It's finally the time I've been waiting for. Finally ORD. And enjoying every single moment of it.
For a start, shortly after 1 week after ORD, I got myself signed up for driving lessons, and now I'm multitasking between studying driving theory and doing my best in my new job I got at Pacific Conferences, just earlier this Thursday. Awesome. Now I'm getting somewhere. And soon it'll be my 21st birthday, and the day after will be a 3 days 2 nights holiday out at sea at Star Cruises. How's that?
Sure, everyone's asking me the same question - will I miss those days in army? Yup, but being civilian is waaaaaaaayyyy better than being some random grunt in the army. In the past, I had to do lots of shit in the army, and being paid $650 a month as a NSF Corporal didn't help much. Now I'm earning twice that amount, which would probably make my own personal finances a bit healthier and much more financially independent. Well, at least until I go to uni anyways...
I hate having to ask people for money, even more so from my own family. After all that money disputes arising from my father's problem gambling in the past, I decided that enough is enough. Nobody controls my finances unless I allow them to directly intervene, and I most certainly ain't gonna give away my financial independence this easily. I will make sure I clear my family from debt - one way or another, even if it takes years. I used to spend heavily during my teenage years, now it's time to make a difference for the sake of my family.
Sigh, this gotta mean I'll never be able to see a bank balance healthy enough for me to buy a flat or car or raise a family of my own. Even if it does, it'll take years, and by the time I eke out a decent living, everyone else would be already having their own businesses, wealth and the like... Still, one thing at a time. No rest for the wicked. Chiong all out for survival, or die trying.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Time is not on our side
Just the other day, on a fine Saturday, I figured it was too darned boring at home, and it ain't helping that I'm still worrying over whether I'll be able to hold a decent office admin temporary job for the next few months after I ORD and before university school term starts. So I asked Mom out for a jalan-jalan session to the airport.
Of all places, the airport. Hmm... Maybe it's just that the airport was just about the perfect place to work in if I were to hold a job as a Starbucks or Coffee Bean barista - I'd be able to talk to many people from many other places and countries, learn about stuff and so on... In any case, we were about to set off when my grandma wanted to tag along too. Welcome to the party, grandma!
...only that due to her old age and weak legs, she can't travel that far. I guess age has taken a heavy toll on her legs - she can't climb stairs as well as she used to, the way she does like about 10-odd years ago. Dilemma soon popped up - she hasn't gone to the outside world for about as long as I can remember, other than that she travels back and forth from her lonely 2-room flat in Chai Chee to our house in Tampines, and occasionally puts up at my 4th uncle's place at Woodland. Yet even then, she takes his lorry to and fro, so she doesn't really move around much except stay at home.
So in the end, we went Tampines Mall instead - easier on her in terms of travel time and there's no lack of stuff to see as well. Gotta admit, being on her own at such an old age without being able to move around much has its inconveniences and she's missing out a lot more than we'd expect. She needed this trip to freshen up and feel young again - if even only for a short moment.
And after a while, we dropped by Old Malaya Cafe and had prawn noodles at that place. Nice cafe, with all that rustic furniture that resembled kampung days, it seemed like the perfect spot for a revered old grandma to take a rest from those walking and looking at all those oh-that's-all-so-new thingamajigs that make up today's retail outlets in our shopping malls today.
And so it was, we hung around and had a little three-generation chat, and then proceeded to bring our good grandma to the rooftop water features at Tampines 1. Along the way, she had to hobble here and there, move around against waves of people moving in the opposite direction, and climb stairs really slowly, with both legs resting on the same step first before moving on to the next...
Just observing her trying to move around with so much effort, wanting to look at the things around her, see how much the world around her has changed, I couldn't help but think - is this the way everyone else would have to be? Grow old, and then suddenly find themselves unable to do even the most mundane of things, to the point that even walking around seems to be a problem without a walking stick (she used an umbrella instead, says it's too obvious if people saw her using a walking stick).
