if i give up on you, you will give up on yourself. i cannot give up and i will not.

Because I Fly

2009-04-14T01:23:00.002+08:00

Because I fly,
I laugh more than other men,
I look up and see more than they,
I know how the clouds feel,
What it's like to have the blue in my lap,
To look down on birds,
To feel freedom in a thing called the stick.

Who but I can slice between God's
Billowed legs, and feel then laugh
And crash with His step?
Who else has seen the unclimbed peaks?
The rainbow's secret?
The real reason birds sing?
Because I fly,I envy no man on earth.

Anonymous

The Parking Coupon

2009-04-11T01:29:00.003+08:00

10 Apr 2009 (Fri), 0020H, Pasir Ris Park Carpark 'F', Singapore

Yesterday evening after a six-hour BBQ with my secondary five students, I returned to my car to find a sheet of paper on my windscreen under my wiper. Nope, I didn't win the 4-D nor did anyone write a note complimenting my car about how awesome it looks. It was a parking ticket, better known in Singapore as a 'summons'.

Someone once told me that it's worth getting 'summoned' if we consider the number of times we didn't display parking coupons but didn't get caught. I agree this is true because in my nine months of owning a car and the countless times i've failed to display parking coupons, I've only been fined twice.

Number of hours car was parked without parking coupons = Countless
Number of times fined = twice
Total amount of fines = S$36
Amount saved = Countless

What puzzles me is this. Why are many of us willing to pay S$1 for a canned drink or a cup of coffee at the coffeeshop (Yes, prices of coffee are not immune to inflation, you know) but yet unwilling to spend the same S$1 and 30 seconds tearing five holes in a parking coupon?

The Who We Are Series

2009-04-09T00:44:00.002+08:00

I am the baby who was born at Mount Elizabeth Hospital on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen eighty seven at sixteen forty-nine hours.

I am the toddler my padiatrician said would one day become a President's scholar. I am still a scholar; just not a President's scholar but a Father-Mother Scholar.

I am the boy who ran into a pillar at the void deck of a HDB block because I was enjoying my game of chase too much. I suffered a ba-lu-ku (bump) on my forehead for the next few days, only to have my grandmother ask me in what a fusion of hokkien and english if I bat-jiu-ta-stamp (have a stamp over my eyes). Very consoling indeed.

I am the athletic teenager who was knocked down while playing basketball in school and suffered yet another ba-lu-ku and subsequently, a concussion. When I woke up the next day, I could not remember how I got home or why I could not remember anything, only to be rushed to hospital where a smart-ass young doctor told me I was having post-concussion amnesia. In layman's terms, that simply meant I was having a memory loss. As if I did not know that already.

I was the most frequent visitor to my secondary school discipline master's office, where he combed my hair until it looked like a curry-pok, where he pointed out all my flaws until I felt I was a barbie doll with loads of polka dots and where he gave me I-can't-remember-how-many three-hour one-to-one no-toilet sessions about Confusian ethics and moral values. Now, I thank him for building me into a morally upright young man and for helping me to have a stronger bladder.

It was me, all of it, walking past an injured pigeon one day before the GCE 'O' Level Chemistry practical paper and bringing it to the SPCA instead of studying. It was me who went bowling, pooling, and arcad-ing instead of studying for the History Elective paper the next day. It was the same me who entered Dunman High School with 261 points in the Primary School Leaving Examinations and leaving with a L1R5 of 15 points, a result my Chemistry teacher termed as "severe value deduction".

I was the flower heart who had crushes on you, you, you, you, you, and you. And oh, I think I had a crush on you once before too. Yes, you.

I was the casanova who had eleven girlfriends in four years of secondary school, just enough to form a soccer team with myself as the coach, assistant coach and ball-picker all rolled into one. I am the one who had the shortest relationship lasting three days, and the longest lasting one year and seven months.

I am the graduate of Catholic Junior College who left with an official record of being absent from school 23 times and being late 20 times in one year and eight months, not to mention the unrecorded times. I am the same ex-student who still owes the discipline master nine days of detention even though I have already graduated.

I am the examination candidate who sat for the GCE 'A' Level Literature paper without having read any of the six books in full but rather read their summaries online the night before. I am the same candidate who attempted in the same examination a context question on a book which the college had never taught and I had never heard or read in my life but scored a C grade. My Literature teacher called this an injustice. I think of it as risk-taking, a key trait to being a successful entrepreneur.

I am the child of God who stopped going to church immediately after confirmation yet prays every night. My prayers are particularly long the nights before major tests and examinations, and when I desperately need something done.

I am the boy-next-door who goes almost everywhere in a tee-shirt, jeans, and flip flops; the young and promising (just not in conventional ways) gentleman whom others stereotype as a bummer, a slacker, a buay-tak-che (cannot study); and someone who portrays the image of a beng without the dyed hair and the earholes.

I am still the joker who occasionally pushes when the sign says 'pull', the sceptical miscief who touches anything that is labelled "wet paint", only to exclaim "the paint is wet, la!" and the animal lover who picks up snails along pavements and puts them on the grass so that they will not be stepped on by people who are really bat-jiu-ta-stamp.

I am the young man you walked past once, but was just another face in the crowd.

Yeah, this is me. Who are you?

The Dangerous Driver, The I-Couldn't-Care Mindset and The Hospitalised Relative

2009-04-07T23:29:00.007+08:00

27 Aug 2006 (Sun), 1845H, Marine Parade Road, Singapore

I was in a taxi when I learnt one of life's greatest lessons from the cabby who shared with me about the simplicity of life and how it is essentially what we choose to make and think of it.

