Long overdue post. In 8 days I will be flying off to New York City, the first time I'll be away from home for such a long time, and all alone might I add. I was surfing Facebook when I somehow came upon old photos (relatively speaking since FB is a pretty recent thing). The oldest photos were from 2008 which was just before I entered SMU. When I look back, so much has happened...
The first picture I have on FB is, very aptly, of TheSoup at Kenny and Brent's OCS Commissioning Parade. I would say I'm really glad to have gone to NJC (and SJI of course) just so I could've met all of them. Cause after that was a whole barrage of 21st birthdays and Soup Chalets. 3 consecutive years of Soup Chalets despite going from bummers to university students to interns and still spending hours in a chalet and renting a van to travel. You know how they always say friends come and go. Well, I've sometimes fearfully asked myself where we will be in 10 years but perhaps, maybe, we will defy the odds. :)
Then of course, there was the whole SMU life. Orientation camps, joining E.y.E, mugging, interning, thinking that love was in the air only to have it smashed against the rocks. Yeah sounds like what university life's about. From being a freshie and getting horrendously dirty at Campus Green, to being a faci and still getting horrendously dirty at Campus Green, to seeing your freshies become facis and (I assume) getting horrendously dirty at Campus Green. Once again, I'm glad I came to SMU despite the apparent lack of space and competitive nature.
Anyhow, managed to get an exchange scholarship and clinch an award this year which really means a lot to me :) JC was probably the low point of my academic pursuit. I probably didn't figure out how much effort I had to put in to get the kind of results that I wanted and I probably didn't put enough emphasis on it either. And well, never in my life have I topped something so this is some pretty decent affirmation. And another myth which I would like to dispell although I think it doesn't apply to anyone who will come across this anymore - Double degrees are useless if you know what you want to do in the future. The whole two is better than one is pointless unless you are looking for breadth to give you a bit more leeway after you graduate.
What you do and how much you get out of something really depends on what you make out of it although the environment and culture probably has quite an impact. I'll always remember the late nights in SMU, hanging out at ICB, being in the library every day during study break. There's still more to come, but for the next 5 months, it's off to the US for an adventure like never before.
With my backpack and my camera and me.
The first picture I have on FB is, very aptly, of TheSoup at Kenny and Brent's OCS Commissioning Parade. I would say I'm really glad to have gone to NJC (and SJI of course) just so I could've met all of them. Cause after that was a whole barrage of 21st birthdays and Soup Chalets. 3 consecutive years of Soup Chalets despite going from bummers to university students to interns and still spending hours in a chalet and renting a van to travel. You know how they always say friends come and go. Well, I've sometimes fearfully asked myself where we will be in 10 years but perhaps, maybe, we will defy the odds. :)
Then of course, there was the whole SMU life. Orientation camps, joining E.y.E, mugging, interning, thinking that love was in the air only to have it smashed against the rocks. Yeah sounds like what university life's about. From being a freshie and getting horrendously dirty at Campus Green, to being a faci and still getting horrendously dirty at Campus Green, to seeing your freshies become facis and (I assume) getting horrendously dirty at Campus Green. Once again, I'm glad I came to SMU despite the apparent lack of space and competitive nature.
Anyhow, managed to get an exchange scholarship and clinch an award this year which really means a lot to me :) JC was probably the low point of my academic pursuit. I probably didn't figure out how much effort I had to put in to get the kind of results that I wanted and I probably didn't put enough emphasis on it either. And well, never in my life have I topped something so this is some pretty decent affirmation. And another myth which I would like to dispell although I think it doesn't apply to anyone who will come across this anymore - Double degrees are useless if you know what you want to do in the future. The whole two is better than one is pointless unless you are looking for breadth to give you a bit more leeway after you graduate.
What you do and how much you get out of something really depends on what you make out of it although the environment and culture probably has quite an impact. I'll always remember the late nights in SMU, hanging out at ICB, being in the library every day during study break. There's still more to come, but for the next 5 months, it's off to the US for an adventure like never before.
With my backpack and my camera and me.