there was a beginning, there is an end and surely, there's another beginning

Started off sweetly, routineness set in and lots of bitterness and misunderstandings at the end. Shake, not stirred and truly... on the rocks.

21 March 1981 - 30 June 2006

random musing

Back from Thailand with a deflated wallet. Tailored a few shirts there and ate my way to poverty over there. Really appreciate the nice distinctive white lines on Singapore roads after spending about a week in Thailand where the vehicle owners make the traffic rules. Not much photos to offer due to the extremely shy nature of my fellow travelers. Will post any interesting photos up in due course.

Checked my examination results. The overall grading was above my expectation when I first stepped into NTU. However, from the tone of my language thus far, the euphoria had waned and a bigger realization had set in – So what? So what if I had gotten a first class? People with similar grades or lower than mine are going places far better than I am going to. (I surmised that a disclaimer is required here: I do not dislike auditing work. Not at all.) Out of the people whom I reckoned received first class, I can only recall one person going to an auditing firm while the rest will be going to banks and big name institutions and that person is going to an auditing firm because she had a bond with the company (ie. no choice). This means that none of my peers who received the same grade as me is going to an audit firm voluntarily. Just make me kind of depressed. As usual, the only grouse that I have is that the starting salary of an audit job is way too low. In a year’s time, most of my friends will have a net worth double of mine (assuming everybody’s net worth is 0 at graduation). This brings me to my original question: So what? I have a paper qualification advantage over some of my peers but this is translated to nothing in real life.

While I appreciate very very much the congratulations for my academic achievements, I felt that it was a hollow victory. I do not need a first class to get into an auditing job: a bare minimum of pass will do the job nicely. A question of over-kill? A purely rhetoric question.

By being in a job that “waste my talent/grade” (quoted), I do not know whether this initial handicap is a good thing or not but it really fired me up. I know I have to work doubly hard to overcome the perceived handicap, to catch up with my peers who gained entrance into mega name companies the moment they graduate and to catch up with my peers who had at least a 3 to 4 years head start in terms of absolute monthly salary and perhaps 5 to 6 years in terms of accumulative salary.

This race is unlike what I have gone through or witnessed over my 24 years of existence. But chase I will, for in a hunt, the thrill is in the pursuit. The target that I am running to is an ever-moving one. I might not win the race, or the race might even be left uncompleted but I do hope I can find similarly-minded friends and colleagues who will run along with me along the way.

And so it is...

And so it is…

The long awaited overseas trip is here! Will be away to Bangkok/Pattaya from 6th June to 12th June. Shopping, food and beach galore!! Though my convocation trip destination is somewhat nearer to Singapore compared to most of my richer/deeper pocket/luckier counterparts, I don’t care because the beggar cannot choose. Haha…Chicken Little, his soon-to-be-wife, me and Dap will be going on this trip together.

And so it is…

The long awaited (not really) examination results are RUMOURED to be out on 6th June. Haiz… What will my results be like? Will I still be in the List? Uncertainties, fear, nervousness all mixed in a huge pot. Given the fact that my aspiration was a Second Class Upper when I enrolled into University, I should be satisfied that I can hit that target. Perhaps I should.

And so it is…

My lunch is calling for me. Will blog more and hopefully post some pictures up when I am back on the 12th. Hee… 12th June SOUNDS like a auspicious date. Hee… Hee…

Memories - a fragile thing

In school now cause need to format my laptop as well as floorball training later and guess who I saw… Xueren, DL, Yandao Goh and Yunru!!! Wah lau… Plan for convo trip come school plan, other students doing projects leh. Hehe... What an evil idea, must be xueren’s idea.

Don’t know what’s wrong with Ivan and I guess he will not divulge whatever had happened to him. No matter what, optimism and faith wins cynicism anytime. The world might seem bleak but if one does not master the bleakness and search for the silver lining, he/she will only be consumed by the darkness. I do not know what is worse: a bleak world full of enemies or a bleak world with pockets of friends. Just my 1 cent’s worth. Might not be correct. I’m seldom correct anyway.

Met up with Alvin Chan and Ivan Tan yesterday for a game of badminton at Bishan. Can say that they are the remnants of my JC class who still keep in touch. Nothing has changed much. The short one remained short, the fat one remained fat. =P Went back to NJC with Alvin after the game for lunch. Nostalgic swept over me as his car entered the NJC compound. The parade square is still there, the container where I had my maths class is still there, the canteen dessert stall aunty is still there… Ah… The days when I was back as an NJC student.

JC1 was a flop for me. Out of 4 subjects, I failed 2 at the end of the year and was forced to drop Further Maths. That episode was really the pit for my academic journey. The saving grace was that I discovered Hockey and it transformed me from a flabby boy to a trim and tanned boy. Haha… The days of “poning” school, playing cards in school compound, evading discipline master. Haha… Days which went by and left unappreciated then came flooding back.

So.

Treasure the memories. As we aged and grow, some of these memories can only fade away and be forgotten. So let’s enjoy those memories while we still remember them.