The year 2011 was very special because I came back with a fresh new perspective from India. I had the time of my life in NUS, having done modules which I love, and well, the grades aren't fantastic for MOE's standard, but we live on. 2011 was the first time I got called to a professor's office to be told I don't have to take life so hard upon my back. I don't need to carry people's burdens all the time.
2011 was significant because I lost my best friend. There's no way to get over it. If she were reading this, I would ask for another chance to atone for my sins face-to-face. But there isn't any chance to be given again.
2011 was the year I was first blacklisted on social media for writing a politically sensational issue. In fact, many. But the biggest was on the University Scholars Programme, and because I stood up for the lesser off people who had not $10,000 extra to spare to get into the scholars programme, I was slammed.
2011 was the year I thought I could get new best friends, but I can't. For many, friendship is about getting something in exchange for something else. Friendships without transactions don't last very long in university, from my own experience. They come and go like tides will never stay the same. And to my ex-bff who says that friends will be there for you always, truth is, they never are. No one will always, always be there for you. If you ever find a person like that, marry that person. He or she is probably god or god-sent.
2011 was the year I first moved into the campus. It was a roller coaster experience. From sneaking into B's room on weekends to staying with C because she knew I needed a place to study, to finally moving in and trying to avoid every single person in the block because I had earned some bad blood with them, was a mentally-challenging experience. But I live alright.
3.5 3.9 4.0 4.1
In 2011, I signed up as an intern for MOE, and I was chosen. I went teaching in a school near my house, and my, it was some kind of experience. I had a good time with my secondary two students whom I would never forget. The secondary threes are horrorful, to say the least. But I still was inspired by them because eventually I became their friends of sorts, when the most horrorful of all actually smiled at me and shook my hand after she won a costume contest. She's the type to scold strings of vulgarities without periods. And the other attention-seeking one told me his life story of how he got retained and his gang of bad influence left him behind. And because a million other reasons convinced me that the system had room for me... On a side note, in 2011 I've got the best students for tuition. They're from South Korea, and they show me a world so vast out there. I've learnt that Korean actually sounds like Chinese, how to make kimchi, how cosmetic surgery is a MUST in Korea. I just had to say this: In 2011, Kim Jong-Il died. And this: in 2011, the MRT in Singapore broke down and caused a big hooha in Singapore. In 2011, the General Elections of Singapore happened, and one GRC was lost to the opposition. In 2011, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong stepped down.
In 2011, I took on leadership role as a Youth Expedition Project Leader. I met a great bunch of really extraordinary people (from the good sense to the alien sense). I met the most extraordinary of leader, Mr Tan YH, who's all that I am not. So we were complementary in most sense. And for those who wonders whether there was any spark between him and I, NO, there wasn't. The first reason is obvious: he isn't my type, and neither am I his. The second reason is a better one: I found a more wonderful guy. In fact, to be honest, that's the most wonderful thing that happened to me in 2011.
It's been 9 full months of the same person. I've settled down, in that sense. He's most ordinary, and that's what makes him extraordinary. I don't know what I can say of him except that at this point in time, I feel that I've found THE person I could spend my life with. Honeymoon days never seem to end with him, sorrows never seem to last with him around. He was too cool and blur to have caught any of my hints. He asked if he could date me. I said yes to him because he wasn't nasty. I later found out he's better than my checklist. I chucked that sometime ago. I probably had the best times of my life in Singapore with him.
