Monday, January 14, 2008
Today was the first day of my last semester in NUS. And something not very nice happened to me first thing in the morning in class today, but I'm not going to discuss that here.
After a whole month of staying at home and talking mostly to my sister only, it was quite a relief to be able to see so many familiar faces and to talk to people other than my sister again (not that I don't like talking to my sister - there are some things that can only be said to her - but I believe one needs to have relationships with a variety of people in order to be 'enriched' as a person). I had lunch with PY, Minwei, Marianne and May (so many Ms...), and after they left for the Utopias and Dystopias seminar, I met Wanching outside the library. When I was inside the library, I met Edwina and we talked for one whole hour!! And when I was at the bus-stop waiting for the 96 in the evening, an old secondary school friend came up to me to say 'hi', and as I was getting onto the bus, I met Brandon walking towards the bus-stop.
I've not talked so much in one day for a long time. I guess meeting my friends again made me realize how much I like being around them and talking to them, despite my love of silence and solitude. I'm beginning to really appreciate the irresolvable tension the Woolf novels consistently posit between society and solitude- perhaps all of us as individuals are always trying to achieve a balance between the need for personal, private space with the need to reach out and communicate with others.
kaoru said at 4:10 AM
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