefree initially, till I realise how important it is to go back to Him again. I’ve lost my footings many times, but with the help of a close friend, who has never given up on me, even though I rebuke her advices countless times, I’ve returned. God has been good to me.

So yea, back to how much I missed the Uni bunch. It has always been just Ding, Sam, Serng and occasionally Sue and I meeting up weekly, since the rest of them aren’t really free most of the time. So the gathering yesterday was a valuable catch-up time. I haven’t seen people like Lydia for months, catch up with Melody for weeks, talked to Shan since we left Uni, etc. Certainly hope Evie could blend in as well though, been trying to get her to come to our meet ups!

Pei Yi, we are all awaiting your return!

My last paper concluded yesterday. I have mixed feelings about it, really. If you ask me, I really have no idea how I did. I was so pressed for time throughout the 3-hour-ordeal I couldn’t even think straight. But it’s okay. My God is a God of impossibilities. By His almighty Grace, I WILL pass. I WILL graduate. I just need to keep believing. Quoting what a close friend used to say, “He can turn a fail to a pass, just as easy as a pass to a fail.”

I shall end the post with a verse I quoted in my blog post looooooong time ago, but I feel it’s the most relevant verse that is speaking to me in current times.

Mark 11:24
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

Wow, time really does fly. I am going to be 21 soon. An adult, too quick. During birthdays we are supposedly entitled to one wish, and this is my wish (request or whatever nicer words that fits in) :

i) Don’t buy me any presents. Instead, donate the money to a worthy cause.
ii) Wish me and pray for the less fortunate too.
iii) Do something nice for a loved one.

I dedicate my 21st birthday in hope of a better world.

Self-reflection is no mere staring in the mirror. It involves stripping pass those carefully installed pretenses and trying to reconcile whether one can be comfortable with his/her own skin. It is both a retrospective and a prospective vice – attempting to draw connections between who we were, are and will be. To some it is a private affair; a ritual performed only in the presence of oneself and in silence if need be. To others, it’s a social affair; an engagement conducted within a group of trusted friends – honest questions posed and unvarnished answers received. And to the rest, it is a mechanical affair, where progress and personal growth can be meticulously checked against their pre-determined checklist.

Then there’s me: a person who employs all three depending on the mood and circumstances. I’ve spent the last 1 week or so talking to close friends about my hopes and fears, and subsequently retreated into my cloister and face my inner demons – trying to figure out whether I can still remember the narratives behind each scar.

I turned 21.

My favorite sentence of the year was written by a friend of mine, Zhi Wei: “We are ultimately, the collection of our stories.” And based on that backdrop, 2010 has been a messy affair – splurged with polar opposites of equal proportion and intensity. I recalled distinctively in my high school history lesson [my favorite class] that Hinduism recognizes many gods but only three main deities: Vishnu, the god of preservation; Shiva, the god of destruction; and Brahma, the god of creation. The balanced interactions among them is responsible for sustaining a life without a beginning or an end.

And that is how I have chosen to approach my self-reflection. Amidst all the clutter and noise, I have to decide what to preserve, what to destroy and what to create.

Close Friends Graduated.

Before proceeding any further, I would first have to dissect the whole notion that year 2010 is independent on its own right; that it is negligible links to its predecessors and thus hardly affected by the historic storms and sunshines. I bring this up because I couldn’t help but to admire the sheer determination of some of my friends who can decree a fresh slate beginning each new year; a white canvas painting that is un-smeared, ready to be decorated to their fancies. But mine can never be so despite the times I demanded for it. My years are like living organisms – they feed on the remnants of the previous years, both good and bad. New Years are just like some fallible man-made concept where we indulge in fun fair like pitching goals and aspirations but they shape not the vortex of time. When both hands of the clock point to the heaven, it’s as though I walked through a porous bubble, carrying both the joys that levitate me and the baggages that weigh me down.

I have no reset button.

Won my first gold medal at the MidWest Games.

What I am about to embark on might be construed as washing dirty linen in public; unnecessary exposing the soft spots in my armor, only to have them haunt me in the later years. Old sins have long shadows, as Agatha Christie would put it. But I cannot shed plagues without candor and honesty; I cannot destroy what I do not acknowledge.

I held an eagle.

