A New Year Speech

Oh, its my turn to speak already? Ok ok... *Stands up, go onto the stage, grabs mic, clears throat* Ahem. Hello everybody, happy new year to all of you!

Bill Vaughan said, "An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves." Its been another year, its been another 365 days. And I must say, its been quite an exciting year for me. Fulfilling. New work environment, new friends, new responsibilities, new problems, new insights and many other new things.

2007 has been a great year. I felt that I learned alot of things in this year. I felt that I actually grew up this year. Many things happened in 2007. I graduated from junior college, was enlisted into national service, opened my eyes to many things that I have not seen before.

Lets just say the highlight of 2007 is my enlistment into the army. Thats at the beginning of the year. I must say, I was pretty apprehensive when I had to pack my bags and go live on this island in the northeast for the first time. But thank God He helped me through all the training on Tekong, then was with me when I was in SISPEC, gave me strength when I was training as an engineer, and finally, blessed me with a wonderful unit that I am currently in. I can say that I am in a great unit. I have never dreamt that I would be in a unit like this, a pretty relaxed place and at the same time, pay is pretty satisfying :D And best of all, my jobscope gives me the opportunity to go different places that I never thought of going before! It is truly a satisfying and fulfilling job. Furthermore, I also have alot of freedom, being able to go out every night, being able to go to church and cell group as well! It is truly God's blessing for me.

And of coz, thank God for my A'lvl results and for giving me the grace of being eligible for studying in a university. I tell you, it is truly God's grace that I can be enrolled in a university with a result like mine! Even more, who would have thought that I could get A1 for GP! Haha, and its all because of this A1 that NTU actually considered my application! This is truly God's blessing, grace, and miracle.

Wisdom was added into me in small amounts this year. I became more capable of making wiser and firm decisions and was also able to discern people better. All these will have to come from God. Many say that one would drift away from God when he is in the army, but only the opposite happened for me. In fact, I became closer to God than when I used to be. In the tough training and lonely moments while in camp, I began to realise that God is with me wherever I am. He's always there to support me and help me when I need Him. He's there even in the toughest, desperate and most desolate situations. I could really feel His presence and assurance.

New friendships were also found in 2007. In particular, 2 very wonderful brothers of mine. Linton and Jeff brought about a new channel of things that mature people could do together. Just 3 men. Enjoying good food, going for late night movies, just having simple dinner together, and most importantly, talking about almost everything under the sun. We don't really need to do anything extraordinary. We just need good food (in particular, roasted duck drumstick) and we can just sit around and talk. Pretty interesting.

My time in 2007 has also somehow put me into a certain focus on what I really want to achieve in my life. On what kind of people I want to be with, on who I really should hang out with, on what I should do with the time and money in my hand. I feel that I now have a target I can keep pushing on to, something I can trust God for, something God promised.

I also learned and experienced what is called financial independence. Having an income of my own, it has become my own responsibility to spend within my means. And its not just about save save save. Its actually alot more about knowing what exactly I want to spend on. Knowing when is the time to treat myself to something nice, and when it is not wise to spend on something I don't need at the moment. All these takes experience and frankly, I am still trying very hard to master it.

I don't know what 2008 holds for me. Somethings I do know are, 2008 will be the year I will ORD from army. In exact date, that will be 11th November 2008. Yes. Thats when I will leave the service of the Singapore Armed Forces. And I do know that its going to be another trying year. Its not going to be any easier than what this year has thrown in my face. But its ok. Without doubts and difficulties, how can faith exist? Faith is born out of doubt. Sounds like a paradox, but its actually very true. I trust God that He will pull me through another year, like how He had done for the past 19 years. If in any case He decides not to pull me throught, then maybe He will pull me UP to be with Him. :D

I pray that 2008 will be another great and exciting year, with many new things for me to learn. I pray that new friendships will be birthed and old friendships grow, and expired friendships be renewed. I pray that at the end of 2008 and at the start of 2009, I will be even wiser, be even more matured, more sensitive, and be a better man than I am today.

Thank you. Happy New Year, Happy 2008. Happy two thousand and eight.