The cabby explained that events or incidents happen daily in our lives. By their factual nature, no emotions or feelings should be aroused in us. However, because we are human, opinions are formed, emotions and feelings are aroused, or conclusions are jumped to. He pointed out that often, humans appear to have an inclination towards perceiving events and incidents negatively.

As the cabby was sharing, another vehicle suddenly swerved into his lane dangerously without signalling. He used that as an example to illustrate the importance of thinking postively. the cabby shared that there were three ways one could perceive that action: first, the driver was being extremely dangerous and ought to be reported to the police, or in the case of certain verbal assault specialists, a string of vulgarities would follow; second, a I-really-couldn't-care-as-long-as-he-dosen't-knock-into-my-vehicle mindset; and third, the driver could have done so because a relative of his was hospitalised and he was rushing to visit that relative, possibly for the last time.

The cabby pointed out to me that in order to lead the life which I want - freedom, happiness, people-orientedness, the appreciation of the beauty of leading a simple life; I must be positive in my perceptions. Specifically, I must be truly thankful and appreciate what I have, rather than lamenting and questioning myself about what I must do to get what I do not have. This is not to say I must lack ambition. Rather, to be happy often simply means being content with what I have.

While that taxi ride to East Coast Park cost S$12, I learnt so much more in that twenty-odd minutes than I did for the (then) past 19 years of my life. As Mastercard says, there are some things money can't buy.

The lady, her toddler and a road divider

2009-04-07T23:11:00.004+08:00

06 Apr 2009 (Mon), 1720H, Tampines Street 11, Singapore

I was driving along Tampines Street 11 when a middle-aged lady and her toddler crossed the road suddenly from the divider. They were less than 40m away. I jammed the brakes, stopped my car and gave a (very friendly and long) honk. Instead of completing their cross, they stood in the middle of the road for two seconds, looked at me, then walked backwards towards the divider. I gave an amused and exasperated wave for them to complete their cross, to which they then walked forward again.

The lady's reaction got me thinking about human nature and comfort zones. When faced with unexpected situations which temporarily throw off our original goals, is it human instinct to return to where we began rather than persevering and completing what we set out to do? In the incident as stated above, why did she return to the divider rather than complete her cross?

In my work and service-learning experiences, I have had colleagues and volunteers who excelled under normal and planned conditions. However, when faced with unexpected situations, many were at a loss; and of these, most chose to give up and return to where they began i.e. their comfort zones. Is this human nature?

Food for Thought

2008-12-08T02:53:00.005+08:00

On Life's Purpose

"I hope that my achievements in life shall be these - that I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, and that I will have given help to those who were in need, that I will have left the earth a better place for what I've done and who I've been."
- C. Hoppe

On Achieving Life's Purpose

"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life. The life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph."
- Theodore Roosevelt

On Morality

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me."
- Immanuel Kant

On Resilience

The United States Navy was racially segregated in 1948 when Carl Brashear, an African-American, enlisted. Brashear endured many challenges, limitations, prejudice and tragedies to become the Navy’s first African-American master diver. While assigned on a mission in 1966, an accident occurred which resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee. The Navy attempted to retire him but Brashear set out to prove that he could still dive. Under the close observation of the Navy, he began training in diving school, passed all tests and continued his career. Brashear rose above harsh and humble beginnings to excel in the most extraordinary ways. He was living proof that in a world which can at times be uncompromising and unfair, persistence and resilience triumphs all.

On Education

This is an extract from the movie Accepted.

"You know what? You're a criminal. 'Cause you rob these kids of their creativity and their passion. That's the real crime! Well, what about you parents? Did -did the system really work out for you? Did it teach you to follow your heart, or to just play it safe, roll over? What about you guys? Did you always want to be school administrators? Dr. Alexander, was that your dream? Or maybe no, maybe you wanted to be a poet. Maybe you wanted to be a magician or an artist. Maybe you just wanted to travel the world. Look, I - I - I - I lied to you. I lied to all of you, and I'm sorry. Dad, especially to you. But out of that desperation, something happened that was so amazing. Life was full of possibilities. A - and isn't that what you ultimately want for us? As parents, I mean, is - is that, is possibilities. Well, we came here today to ask for your approval, and something just occurred to me. I don't give a shit. Who cares about your approval? We don't need your approval to tell us that what we did was real. 'Cause there are so few truths in this world, that when you see one, you just know it. And I know that it is a truth that real learning took place at South Harmon. Whether you like it or not, it did. 'Cause you don't need teachers or classrooms or - or fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with a desire to better themselves, and we got that by the shit at South Harmon. So you can go ahead, sign your forms, reject us and shoot us down, and do whatever you gotta do. It doesn't really matter at this point. Because we'll never stop learning, and we'll never stop growing, and we'll never forget the ideals what were instilled in us at our place. 'Cause we are SHIT heads now, and we'll be SHIT heads forever and nothing you say can do or stamp can take that away from us! So go!"

On Self-pity

"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself."
- D. H. Lawrence

SPLAT!

2008-11-01T16:32:00.004+08:00

SPLAT! is a public education, outreach and fundraising arts extravaganza to engage the public into accepting and offering second chances to youths-at-risk and ex-youth offenders while inspiring community action to support their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

Visit www.splattt.org now!