I started my freshman year with much rigor and energy, just as any excited first timer. If time permits, there was nothing that I wouldn’t do, both academically and otherwise. My heart grew to embrace my university and by the end of the summer, I pretty much called this place home. But as I cruised into my second year things slowly started to fall apart. I grew much restless and my heart yearned for things that my university cannot provide. There was nothing that I wouldn’t give up to be on the runway at O’Hare International Airport to just hear the Boeings soar again into the sky, or spend my time feeding sugar canes to the guinea pigs in Ecuador. I was so caught up in the euphoria of my experiences that I forgot to take my heart back to the university. However, I was cognizant of my obligations and responsibilities, thus I cruised along. By that time, it was already useless to deny that there was already a massive shift in the way I interacted with my surroundings. I felt trapped within that archaic goals and aspirations that I had at the beginning of my freshman year as I no longer resonated with the horizons that I have crafted for myself. Most days were a bore and despite me doing well in my classes, it’s undeniably that there is only one force that has sustained me through the days:

Inertia.

My Oxford Classmates.

Then came the inflection point: the University of Oxford. Was it just mere coincidence or that I arrived one the dot when the bells in Magdalen Tower started chiming as I stepped out of my cab as though it’s calling me home? There is just something about the grey cobblestones and old granite pavements that imbues an intoxicating scent of vitality that I haven’t felt since my freshman year. I loved everything about Oxford – every minute, every encounter, every class…everything. I have never felt so alive that when it was time to go, I nearly teared [my professor did, so I'm not that ashamed to admit it]. Solo traveling around Eastern Europe soon followed. The details are immaterial, but all that there is to know is that I returned to Ann Arbor consumed with dread. It was obvious that the start of my third year was a complete disaster. I hated everything about Ann Arbor and I tried finding every reason to leave. Needless to say, my grades suffered tremendously [you would think I was on drugs if you saw it].

I didn’t care anymore.

In Istanbul with Zhi Wei.

But there is a saying that goes: “When one hits rock bottom, the only way left to go is up.” At one point in the daze, I knew that if I was to make a comeback I would have to swallow my pride and quite simply, realize that I am not as invincible as I thought I was. I started re-examining everything I did, especially the premise in which my actions were based. Soon, I was back on my feet, albeit a little too late. I felt at peace, which only comes when one begins to ditch the “what ifs,” bite the bullet and carry on. President Clinton is right: ‘It is only when one is down on his/her knees that he/she is forced to define who he/she is and what he/she stands for.’ I needed to start over.

I’ll create a reset button.

Thanksgiving in Upenn.

So for this year: no pompous aspirations, nor fleeting goals! I have said what I needed to say and the time for whining has to stop because there is so much life left to be lived. When it is one minute to midnight I’ll hit the reset button, knowing that I will walk into 2011 being at peace with myself, because I truly know the stories behind each scar. With three semesters left to graduation and a clean slate….

I will paint the masterpiece of my dreams.

Happy New Year! =)

]]> http://ourcoffeestops.com/2011/01/one-minute-to-midnight-2/feed/ 2 http://ourcoffeestops.com/2010/12/prophecy/ http://ourcoffeestops.com/2010/12/prophecy/#comments Fri, 31 Dec 2010 05:18:59 +0000 Jian Wei http://ourcoffeestops.com/?p=5668 [As part of a blogging exercise, Zhi Wei and I have agreed to write something entitled "Prophecy."]

I’ve always been curious on how fortune-tellers come about their decisions – be it reading tea leaves, gazing at crystal balls or reading palms. Considering that these fortune telling do not hold credo in the world that demands quantitive substantiation for any claims, it’s still a wonder how they manage to proliferate within our society. Albeit, in a dispersed fashion; surreptitiously tucked amidst the heavy crowd of the shopping centers, or the flea market. I wonder what is it that draws people to them?

Do they feed on our fears and insecurities? The unsaturated yearning to clutch straws in the drowning downpour of uncertainties; the instinctive wanting to sign post our lives with just enough markers so that we feel “safe,” while leaving just a tad room of ambiguity so that we don’t feel that our lives are scripted from the start. That’s why we make New Year resolutions, don’t we? Although we all know that we never get about to finishing half of them. In the celebrated ritual of setting up goals and aspirations, we deceptively imbed mechanisms designed to ground us to familiar territory. Our psyche disdain uncertainties; and we could care less what the fortune teller says – we’ll just keep hunting for different prophecies until we hear the ones that we would like to hear.

