I had started to write this article many weeks ago, but I put it aside after only writing two paragraphs. But today, a very close friend asked me the question "What does life mean to you now?" got me thinking again. What do I really see in life? Actually, life has already given me practically everything that I could ever ask from it.
I have reached the twenty-second year of my life. And yet, I have not really stopped and think back of what I have been through my life before until recently. My twenty-two years old journey through life has been a very colourful one. There were many downs, but there were definitely way more ups compared to the downs.
Fate has been very kind to me for giving me a very good family to begin with. I have a wonderful set of parents who really love me and would always ensure that I get the very best in life. Greatest love in the world, wonderful upbringing (very good moral values to begin life with), a harmonious home, good education, very beautiful house to live in, and even some siblings to play with and fight with. There's a lot more that I can be thankful about with my parents, but too much to write here.
Moving on to my siblings. My sister, there's really nothing more that I could want from an elder sister. She loves me more than any person could love her sister. I can always count on her for help in practically everything under the sky, from fashion to all the way to studies. As for my brother, well, he's the usual kind of little brother that we all seem to already know, as naughty as a monkey. But, he's my little brother all the same. There are many times when he actually showed that he cared. It's just that a guy being a guy, he won't show much.
Next is my late grandfather. A great man he was. He was actually the very strong Elephant glue that keeps our extended family together because he was the eldest brother in his family. So during the festive seasons, the rest of the big family would come to our house, mainly just to visit him, and our home became the centre meeting point for everyone. He loves all of us dearly. When my siblings and I were young, he would always cook for us because my parents would be out working. So grandfather took care of all three of us practically all the time. He would make sure that we have everything that we want. He would make sure we have our pocket money when we go to school. Everything, he would take care of to ensure that we'll be alright. So when he passed away, I wrote him a poem. I've posted the poem in this blog also, search for the title "Memory".
The rest of my extended family is just too much to talk about. Some that deserve at least a mention here would be my youngest granduncle and his whole family, and the late fifth granduncle and his whole family too. The rest, I'm not as close to them as I would like. Except perhaps one of the son's family of the fourth granduncle and one daughter's family of the second granduncle. I think I better stop here as it is getting real messy.
Now, coming to the biggest group of people in my life. My friends. I think here I better only give mention to the very very closest of close friends. I'll start with my hometown friends. The most important that I still keep contact with would be my primary school friends. Ng, Stef, and Sofia. We have been friends since primary school. Everything that I forget about my childhood, they'll help to remind me, especially of the fond memories we had together in school, both primary and secondary. In secondary school, I guess I didn't mix as much with people of my secondary school as much. Yi Won, Ju Anne, Terri, Liak Shern, Ben...these are among some that comes into mind when I think of my secondary school, and these are people whom I still have contact with. For those that I may miss out, they wouldn't know anyway for this blog is not really followed by my hometown friends.
Moving on to my matriculation friends. Those that I grew very close to in matrics is Chen Giap, Mei Kian and Candy. I think I can stop my list here for the others I did not even contact already nowadays. Chen Giap is my practicum leader and I'm his helper. We're still in contact now, mainly because we got in to the same university. Oh ya, forgot to mention, Wei De and Wai Fun are also friends from matrics. These two was once my emotional support, because Wai Fun understand me more than I sometimes understand myself while Wei De understands how the universe works.
Then in my university years, three years into a four-year course now, I would call this the most challenging times of my life so far. I wonder how much worse it would be when I go to work after I graduate in a year's time. I acquired a few more precious friends such as Mian Yi, Ashley, the choir gang, and most recently, Casper (from a Buddhist camp).
I'm not sure why, but Mian Yi and I didn't really get to know each other in matrics, but only found our friendship during university years. I guess it started from the orientation choir practices. We both worked out a song for the choir team to sing for orientation choir competition together. And from then onwards we were rather close friends.
As for Ash, I think I should have known her during CC interaction week, but I can't remember anything from there. My memory of her only starts in choir practices. (Sorry, girl, for that lack of memory capacity of my brain). We shared many happy memories in and out of choir together. Roommates for almost one year. And we sometimes still sing together when we have the time to do so.
Lately, Casper, who has now become my adopted twin brother for the many similar traits we found in each other. He's also one of my current emotional support together with Ash.
I guess from here, anyone would have been able to see how blessed my life truly is. So where does all these brings me to? Back to the question posted by Ash. What does life mean to me now? Well, my dear friend and adopted sister, the answer is, I already feel very blessed and there is nothing more I could ever ask from life. There may be some unhappy times and upsetting times in my life, when things don't seem to go my way. But we will never know what life has to offer next. Perhaps the things may not go our now, but it could be that life is arranging something good for us after that. So for me, I would just have to learn to bear with the problems life gives us and at the same time remember to appreciate what life has already given me. Things may change, people may change. But then again, better things and people may come. Life goes on no matter what. Just bear with it, come what may and enjoy while we still can.
Quote from an article I've once read:
Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is mystery,
Today is a gift,
That is why it is called the present!
