2007

On this blazing afternoon, I sit at my desk in my room trying to think about the year that has passed and translate these aberrant, disorganized but happy memories into written language.

2007 has definitely been a blessed year. As I recall, on the 31st of December last year, that is 2006, I wrote an entry into my journal. It was actually the first entry into it, and I decided to keep one hence forth, but as these resolutions to keep regular journals, go (or don’t go) with me, I eventually failed to keep up with the updates. However, unlike CAS, the lack of proper documentation does not imply that the events did not occur.

Getting back to the the first entry that I made, it was really rather depressing. A horrendous way to start the new year I assure you. I wrote the entry in the last hour of 2007  and carried on writing into the new year. Somehow or other, I was in one of those moods, lamenting the small things that I had once seen as enormous gaps in the universe. I had at the end of Secondary School, looked back and regretted the way some things had turned out, I regretted that after graduating, I had not lived the full and complete life that a teenager should have had in Secondary School, in ACS (Independent). There were so many things I had not done, had not fully appreciated, and the last thing I wanted to be hit by was the IB!

The ship, that was Time, that I was sailing on, had moved too fast for me and was still accelerating despite my best efforts. The current made it impossible to turn back into the waters that I longed for. I sailed into 2007 not standing tall in the crow’s nest looking in the direction of the rising sun, but instead clinging to the stern, and looking back at the familiar past.

In retrospect, I realize that all of that was fretting over nothing. I should have been happier as I looked toward new horizons, and new beginnings. Indeed, as USS Time sails toward the edge of 2007, I turn around, as I have done many a time this year, I look in the direction the ship sailed from and see an immense beauty in creation. Though there were storms and rough waters, I still see myself as thoroughly blessed.

It is impossible to list the entire 2007 here, but here are the highlights

1. My family. Doesn’t need much elaboration. I love you all. 
2. All my friends. The old ones who were with me since Primary School, and Secondary 1, and even the newest ones made this year.
3. A good year of schooling, academics that I’m satisfied with.
4. The chance to study theatre arts and out up a production next year.
5. The extent to which I had opportunities to perform illusionary Magic.
6. Cycling. My Bike. City Duathlon 2007. Charity BikenBlade 2007. Powerman Malaysia 2007. I’m looking forward to the next duathlon in 2008!
7. Our WOW trip to Khon Kean.
8. Sunburst Youth Camp and and all the new people I’ve met!
9. My new computer.
10. Ultimate Frisbee ACS. The interest group/team in school.
11. ACS (Independent). No matter how much I complain, I’d rather be here than anywhere else. And no, I’m not trying to score points.
12. God who has been with me all the way, whether I noticed or not.

And the list goes on. Thank you God.

 

Psalm 23

Friday was the day we got back our results, only by God’s grace did I achieve them. He has blessed greatly, and I am much satisfied.

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

 

The End.

At long last the period of testing and revision drew to a close this morning, hopefully there’ll be no more revision for a long while, although I’m pretty sure that the work will kick in before the Year 5 cohort can say: “Freedom!”. By the grace of God, the exams have gone well, and the revision and absence of fun distracting stuff hasn’t been all that bad either. None the less, I enjoy the change from trying to study to slacking.

As per the after exam tradition, I went out with the KKK (which is not the Ku Klux Klan, but the Kyle Koh Klub), and watched a movie. Unfortunately, we picked a Russian fantasy action movie called Daywatch, which was preceded by the prequel Nightwatch, which none of us had watched before. The result was that we spent most of the movie trying to make sense of the plot and the rules of the fantastical world of the film; it did not help that a single piece of chalk had the power to alter reality and that all the dialog was in Russian. It wasn’t all that bad though, having figured out the gist of the story, it was pretty satisfying.

Oh, and the over due Charity Bike’n'Blade post? Well, just take a look at the photos. There are like 400 more photos on the web if you’re interested, I just took those relevant to me.

 

Haven

I was going to do this on the 4th, but eventually I didn’t. So excuse the lateness, Van has already beaten me to the punch.

This weekend, more specifically, the 4th and 5th of August, marks the 1st anniversary of Haven the musical. As far as I know this was the 2nd musical ACS (Independent) had ever staged, the first being Godspell. Haven, like its predecessor, was a musical about God and his ever abundant grace.

This is one of those experiences that I really thank God for and one that I will try my best to never ever forget.

 

The Weekend.

I write this with my IOP presentation (which I’m supposed to be working on) opened in the background. In an effort to take quick occasional breaks from my work, I’ll post my weekend here, so please excuse any incoherence.

Friday was the much awaited, final installment of Anglo Olympics: Ultimate Frisbee. Anglo Olympics is an inter class competition in which junior classes team up with their senior classes to compete in a few sports; the overall winner get the Anglo Olympics trophy. The reason why this was “much awaited” was because the event had been postponed like 7 times, for varying reasons, the primary culprit among them: bad weather. Before the event started, the heat was blistering, and you could almost smell the melting rubber of the artificial turf (well not quite, but it was still hot); but just as the starting whistle was about to be blown, the sky turned gray and threatened to rain.

Dwayne, Charles and I, together with members of the senior class represented 5.11 and 6.11. By God’s grace, the weather was good through out: the rain occasionally came for short spells then left quickly, until the the end of the finals, when it poured (wet Frisbees are hard to catch); and we got 3rd! We had loads of fun, Charles learned to throw and catch a Frisbee, all in all, a sweet end to a good week.

Saturday morning was an early one, I got up to cycling with the training ride of the Charity Bike n Blade. Once more by God’s grace, it was fun and I’m still in one piece; for those of you that don’t know, I’m really afraid of riding on busy roads especially those with the heavy vehicles charging at their maximum speed limit. The traffic was light that morning, except for this one stretch of road near Tampines where there so many of those huge machines that might for all I know be Optimus Prime in disguise. There are some really nice drivers on the road that leave lots of room between cyclists and their cars, and give way to them; but there are some, especially those that carry soil and what not, to and from construction sites, that just for the sake of doing so, come really dangerously close to cyclists. These people, they ought to be thrown in jail for a couple of days to teach ‘em a lesson.

Anyway, the IOP, which is basically a presentation on Literature texts, is entitled: “the pursuit of Happiness”, some how or other, watching the brilliant film starring Will Smith and his son, inspired me to do something like this. The phase, is taken from the line “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” which is a line in the Declaration of Independence. I’m going to end here leaving you with an inspirational quote from this historic document.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Jon Pang goes back to his IOP.