Snapshots of Life!

boo

Eek...i've lost my voice. :(

posted by Li'er @ 11:20 AM 1 comments  

saying goodbye

Graduation is in 3 days! I am getting really excited.

Yesterday Mingz and I went shopping for our graduation gown, tassles and cords. I actually got mine from another friend who was a commencement speaker last December, and realized her gown is designed a little different from the gowns we buy at the bookstore. Realized the gowns for the Masters students and PhD graduates are really beautiful. Oh well, gotta wait another 7 years before I can wear that.

My entire family is coming for my graduation (and while it won't be as fun as the ones in UK); though the truth is that I'm just excited to be going on a family trip after all the graduation madness.

It's at this point where I should also be saying goodbye to friends here....come to think of it...I've never been good with biding farewell to people. Most of the time I just leave without telling people...quiet exit without fanfare. I still remember 4 years back when we had just left high school and were preparing to leave for the various destinations around the world to further our education. The first to go were friends who would be pursuing their higher education in Australia. So in Febuary, the airport would be filled with teary parents and high school kids straining their necks outside the airport customs booth to say goodbye. After going through several rounds of what resembled the Mediacorp Channel 8 chinese drama serials (i grew up on those "poisonous" shows)....by the time it came to my turn to leave in July....I only told my closest friends I was going on a holiday (partial truth) and left Singapore without much fanfare.

So over the years...I've always sought to make saying goodbye a jolly event. I guess everyone is conditioned in a different manner....the girl who left a summer before me had cried buckets, and they probably expected the same of me. I must have struck them as odd because I was laughing and joking as I left. Do i miss them and think of them? OF COURSE!

And it's the same this time around....there are people I know I will want to stay in touch with for life....there isn't a specific geographic location I want to come back to since most of these friends won't be in Ann Arbor by the end of 2006 or in another 2 years. (Although I have to point out half the gang will be in Europe. Ahh...) No matter what, I am really excited for them because everyone has wonderful plans for the future.

So come Saturday....it'll be as always -- champagne in my right hand toasting to the future. Watch our world...here we all come!

posted by Li'er @ 3:12 AM 3 comments  

Yay to healthy living!

Moby (cat) seems especially whiny today....he's been running around my ankles everytime I head to the kitchen for a drink. I guess it's because he wants some serious cuddling since I used to do that every morning when i wake up. I let him sit in the balcony for a few hours today to soak up some sun -- the weather in Ann Arbor has been lovely.

Ooh! And I rescued my poor plant. It was placed indoors due to the winter months, and ended up growing at a 90 deg angle to get sunlight. I decided to correct its growing angle and placed it outdoors 2 days ago; am very pleased to note that it seems like it's changing the growth direction to normalcy. :)

I finally opened a box of clothing that I had put in storage for the last 8 months and discovered cute summer tops that I had. I didn't know I had so much clothing...heh...Definitely can use that for Malaysia since it's so warm there.

Maybe it's because of the warm weather, I actually went jogging today! Now the last time I really did serious exercising was playing squash 1.5 years ago...I kinda stopped counting the months when I passed the 1 year mark. then Wendy and Mingz have always been trying to get me off my ass to run if not hit the gym. But the TV or laptop would always prevail.... Anyway, I need to get my squash act together...I heard from Anne that the MindValley crew and some of the interns there are into squash. Wicked.

posted by Li'er @ 9:53 AM 5 comments  

Happiness....Sadness......2 sides of the same coin?

I once met a swammi (it's a title used to refer to a religious man) in India who told me a story of a man who was ordered by the King to find the one thing in the world that would make sad people happy and happy people sad. So this man set forth on a great journey which last many years...searching for that item or event that would have such an effect on a person. He finally returned to the King with his answer....

He told the King that he didn't find an item or an event that could acheive such an effect....what he found were 4 words, "This too shall pass". When said to a happy man, he would become sad knowing that his happiness would not be forever...but the same words said to a sad person would give him hope and make him happy because the suffering would be over.

So I sit and ponder about this statement...increasingly because life in the last 3 weeks has been pretty amazing, and I feel incredibly lucky that all these good things have been happening to me. What with the CSR conference being a success, having worked with an incredible group of people, hanging out with my friends, and well...despite the changes that are happening, reconnecting with them in some manner. The strange twist of events and cosmic forces that bring people together will also pull them apart.

So while I am happy now, I keep thinking of this line "this too shall pass". And it's a wierd sensation because I can see it coming, the sad part to the story. You know like in the movies when you are watching the show and you either know what is happening next or can predict the ending....I sometimes feel like I am a silent witness to the good and bad that happen -- like I can predict how things will end up eventually.

But it doesn't mean that just because the ending is a sad one that one should stop living. My roommate made a good point about life in that just because you know for certain you will die someday doesn't mean you stop living your life. And I could choose to have a dismal attitude knowing that in 3.5 weeks....I will probably be very sad, but I will choose not to.

:) I will think about what a blessing life has been, and how lucky I have been this semester. Look at the opportunities that have come my way, and the people I have gotten to know much better in the past few weeks. I might not have much time left here in the states, but I will try to live life and seize every waking moment of the day. So that I will not have regrets when it's my curtain call in May.

posted by Li'er @ 12:11 PM 4 comments  

my inner european..i was italian in my other life

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

posted by Li'er @ 1:13 AM 2 comments  

parents

Realized I hadn't called home (singapore where my parents are) in the last 2 weeks. Mom has sent me several emails about coming back to Singapore, and it occurs to me I need to talk to her about the fact that I WILL BE in Malaysia for the coming year.

I guess my parents aren't too hot with the idea that all 4 kids are leaving home (despite the fact that we are all over 18 and my eldest sister is already 28 this year).... Both my sisters are in UK (and asking me to work there) while my brother is off to the army for 2 years (clerical work because he couldn't complete his 2.4 km run *_*) and well, Im in KL.

I have mixed feelings because I am really excited about working at MindValley and the team seems awesome! At the same time, facing objections from my parents and well, not having their support makes it hard to be away. I guess I have to make good my promise of going back to visit them every 4 weeks.

posted by Li'er @ 4:23 AM 2 comments