There’s this “hole” in Hagia Sophia, Istanbul that legend has it that if one inserts his/her thumb and twists it a complete circle – if he/she could feel a certain moisture in the “hole,” his or her wish will come true. [Ok, this sounds DAMN wrong. =S]

It is pretty comical that while prophecies and predictions tell very little of our future, they reveal a lot of our current state of existence. They are after all, a blatant statement of our insecurities, garnished and sugar-coated in the least vulnerable way. We don’t trot along the streets telling strangers about our unfulfilled desires, but heck! When the new year comes, everyone finds the window of opportunity and also the comfort to parade them. Reading the wish list is an intriguing sport – some are totally humorous, their presence is just to add chuckling twists to an otherwise somber linen e.g “I want to have Justin Timberlake’s kids.” [I swear that that was real.] But for those who are experienced enough, they will know what those that are NOT included on the wish list are as important as those that are – if not more. We are not dumb fools. We know that aspirations/wishes/prophecies levitate us from the ground with positive energy, only to drop us on our asses when they are not realized.

Now here comes the interesting part: how do people cope with the pain when our asses crash on the ground? I can’t speak for others, but it’s funny how my process of rationalization could act as effective band-aids to ease the exposed wounds. I can rationalize anything and everything to death, I think. It is rather easy to come up with a whole series of reasons on why I am better off without those goals achieved or that without them, I’m that not screwed up anyway. At times, it kicks in so naturally that it begins to border hypocrisy.

Oh well, that’s assuming that I can remember my new year goals anyway. All I can remember is that this time around last year I was stuck in Paris ushering the new year with fireworks that looked like it detonated prematurely. Fast forward till today, with only one day to go till 2011 screams at my face, I still have no goals, no wish lists etc.

I’m just too tired to make them.

Hello Tuhan, please tell me my future k? I’ve been a very good boy this year! =P I promise to cook you curry when I go to heaven.

Don’t get me wrong though. This isn’t a negative cry. I realized that I’m not gonna go about achieving them anyway. Growing older, the layers of complexity that wrap my life gets thicker and thicker that they make naive aspirations a travesty. I have grown a penchant for broad ambiguous targets – those that grant me so much room to maneuver that nothing could be defined as success or a failure. If there’s anything that my years in Umich have taught me, it is to just listen to the heart and go where the road takes me. I no longer plan for eternity; I just take each day as it comes. It saves the heart from much pain, and it’s so much fun along the way.

Or I could just go to the fortune teller….

It’s so much simpler anyway. =S

[Another post will be coming up, "One Minute to Midnight" - it'll be my concluding post for the year.]

It is about time. I have always been wanting/waiting for an app which would enable users to call via the internet (3G, WiFi). Reason being international calls is not cheap and I have contacts overseas which I would like to call. Recently, an app called Viber has been making a name for itself – it boasts free calls to any number using Wifi or 3G. I am only able to confirm the existence of the iPhone App for it.

To download the app, click here. Oh, did I mention that the app is free?

Once you have downloaded the app, launch it and it will request for your phone number. Type in your phone number correctly and you should receive a confirmation with an access code in it. I have heard reports of people not receiving their codes though I received mine seconds after confirming my phone number. Weird. Let me know your experience!

Get your family and friends on Viber!

Stereo Mix is enabled by default in Windows 7 though I am not sure whether it is the case for every other PC.

First, locate the speaker icon on the right of your taskbar. It should be located next to the time/date display. Right click it and select recording devices.

Then, a window should pop up. You should be seeing something like the image above. If you are able to see the “Rec. Playback” icon, you are set to go. To send audio from your computer directly, just select the “Rec. Playback” input as your microphone.

If you do not see the “Rec. Playback” icon, right click anywhere on the window and hit “Show Disabled Devices”. The “Rec. Playback” icon should appear in grey. Right click it and click enable. You’re done!

I was preparing to head out to study when the news of his passing reached my ears. The uncle’s maid called the house phone sounding really panicky, and when my house maid answered the phone, she quickly yelled for me to inform my mum who was at work. Story cut short, I was asked to head over to my uncle’s house to double confirm the news while my mum rushed back from her work place.