Then it occurred to me - time is definitely not on our side. It ticks past us so mercilessly, yet so stealthily that we don't realise that hey, 30 minutes have passed. Next thing we know, we're already weeks past this event, that incident, bla bla bla... And when you realised it, the glory years of your life are already gone, and what's left is but a weathered body and a weary soul, wanting to accomplish much but is just unable to do them.
So here it is, looking at the kids running around the water feature having the time of their lives in their swimsuits, having the rooftop wind around the area didn't seem like a bad idea at all. Especially if it took such a simple day to bring forward a lesson to teach us to make the most use of our time in our lives to accomplish great things that we would otherwise have never bothered to if we procrastinated.
Seize the moment, and do the things you want to do most, for when you grow old, you will look back at those times and say "Hey, back in the day, I did this, I did that, bla bla bla..." and leave something behind for your future generations to look at, and have some achievement in your life to be proud of, be it big or small.
Of all places, the airport. Hmm... Maybe it's just that the airport was just about the perfect place to work in if I were to hold a job as a Starbucks or Coffee Bean barista - I'd be able to talk to many people from many other places and countries, learn about stuff and so on... In any case, we were about to set off when my grandma wanted to tag along too. Welcome to the party, grandma!
...only that due to her old age and weak legs, she can't travel that far. I guess age has taken a heavy toll on her legs - she can't climb stairs as well as she used to, the way she does like about 10-odd years ago. Dilemma soon popped up - she hasn't gone to the outside world for about as long as I can remember, other than that she travels back and forth from her lonely 2-room flat in Chai Chee to our house in Tampines, and occasionally puts up at my 4th uncle's place at Woodland. Yet even then, she takes his lorry to and fro, so she doesn't really move around much except stay at home.
So in the end, we went Tampines Mall instead - easier on her in terms of travel time and there's no lack of stuff to see as well. Gotta admit, being on her own at such an old age without being able to move around much has its inconveniences and she's missing out a lot more than we'd expect. She needed this trip to freshen up and feel young again - if even only for a short moment.
And after a while, we dropped by Old Malaya Cafe and had prawn noodles at that place. Nice cafe, with all that rustic furniture that resembled kampung days, it seemed like the perfect spot for a revered old grandma to take a rest from those walking and looking at all those oh-that's-all-so-new thingamajigs that make up today's retail outlets in our shopping malls today.
And so it was, we hung around and had a little three-generation chat, and then proceeded to bring our good grandma to the rooftop water features at Tampines 1. Along the way, she had to hobble here and there, move around against waves of people moving in the opposite direction, and climb stairs really slowly, with both legs resting on the same step first before moving on to the next...
Just observing her trying to move around with so much effort, wanting to look at the things around her, see how much the world around her has changed, I couldn't help but think - is this the way everyone else would have to be? Grow old, and then suddenly find themselves unable to do even the most mundane of things, to the point that even walking around seems to be a problem without a walking stick (she used an umbrella instead, says it's too obvious if people saw her using a walking stick).
Then it occurred to me - time is definitely not on our side. It ticks past us so mercilessly, yet so stealthily that we don't realise that hey, 30 minutes have passed. Next thing we know, we're already weeks past this event, that incident, bla bla bla... And when you realised it, the glory years of your life are already gone, and what's left is but a weathered body and a weary soul, wanting to accomplish much but is just unable to do them.
So here it is, looking at the kids running around the water feature having the time of their lives in their swimsuits, having the rooftop wind around the area didn't seem like a bad idea at all. Especially if it took such a simple day to bring forward a lesson to teach us to make the most use of our time in our lives to accomplish great things that we would otherwise have never bothered to if we procrastinated.
Seize the moment, and do the things you want to do most, for when you grow old, you will look back at those times and say "Hey, back in the day, I did this, I did that, bla bla bla..." and leave something behind for your future generations to look at, and have some achievement in your life to be proud of, be it big or small.
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