Template

You know, I've really come to like this template more and more. It's sufficiently dark and depressing without losing that night feel, implying a sense of danger and the Gothic.

That's me. I read too much into things.

Week 3

It's the 3rd week already. Everything is settling down, even the hated weekly presentations. An irritating itch at the side of the body, but an itch nonetheless. That, hopefully, will leave me some time to have a life, but God knows what I'll do if I have free time...

The Last Holiday

School will start tomorrow, on a Monday. To many people this would be common, after all, Monday is the start of a work week, people return to work or school after a day and a half (now 2) of rest and relaxation. Not for me. This is due to my schedule more than anything else. I usually don't have classes on Mondays, so this will be a change. I'll be--so-called--returning to normal.

Anyways, school will be starting tomorrow. It will be my final semester, which means that this will be my final school holiday. I will feel something at the end of hols and the beginning of sem, but somehow this time it's greater. It feels really like a sea-change. maybe because too many things have happened, or maybe I've reached another phase of my life. It's amazing that I'm still talking about school holidays at my age. I don't know whether I should be proud or ashamed that I'm still in school at this age. Maybe I'm an MCP, maybe I still believe in the old values that a guy should shoulder the responsibilities of being a breadwinner as soon as he's capable, and not dabbling in "frivolous pastimes" like doing an arts course in university while already in his twenties.

I feel old.

Anyways, back to whatever I was talking about. The thing about the transition between hols and school. There appears to be always this agreement within oneself that whatever happened during the hols remains there, and when school starts everything should revolve around schoolwork. What if I don't see the difference between one stage and another? What if there is something lingering that is threatening to spill over? What happens then? Is this what they call starting school blues? Wow, took me that long to get it, huh? What a dud.

There you have it. An old dud who's feeling old.

I love the Gipsy Kings. I just love 'em.

JF

Amazingly bumped into JF yesterday in the school Mac. (Don't ask me why I was in school. A million and one reasons) Almost couldn't recognise him. He had ballooned so much. So different from the JF that I used to know. He was with his lady friend, and was walking with the help of a crutch. He had just met with a traffic accident, and it cost him months to heal. He had signed on earlier as a combat officer, and now the accident is affecting his career.

I remember him many years ago back in secondary school. He was one of the guys I really respected. He was a Scout, and basically knew everything that has to do about campcraft and outdoor survival. He was lean, fit and the envy of the guys. He could do anything. Also, he was humble, a nice guy.

But what a hand fate has dealt him! He has to be made a Service or Engineering officer now after the accident. The bonds he had made during the hols before now count for nothing. Conversely me, a less-than-average joe, having drifted through secondary school and then JC, and then army, followed by uni. I have no outstanding achievements outside academics, and even there I wasn't anywhere excellent. The riskiest thing I had ever done was to decide to join the JC sailing team, and even in that I failed. I dropped out after the first year. Yet here I am, safe and sound, no big injury to me.

I wonder if it's destined. That one should proceed with life at a certain speed. If you drive too fast in the beginning, you are bound to slow down later in your life, while if you maintain a comfortable pace all your life, you are likely to reach the end safe and sound. Hence does life reward the mundane, the common, the masses, with nothing to distinguish one from the other? Should it be that way?

"I'd rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special..."
--Steel Magnolias (1989)