I didn’t exactly know how to react when he continues to lay motionlessly, even after I yelled after his name repeatedly. Checked his pulse. Put my fingers to his nostrils to feel signs of breathing. Laid my ears on his chest hoping to hear some heartbeat. Nothing. I had to call my mum back to relay my findings to her, could hear sobbings. Funny thing was, not a single tear left my eyes, even till now. I just didn’t know how to react.

My grandfather is due to leave for the crematorium 10.00am later. Spending the whole day infront of the casket today, prayers after prayers, I still can’t believe he’s gone like that. Forever. But I’m glad he’s finally laid to rest after a long fight and constant struggle with the recent stroke. I’ll miss him. The grandfather who treated me like his biological grandson.

A big thank you tothose who sent me text messages, Facebook messages, Twitter replies, etc. You know who you are.

You would think some of your close friends would at least send you a word of condolence, but… *shrugs*. Not even a Facebook comment on my status. If someone who is so far away in the UK could send me a two-page long SMS, I couldn’t see the reason why some ‘close’ friends here couldn’t send a word or two. The amount of Facebook friends is overrated, see the number of comments on my status to the ratio of friends I have, just baffles me.

Not even the Coffeestops authors were spared, except for Ying Wei, Kok Kuan and Christopher. Thanks guys.

Not that it mattered, but at least it reveals who actually cares, and who doesn’t. Even my KPMG colleagues send me text messages. I just knew them for 3 months.

Then again, I’m not turning this into an issue, I’m just saying.

Fresh off the 8 hour long flight from Negaraku, you probably would want to establish a communication link between you and your contacts (family, friends, banks, university, etc). If you require a contact number as quick as possible I would suggest purchasing a prepaid plan at the airport. Be sure to make it clear to the salesperson that you intend to buy a prepaid plan (SIM card) or they might sell you a reload instead. However, if you do make the mistake, do not worry as they will not hesitate to give you a refund on the spot. Yay to good business ethics!

Purchasing a prepaid plan
Purchasing a prepaid plan would not bind you to a contract. You use the amount of credit your have purchase in a certain period of time and reload at your pleasure. However, prepaid plans are generally more expensive than the postpaid plans (depending on your usage and how you look at it). There are a variety of prepaid plans in the market. Some even throw in a hand phone (possibly requiring you to dump in some extra cash) for your geeky desires though the phones are often not the latest models.

Where can I purchase a prepaid plan?
As mentioned above, you might only be interested to buy a prepaid plan for short term and immediately after your flight touches down. Look around the arrival hall. There would be shops with notable telco provider logos on signboards. However, do note that some shops might only sell reloads. I repeat, some shops might only sell reloads! But don’t worry if you made a wrong purchase, they will refund you on the spot (as mentioned previously).

What would I need?
To purchase a prepaid plan you would need your passport (for identification purposes) and cash or any other form of accepted payment. You will also be required to fill up a form which asks for your personal details such as passport number and address in Australia. Nothing to worry here. Standard procedure.

Which Telco should I subscribe to?
I would not be too picky with the telco providers when purchasing a prepaid plan. Reason being you can change allegiance at any time. Do some research on the extra features these companies toss in for you i.e. free calls to numbers of the same provider etc. Besides that, you might want to pick a telco provider with good coverage and service. The only prepaid plan I was ever on was from Vodafone. I had no complains with their service.

How much would it cost?
There are many prepaid plans available for purchase. If I am not mistaken, the cheapest I could locate at the airport was 50 AUD. That lasted me for about a month before I decided to sign a postpaid plan. If you think you would need more time before deciding on a postpaid plan, by all means go for another prepaid plan or simply just reload your credit!

What next?
Once you have purchased your prepaid plan, you will be given further instructions by the salesperson on how to activate the SIM Card. I cannot remember exactly what I was told other than to wait for an hour or so before being able to use my SIM card. Once your SIM Card is activated, congratulations! You are now connected in Australia!

Purchasing a postpaid plan
So you have settled in, opened a bank account and finally are ready to take the plunge. Oh yes, postpaid plans have the most attractive phones to lure you in too! Before you bind yourself to any plan, make sure to do a thorough research on available offers. Most importantly, it is probably a good time to examine your hand phone habits. How much do you message per day, how long to you spend on calls and how much 3G data you would require (if applicable). Or simply you want that particular plan because of the phone it offers. I have to admit I chose my current plan because it bundled the iPhone 3GS. No regrets though, it is serving me well.