Reliving The Picture: The Last Lunch @ PJC

Ok, a description of the picture. Thats me on the left and thats LiuZhen on the right. We are not a couple, she is my classmate and we just happened to have lunch together on the day this picture was taken. She's holding a metal spoon to show she had lunch too and I am holding my plastic utensils which I just took my lunch with.

The last day of my days as a PJC student was the last day of my A'level exams Thats, English Literature Paper 5 (refer to my previous post). Well, look at us being so happy, isn't it obvious that the A'levels are over. Haha, seriously, it was like throwing off 2 900kg dumb bells off your shoulder.

I remember what I had for lunch. The plastic utensils only come from the muslim rice store. Yep, I ate muslim food. In fact, muslim rice is prob the only good food in PJC with lots of people queuing for it during lunch breaks. Second to it would be the Chicken Rice store.

I would usually like to have either fried fish or chicken, with a sausage, and some veggie, then have curry on my rice (explains why theres still curry on the plate). They would cost me about around $2. Yep. $2. IF my memory still serves me well that is. And its pretty filling.

The last day of A'levels was fantastic. Everybody was very excited about finishing the exams. And that was why this picture and many other pictures was taken. I had so much plans in me and the thought about not having to stress over exams was simply superb.

And then I was enlisted into army and found out that stress still existed in this world, and also discovered that I would be facing English Literature again in university in 2009. Life is just like a roller coaster, it brings you through a journey of excitement and scares and when you thought it is all over, you are back to where you were before. Some philosophy for you. :P

Oh yeah, to Anonymous, the song in the background is called "Majesty, Here I Am" by Delirious. And thanks for letting me know who you are.

Waiting Patience

Patience is a virtue. Very common phrase which almost everybody seem to be familiar with. And so is waiting. Well, in fact, to have patience means to be able to wait. Wait for anything. It can be minutes for a friend, hours for that event to start, days for that holiday to come, months for that birthday gift, or even years for that promised gift.

But seriously, who likes waiting? If I can get a cab now, why would I bother to wait for another cab to come? If I can get to ORD now, why should I wait untill next year before I get my civilianhood back? Nobody likes waiting, for many of us, we wait only because we have to, not because we want to. We get onto the MRT station platform and see the time of arrival: 9 mins. We wait because we have to wait for the train to come. If the train could come in 1 min time, it would have been all the more better, isn't it.

However, somethings are better when patience is put into it. Like, a promise, or something we look forward to. Somehow, by waiting, it makes the reward appear to be sweeter, or rather, the reward is actually sweeter. Take for example, instant noodles vs a well cooked meal. Instant noodles takes only 3 mins to be prepared, while a meal will take possibly hours of hard work, shopping, preparing, cooking. Yet, most would rather have a good proper meal than to opt for that cup of instant noodles.

Or a promise. Promises are made to be tested through time. When we apply patience to promises and wait for them to be fulfilled, it is then that we will realise the full value of the promise and learn to appreciate them when they are actually fulfilled. A promise that is fulfilled prematurely many a times loses its value in our eyes. We tend to take things for granted even.

How about friendships, relationships? They take time to be nurtured. Do you still remember that puppy love relationship you got into when you were young? Becoming each other's boyfriend/girlfriend after knowing each other for only a few weeks? Most of these relationships didn't last I suppose. If they did, then good for you. But for many of us, we know full well how these puppy love thing works. They hardly last. Thats because we didn't even wait for the roots of friendship to grow deep enough for any flowers of relationship to grow properly. In fact, if we had waited patiently and allowed the friendship to develop, knowing each other better, at the end of the day, we will have a well developed relationship, stronger, and best of all, we will learn to appreciate one another even more because of the time we have waited for the relationship to be fulfilled.

So lets all just apply a little more patience in our lives. Perhaps when a certain promise is made to you. Wait for it to be fulfilled. If God say He's going to grant something in your life. Wait for it. Don't start to try pushing God around and demand for something not ready to be given. God knows the perfect time for which He should give you His promises. Like how seasons work, God knows the best time for which season. Imagine if summer was earlier, or winter, or autumn, or spring, it would have been quite bad right. Just have faith in the promises that God has given us, and that is also how He tests our faith. For all we know, God's promise for us could be just around that corner.