It's not broken, just dented. I believe that after the dust settles following any bumps in life, I will say "It's not broken, just dented'.

*note -  updated 10th October*

Belinda -  I saw ur mysterious ‘love’ post on tumblr c. 

Me -  Huh? What love post? OHMYGAWD I thought that was in ‘draft mode’!!!

Sorry sorry. I wanted to write a post on this topic, but I got too lazy. It wasn’t meant to be mysterious at all. It’s just a by product of laziness.

Next weekend ok?

HELLO PEOPLE I AM BACK IN THE WORLD OF TUMBLR!

After much soul searching, I finallllly remembered what my user name was for my Tumblr account. Before you can say ’ yeah, you forgot cos you seldom update your blog!’, please let me explain.

Usually, I set my computer to remember my tumblr account and passworld so I have not actually typed my user name and password for ages. But my poor old computer has died bringing my user name with it. So I can’t blog, when I can’t even sign in can I?

By some strange random luck, I remembered my user name today

So here I am, back again.

I’ve had a few more dents, but still nothing broken.One dent would include my suspicion that I actually need glasses…

Sometimes I forget things. But when it comes to glasses, I deliberately close my eyes.

I have perfectly perfect eyesight.

It’s been 6 years since I went to school, on a regular school day.

Some things have changed-the teachers are greyer, there are projectors in the classrooms now, and the biggest change -I’m not a student there anymore.

Some things have not changed- the teachers are greyer, but I hear they are the same in class- one teacher still swings into a new class on the first day of school with the greeting “Okay buka muka surat 7 dan salin contoh ini” and PJ teacher is still the ‘steadiest’ teacher, as he charms another generation of boys with his ready jokes.

Some things have not changed- the classrooms still run on good old chalk dust, as we heard the projectors, as impressive as they look do not work.

Some things have not changed- I still feel like a student there, it’s hard to believe I’m going to be 23 this year. I think, in Form 5 my friends and I were thought 23 is a ripe old age-the age when you would have done things, and tentatively but surely set foot on your chosen path in life. Our conversations would have probably sounded something like “waah 20 something already we’d be working by then man” ” Hey who do you think will get married first?” ” Eh if I die because of the stupid SPM, I want 99 white roses for my funeral okay. I don’t care how much it cost, you better buy for me.” ” Eh once we are 20 something we go for a holiday togetherlah. Somewhere overseas lah”.

At 23, I’m afraid I’ve only just graduated ( I haven’t even had my ceremony yet!) so that means, no job yet.

At 23, none of us have gotten married yet. A few have gone through a bout with the four letter word-love. Some came out abit tattered, some came out glowing. Some left before the bout even began. But we are all still here, at 23.

At 23, we’ve never had to fulfill the old high school pledge of 99 white roses. We have that to be thankful for.

At 23, we think back about our ‘overseas holiday’ plan, and we think about our finances, or lack of finances and we shrug. We shrug and say “25 lah. When we are  25 we would have worked for a couple of years, then we can go for a holiday. We start with an ASEAN country firstlah.” So we have learned some wisdom- taking old dreams and not discarding them, but trimming them, and making it fit and putting it back on the mantlepiece where it will wait patiently.

We look back, and we laugh. After all, at 23 we are all still here. All still students, and all still friends.

Now, at 30….

Today’s funny lines are brought to you by, Daphne Lim!

Situation #1:

We were looking around at hairbands and hairclips, when we noticed the current trend of having feathers in your hair accessories.

Me: hahaha Daph, please please use this *pointing to an especially befeathered hairband*

Daph: wahh cannotlah, wait people allergic die.

Me: Oh are u allergic to feathers?

Daph: No, I’m allergic to style.

Situation #2

We were at Hutan Rekriasi, and we reached one of the new equipments. It’s like those skiing machines, where u stand on it and move your legs back and forth like you were walking.

Daphne gets on the machine.

Me: Hey the signs says ‘dilarang menghayunkan kedua-dua kaki pada masa yang sama/ It’s strictly forbidden to swing both legs back and forth simultaneously.

Daphne: Oooh okay I;ll do that, swing swing! * Daphne’s swings both legs back and forth simultaneously*

Me: Hey, you’re a rebel! You’re going against the rules!

Daphne: No, I’m not a rebel, I’m just too stupid to understand the rules.

As the year draws to a close, one chapter of my life is closed as well. I have graduated from Monash University, with a Bachelor of Arts double majoring in Writing and International Studies. I have let down some tiny roots in KL, and I don’t want to pull them out- I can have tendrils of affection taking root in both Malacca and KL. In the words of the Mother Superior in The Sound of Music , just because you love something new, doesn’t mean you love your old one any less

The lesson that seems particularly poignant at the close of my University chapter is -I have learned that if you are superior/higher in the hierarchy to someone, it doesn’t mean you cannot apologise.

I admire my lecturer who caught up with my friend and I after class and apologized for being too hard on us. What happened was we misunderstood her instructions and made a (potentially fatal, seriously fatal I kid you not) mistake for our assignment, and she gave us a very through talking to the day before. We left the room feeling down and well, like the bottom feeder of the Monash academic pond.

But the next time we had class, she apologized handsomely after class and I was gratified, because she didn’t have to do it. She was our lecturer and we did make a mistake. At most I hoped for was for her to pass my assignment, at worst I thought she might mention our mistake in class. So I have learned that I can still apologise even when I’m waaay up high, because although it may mean nothing to me when I’m waayyy up high to say sorry to someone at the bottom rung, but it means a lot to the person at the bottom rung who is probably discouraged as hell as it is, being at the bottom.

The usage of ‘when’ instead of ‘if’ is deliberate. There is no ifs about it, I’m shooting my arrow UP.

So and the close of the year, here are some of my wishes to everyone

3) I hope you will always be happy with yourself. That your sense of self worth isn’t the mercy of anyone else’s whims and fancies. If anyone tries to mess with your self worth, punch em in the nose like how Hermione punched Malfoy.

2) In love, I hope you will find someone whose company you enjoy. I have learned from my parents that it is important find a person who you can sit in the car with while running mindless errands, just enjoying each other’s company. From talking about that jerk at work, to joking about your stocks in Vegas while pretending your two children in the front seats are your drivers and asking them to ‘wind up the car partition’ so that they won’t eaves drop on ‘your Vegas business plans’, I hope you find someone who’s conversation will always be worth listening to.

1)      I hope no matter where in life, you will always be surrounded by friends and family that you love to pull you through the hard times, and for you to share your money with when you finally make it. Because to me, money is just money. It’s sharing it with people you love that makes it valuable.

2010 AHOY!