Where can I purchase a postpaid plan?
You can purchase a plan at any reseller. They are commonly located in shopping malls such as the Toowong shopping village along Sherwood road or the Central Business District (CBD). Just be prepared to receive bad news that the phone you are vying for is out of stock at that particular branch! I would suggest purchasing your plan at the CBD as even if one shop is out of stock, there probably another reseller just down the road. I got my plan at the CBD too (because the reseller at Toowong did not have the phone I wanted for quite some time till I got fed up).

What would I need?
Purchasing a postpaid plan is a little bit tricky. That is because the giant corporations would like proof of your residency and financial capability before signing the contract. You would need a bank certified account statement, your passport and perhaps another document which I cannot recall. I don’t think it would the lease to your room/house/. However, bring it just in case.

Which Telco should I subscribe to?
The telco you subscribe to is VERY important. Remember, you are subscribing for at least a year (depending on your plan). And if you discovered that you prefer another provider, you will have to pay a fee to break the current contract you are signed on. I am currently a Three user and I would have to say although they have one of the best postpaid plans out there, the coverage and reception is poor. You would get very low to no signal indoors. Yes, even on a single floor house, you might not get any service at all! Besides that, even outdoors, there are some spots with no coverage. In my opinion, Telstra and Optus has the best coverage but their plans may be slightly more expensive than Three. Also don’t forget to lookout for promotions such as incentives for referring friends and free calls to numbers on the same telco provider.

How much would it cost?
There are many plans to choose from. Analyze your habits and pick the plan which best suits you. You WILL be charged for any excess usage and they are usually astronomical! As for me, I am currently on a $49 + 5 + 6 plan. $49 is what I am paying for to use on calls and messaging, the $5 just because I choose to have the iPhone 3GS and the $6 for the extra 500 MB of data. My contract would span 24 months. Currently, I am only using 1/3 of my allocated spending credits. What a waste. All that waste just for the iPhone 3GS. (It has served me very well though). Alternatively, just buy the phone you want elsewhere and subscribe to a plan without a phone.

What next?
Go nuts, show your friends your new phone! Go call someone. Message your friends. Make use of your free call credits too!

We accept precedence at face value and think that it is the gospel truth.

I entered the banquet of tertiary education with a pre-packaged notion on what my life will be for the 4 years here in the States. And those notions that I formed were based on what I generically thought best about myself throughout these years. Hours of pondering led to conclusions drawn on what my strengths were and what fundamentals they were sustained on. After two years of mishap analysis, reality crept in and the writing on the wall became a little too apparent to ignore. The initial snapshot of my graduating moment would be me cladded in silky black robes with a flat mortar board on my head. I would have my family beside me and a fat smile would say it all. I would have aced this university with a triple major, president of a whole hosts of clubs and most probably I would already have had a leg into the top graduate schools of my time. My school years would buzz away, packed to the brim with commitments that would make my peers shudder and smack in awe. More is MORE they say…I would epitomize that saying.

Here comes the reality check:

This is my third year at the University of Michigan and save for leading one high profile event, I haven’t been participating in many clubs, what more leading them. I just decided to shelve one major into the dustbin in exchange for a minor instead, leaving me with just 2 majors in the end. I don’t like slaving for my classes and they are turning into a bore because I neither have the time for them, nor do I have the time to find time – a huge bulk can be attributed to the lack of efficiency as opposed to a gorilla-sized commitment. In the past two weeks, I’ve only slept on my own bed 4 times as I’ve spent my nights at my friend’s place because I needed someone to wake me up in the morning.

When your own bed feels colder than your friend’s couch, you know that shit just hit the fan.

So, what went wrong?

To search for the faults, I first had to connect the dots. Why did I dip myself into actuarial science anyway? Let’s be clear, I was neither a genius in math nor did I ooze out any math-sy demeanor [I freaking need a calculator when doing the most simple arithmetic, say...90/4]. The money isn’t a factor either – I actually went for accountancy before plunging into realm where numbers are monarchs. The answer I have been searching was there all along:

People.

It should always be about people – The Chicago Roosevelt Fellows, one of the best times of my life.

