Monday, August 21, 2006
20.8.06
I could not have chosen better company for myself for my return home. As always, god uses random situations to bring people together. Its suprising how much a friendship can advance, just based on a couple of good hours spent together. The train ride and the day spent waiting, in unspoken dread, for the final departure, somehow brought me, joel, connie, ryan and even Andrew closer together. I will miss them all so much. Ryan was like a brother to me. my time spent TAing with him was, without doubt, the most memorable and fulfilling of my time on this trip. Without it, I would not have been prepared for the other camps, and neither would I have got to share in the joy of knowing the NIT students, seeing the toughest and coolest and most deliquent of them coming in humility and brokenness and searching, before the Lord. It was such a powerful testimony of how God works in mysterious ways. And we had so much fun in the process. Half the in-jokes that make me chuckle were shared with ryan and the unforgettable NIT class 2. It was my own weakness of decision to have left the class. I am none the worse—god still chose to use me in other places—but I know that if I had obeyed his first prompting and stayed, I would be able to have seen the fruit of that whole process to its completion, and the whole trip would have been different for me. but I just thank god for letting me, initially against my will, spend that time with ryan and class 2. As for connie, I am so happy that I finally got to know her. At the same time, I feel the pity that I did not get to know her earlier cos we were never on the same team—I can now see that she is someone whom I could have gotten close to and shared many laughs with. In the past 3 days alone, having spent more time with her, I find her alot like some of my NY girlfriends. She’s crazy, irreverent, laughs at the weirdest things, and yet she is serious about her faith and her relationship with others. I find her a breath of fresh air in an environment where everyone is sometimes abit too nice. If only we had more time to spend together! And finally joel, whom I have take for granted the whole trip because he always seems to take me for granted—somehow saying goodbye made me value him more and look forward greatly to seeing him in camb next year. This friendship excites me because it has the prospect of continuing and growing stronger, as opposed to dying off with parting. The same with weixin, Carmen, both Rachels and liz. How I wish that the people I was closese to were in Cmbridge too!I am so excited about going home. At long last, I will be able to say that I have gotten back to where I come from, and have a nice rest in the place where I actually stay. How much I take that for granted when I’m living at home! But now I can really say, there’s no plce like home. Over the past 2 months, I;ve grown to love and be proud of Singapore even more. Being the only Singaporean on the team has sharpened my awareness of the differences between me and others, and yet made me feel that I have such unique things to be proud of. I'm happy to be Singaporean. I love my accent, my idiocsyncracies, food, history (whatever little of it there is!) and I love meeting Singaporeans overseas. I feel that my home has, though nothing but being the place that it is and having the culture that it has, made me a person who can add something new and different to any international group I am in. snigger as you might at my uncharacteristic idealism. its what i think!
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