miniature disasters and minor catastrophoes

This weekend I have an English assignment to do, a hundred pages of materials to read (for research), and a teammate that doesn’t know the difference between adsorption and absorption (fyi, we’re working with the former). You’d probably can imagine a frustrated and gloomy me.

But I’m neither frustrated nor gloomy. As low as life has been in some ways, I’ve also had lots of positive things in my life. Debate, good teachers (generally), gooddecent grades, and other positive things in my life have been encouraging. The good things and bad things in a life arise from differences, differences between the current state of things and what they used to be. And right now, I’m learning to treasure those differences. 

It’s a tough life, a fast life and still, it’s a good life.

Addressed to Yunhui: Whatever I wrote here, I didn’t write because I had no courage (which you accused me of lacking) to say it to your face. In fact, it takes far more courage to put it up here where one actually has to be accountable and responsible for what he writes. Anyway, I’ve already come up to you and told you what I have to, so that’s that.

chemistry, energy, synchronicity

This semester’s version of the “work pile”, characteristic of mid-semester NUS High School life, has already begun materializing on my desk. I’ve been doing the design and layout for Epitome. Most people don’t know what that is, which is hardly surprising considering how inactive the school newsletter has been. It’s been a lot of work on Epitome, which is really sad considering how tight my timetable is. 

I’m also now a member of the Debate team. Our first session was yesterday, and I’ve managed to realize just how much my debating has deteriorated over the past few years. It was also my first time as a third speaker and I must say it really was a scary position for me, being the third speaker. But yes, I did learn quite a bit, and hopefully, as time goes by, I’ll improve so that I don’t make a fool out of myself competitively next year. 

I’d like to end by slipping in a quick thank you to Aaron for his comments about my writing yesterday. Being frank, and talking not only about the strengths but also the shortcomings about another person’s work is much harder than it may seem, especially if you’re saying it to the person’s face.