Uuuhh uuuhh uuuhh uuuhh (x2)
I’m your firefly, I’m your shade
I wanna live in a house that we’ve made
I wanna love you everyday
And I’ll never fly away
We experience different types of transitions in life. It could be graduating from university and transiting to work life, or moving to another country to stay or work – I personally find the transition of personal roles in life most challenging and gratifying.
The last time I had experienced a transition of personal roles was when I had completed my university studies and was preparing for a full-time professional working life. Fresh from school, I carried with me the idealism of a young adult with alot of enthusiasm and thirst for new and exciting challenges. Like with every change, we learn to adapt and soon we ease ourselves into our new roles. We figure out what the new role demands of us, mentally, emotionally and physically too, from a lifestyle perspective. Over time, the sparkle of a new role settles into a stable understanding of what is required of us. That is the point where we might not try as hard to reinvent ourselves and to see the same world with ‘new eyes’.
I personally have a view that refreshing oneself is incredibly important. I do that mostly through introspection, through writing, reading or just wandering around sometimes. Even in busy times, I should not be afraid to wander, or spend my time without a clear task at hand. =)
“Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.”
― Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear
This is a short post to pen down the few thoughts that arose after watching The Lady by Luc Besson this evening. Safety and security in one country tends to be an unrated value – We walk around in the streets of Singapore in the night without fear. That is not just attributed to a good police force, but it underscores the great effort by the government to create a system that is politically stable, an economy that is sufficiently comfortable for the least well-to-do and social harmony amongst its people. It is the confluence of factors that create the safe streets. I should not forget that.
The second point is about the quality of the human spirit, which until the moments we are tested might never reveal its true strength. Aung San Suu Kyi has become a beacon of inspiration because we all know the circumstances that she is under, and the choices she could have made – and once and again, she composed herself to pursue a goal she believed in. I must admit I am inspired, and humbled, by her too.
The third is to a note to self again, that the world out there is big and many things are ongoing. There is no reason to be self-absorbed in one’s own affairs with no concern for what is happening out there, and reaching out for the richer experience.
Have you ever dismissed talking to someone further because of the way he/she dressed, his official title or even just the short glimpse you caught of the way he behaved? I must confess that I do so, from time to time, especially during networking events.
Today, I had settled into my seat with lunch first and left it open as to who will join me. It turned out that I had a really good conversation with the Guest of Honor of the event. We exchanged ideas about several issues and talked candidly about the problems that we were facing. He was very open to listen to my ideas and even added on his honest opinion of what could and wouldn’t work. I was also intellectually stretched to understand his views from his vantage point and work experience. I appreciated the new insights I had because some things I thought could not be solved, actually had a solution =) I guess that sort of confidence comes with age and executive power with the organization. Very interesting.
So this is a reminder to self to not hastily judge someone too quickly, but really mean it when I say I keep an open mind when it comes to making friends and getting to know people.
Nothing had prepared me for the day when I would don a beautiful white dress and trot along our favorite places in Singapore, hand in hand with my husband-to-be. It is one of those days when I felt incredibly happy and of course, thankful for everyone else behind the camera (parents, sister, make-up artist and lovely photographer).
