Can't help but think that I'm spending my precious free time wrongly. Time to focus on my priorities, not be distracted and utilise it better.

I think one of the most applicable things being in the army teaches you is to really treasure time you have to yourself. Time is passing so quickly as I catch a breather at home. sigh.

Finally declined the offers from Berkeley and UCLA. It's kinda weird for me to click those buttons on the screens, because questions like "what if I enrolled?" kept popping up in my mind. Guess I'm just not fated to go to those unis. 

Things are going slightly than I expected just over a year ago. Fretting over As, unis, SATs, internships, interviews and all that other stuff seem so distant now. I think luck plays a huge role in this is so called success, but I believe learning from my failures was more important.

I guess jc life wasn't as smooth sailing as in secondary school, and I had my fair share of disappointments. It's quite crushing when you see yourself doing such a bad job and you feel so helpless because you don't know how to improve. I guess that's why people feel sad (if not for me at least). The sadness does not come from the outcome, but from not knowing why it happened when you think you have done your best.

But that's just part of the learning process in life. It is this sadness that makes us keep trying, or crush us badly until we eventually get back up. It is because of this that I kept reflecting on my own actions, and asked others on how to improve. Most advice I received was utter rubbish, but separating the chaff from the wheat is another life skill I needed to hone anyway I guess. 

Life is a marathon, you may start off earlier, or at a faster pace, but ultimately where you end up depends on how long you want to keep running. So is the key to keep running, even when your running technique is not optimum, or to continuously search for the best method of running, even if it slows you down in the short term, so that you have chance of ending up further away from the start point in the end? I don't know. I'm just 19. Guess I will just keep running at my own pace, and stick to my own goals and principles, and not care about what others do, whether they are overtaking me or not, for they do not and will not affect how I live my life.

Except in army though. For it is a desolate place that takes away freedom from people at the prime of their lives, who could be out there in the world doing so much more.

So postings were out a few days ago, and as with everything else, some people are sad because of their fate, and others elated. It's such an arbitrary thing really, something most of us have little control of, given the multitude of factors in play. Yet people still blame themselves (and others) when things do not go their way.

It's always slightly heartbreaking for me when friends tell me they are sad about what happened. I feel helpless. I have little clue on how to help them, for I am a mere naive 19 year old. In the end, it's always the same few clichéd words or phrases that get repeated. I don't know if I'm really helping them, or even consoling them. 

Ah well. Sometimes we shouldn't take it so hard on ourselves when things don't go our way. But maybe I'm too accustomed to personal success (I think I've had my fair share over the years) that I do not know the full repercussions of that mindset.

In the end, I am personally happy with my posting. Other may not be, my dad included, but it doesn't matter I guess. It's not like I live to please others anyway. I just need to live up to my own expectations, and that's good enough for me.

How can you see the big picture if you aren't even part of it?

Incoherent, random thoughts

Don't know why I'm starting to worry about the future of Singapore, and of the world. The writings of people who worry or worried more than me about what will happen in the future is affecting me I guess. Isn't it naive to believe that the financial system, which currently runs on "trust" in governments, and creates wealth through speculation will continue as per normal in the foreseeable future?


It has been said that being a progressive is always the way to go. A conservative is one who attempts to safeguard tenets of society that one deems relevant, but those which progressives what to change or in their words, improve.


But how much can one do if the dominant governing principles of the current state of civilisation are about to be changed? Am I to stand aside and observe the collapse, or try to safeguard where I come from, or embrace the change and try to lead the path into the unknown?


I believe I am a reformist, someone who believes that constant change is beneficial to society and must be encouraged, whether top down or bottom up or both. Yet being one scares me now. The magnitude of the current situation is being overshadowed by too many petty concerns, mine included.


Even if I do try to enter policy work, is this something I will be able to change? Or will be subsumed into the "elite" of society, and forget the concerns in my mind now and focus on the more minor issues? Is there even any point in me worrying? Aren't individuals powerless in the face of "historical forces", as analysed by certain schools of history?


The end of the arc of capitalism, the state of the environment... I don't know. This is too much for a naive 19 year old to understand.


'No need to rush; the end of the world is only the end of the world as you know it.' - Mark Strand


Time to prepare for a new world, I guess. Don't know if others, or I, will be ready enough for it though.

BMT is almost over. Nothing much to say about it really, other than that I met a bunch of really awesome people and got to do many things I never thought I would (e.g. shouting rather funnily during bcct). Everything has a closure, as my dad always says, and BMT is no exception.

 In the next few weeks, what I decide to do will determine how I spend the rest of my life. Haiz. Why must I decide on my future at such a young age? I guess having a choice is not a bad thing, but how to make the right choice is a different matter altogether.

As usual I'm not being very coherent with my thoughts. I think I need some downtime to myself to reflect, but army isn't really the ideal place for that.

Oh well. Life goes on, whether or not you are living it to the fullest.

I still don't get why people don't believe I learnt how to whistle by mimicking birds when I was bored.