Thursday, August 09, 2007
As you guys can see, to mark the beginning of a new stage in my academic career, I have created a new blog layout featuring (who else?) my all-time fav guitarist kaoru-sama from Diru. This is my first CG artwork, coloured using Corel Painter. I know it's pretty badly drawn but I really haven't had the time this summer vacation to polish my manga drawing skills... >___<
I've also committed the same mistake as PY and have lost all of my blog links when changing the layout. With the help of my sis who actually reads your blogs (ahem), I have linked those blogs with URL addresses I could remember. So for those of you whose blogs I have not linked, please do tell me your blog address again. And for those of you who read my blog in secret or otherwise and have a blog that you have not told me about, I would greatly appreciate it if you could send me your address too =)
So... school starts again on Mon (also Shirley's 22nd birthday!) and to borrow the words of a certain prof, hey presto, I'm already in my Hons year. I know it's a huge cliche but time really does fly, winged chariot and all. Obviously we don't live in a Beckettian world.
Before I go on, I would like to take stock of what has happened over the past 3 years of my life in NUS. Even though I've always felt at the beginning of each academic year that I didn't feel any different when I made the transition from one year to the next, taking a wider view of the three years spent, I think I have changed considerably. Dr Y was right; I am not the same Lit student as I was in the past. I've challenged myself to read books I would not have dared to touch before, I've been introduced to the fascinating world of crit theory, I've changed my style of writing, I've changed many of my views on life and the world. I cringe with embarrassment when I read my old essays.
NUS has become a second home to me. It now seems like the most natural thing in the world to plonk myself into that seat in that part of the Central Library (I'm not going to specify because most of the time I like to be alone and anonymous and in silence when communing with great writers and thinkers) to study for a few hours before and after lessons. I flow effortlessly from LT to Arts Canteen to the Co-op to the YIH Students' Lounge. I figured I was getting really attached (perhaps too attached) to school when my first thought upon hearing that my house was going to undergo some renovation during the vacation was to escape to the library to study... =___=;
But of course I've not developed only intellectually over the past 3 years. I'm very happy to have met Diana and Minwei, who, together with PY, make a great Gang of Four to hang out with, talk Lit (and rubbish) and complain about the endless pile of readings we have to do every week. And of course, indulge in plenty of insider jokes about spaghetti and chicken wings and savouring the delicious irony. XD
I'm glad to have met many other interesting people in class, and I hope to get to know them even better over the course of this year. I've also been very lucky to have met great seniors who are always willing to lend a helping hand and whose support has pulled me through tough times (even though they get knocked out after drinking too much coffee and hide behind pillars in class...).
And I can't possibly forget the time spent with the NUS Anime Club. One gruelling year of being the chairperson is finally over (well, almost, until the AGM 2 weeks from now) and I still can't quite believe it. Not that I'm power-hungry; I'm still amazed that I actually made it through with relatively few hiccups. Ok, yeah, Graphite 2007 was not a big success but at least we managed to get it off the floor, thanks to ZR whose commitment to Graphite convinced me not to axe the competition when things seemed bleakest. And over three years of loooong meetings and rushing to meet deadlines and putting in extra hours at the last minute at booths and bazaars, I've forged priceless friendships with a great bunch of wacky people who understand my lingo, who share my passion with all its attendant perversions, who aren't afraid of being who they are in the face of the harsh stares of mainstream society.
Going on to Hons year means that three years of intense, active participation in the club are coming to an end. I felt a tinge of sadness mixed with amazement, pride and relief when I was writing the Chairperson's Report for the AGM - such a note of finality. However, this doesn't mean I will be cutting myself off from the club for ever from now on. Together with the other final-year committee members, I've become a "tai si lao" and will continue to give advice and guidance to the new committee taking over. And I still hope to be invited to Anime Club chalets with malfunctioning steamboat appliances and taupok-overloads for many years to come ;)
All this talk about endings has made me feel a little gloomy. But this is also a beginning, a door to many unexplored possibilities that await me. I want to live life in NUS to the fullest (for it may be my last) and to make a success out of my Hons year. I want to grow into a more capable, independent person, with the intellectual maturity and wisdom of an adult but also retaining the heartfelt simplicity and wonder of a child, so that I will be ready to take the plunge in a year's time. I will achieve what I set out to achieve, and I'm not going to allow anything to stand in my way. So here's to a new year ahead!
kaoru said at 7:22 PM
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