My flirtation with additional mathematics sparked in Form 4 because I had the best unconventional teachers who managed to inspire me to see beyond the numbers that I was learning. Ms Alicia carries a very unique personality and I would have to say that I was more drawn to her as a teacher than what she had to teach. Attending Mr. Chan’s tuition classes helped sealed the deal. I reveled in Additional Mathematics and subsequently emerged best in my class for that subject. It wasn’t math anymore – it was a craft. So I went into actuarial science, because I remembered the excitement when I could solve a question, amidst the hair pulling from my peers; or the inflation of satisfaction when I nailed a problem that was harder than what was required of my syllabus.

History repeated itself when I took my Math 425 – Introduction to Probability. My Professor was a charming lady from India who spoke with an Indian accent that was still very much pronounced. She was always seen with her specs dangling from her hunched neck and her fingers white from the remnants of the chalks. Wrinkles permeate her forehead, they told tales of her age. She would allow me to sit next to her table as I worked through every problem in the book – EVERY PROBLEM – for three hours. When she had to attend meetings, she would say, “It’s ok. Stay. I’ll be back in a few hours.” And came back she did, helping me through all my math problems till the night beckoned. At the end of it all, when I finally nailed the last question at the very last required chapter, she gazed at me with those grandmother eyes and said with a smile:

“You are a good student.”

I scored an A+ in her class.

It took sometime for me to swallow the pride and backtrack to the roots of my strengths. I don’t like busy schedules for it robs me of my time to concentrate on what I think is important: people and relationships. This may not apply to everyone, but studying to me is more of a relationship between a professor and a learner, than those indiscernible crap loaded in the textbooks. I am not a very bright student [academically speaking]; I merely work harder than most of my peers. There is a passion that ignites in me when I feel that a professor is really invested in what I have to offer and by default, sees the best in me. From then on, studying will no longer be a chore but an enjoyable process of enquiry. And that was what I felt when I was in Oxford with Dr Addison teasing an answer from the cohort as opposed to feeding it to us. “You’ve got this in you. Just connect the dots!” I keep telling myself every time I left Dr Addison’s office feeling a little un-intelligent than what I thought I was.

I’ve got this in me.

The Low-Fat Ketupat Lifestyle – Complete ZEN. =P

My life isn’t measured by metrics, thus efficiency isn’t my credo. I like to take my own sweet time, doing things that I think are meaningful but also in a process that extracts the best out of me. I like to day dream; to stare at clouds and to think of the “NEXT BIG THING.” That was why I ran for head prefect anyway or the Malaysian Cultural Night Director here in Michigan. I saw a vision and I wanted to be that bridge that turns it into reality. An intellectually-charged conversation over steaming coffee is as meaningful to me as those A-pluses that I amassed, possibly even more.

I’ve been sitting in the car of life for far too long, forgetting to ask the driver to stop for me to enjoy the sceneries that zipped through. Finally I have. I’ve stopped and I saw what I was missing. And just when I thought I was alone, I came across an article about President Obama during his Columbia University years. He remembered it as years of reclusiveness. “I needed it.” he said. It was a stage of life where he simmered in this thoughts and brewed the ideas that shaped him in his Presidency.

So, after a midterm review, I’m turning this ship around and bringing it back home. In doing so, I would have to convince myself that dropping my environmental classes despite doing very well in them is in-sync with my broader aim of lightening my course load. As I’ve said, learning has always been a people process for me, and there shouldn’t be a reason why it should be any different now that I’m in my tertiary years. So, I can be sure of making my last few years here more people-centric. Emails would be sent to catch up with professors who have taught me some time ago – I sure hope these relationships last. =)

Just for your information, I took sometime writing this post. I allowed the thoughts to simmer for awhile, wondering if this is just another knee-jerk reaction of mine, where a cursor click on the ‘delete post’ button would have solved everything. As I was writing this, one potent memory came to mind. It was when Pn Yek, brought her former students from SMK SJ to my secondary school to tell us about what they thought about leadership and life. Cynthia, one of those charges, said: “In the end of the day, your life here in secondary school will not be about the As that you get or the medals that you keep. Instead, it is like a book and you walking through the pages as it flips. In the end, it will be about the foot prints that you leave behind.”

The footprints that I leave behind…

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