This week has been really hectic but yet extremely fulfilling in every aspect of my life.
Academic wise, I am being pummeled by (what seems like) thousands of essays. I finally presented my South China Sea topic on Tuesday and now I have to write out my paper within a week. At the rate I am going, I think I may end up with more than 20 pages. Longest paper I will have ever written! Not to mention, I still have to be diligent and keep up with daily readings so I can open my mouth in class and make (hopefully) intelligent comments. And right now, I have to work on a draft for my CPT paper to submit by tomorrow if I want some constructive comments for my paper.
This week I also attended both the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum and the Straight Talk: Is Singapore=PAP? forum. Both forums were interesting in their own way. At KRMF, of course I finally got my first glimpse of LKY! I enjoyed his answers to the questions very much even if I didn't enjoy the questions themselves. At Straight Talk, I enjoyed the questions as much as the answers (even though they were obviously skirting around the questions). I also bought Men In White and had them autographed by Teo Ser Luck, Christopher De Souza and Zaqy Mohammad!
I didn't lack in the cultural department this week either. I went to the opening of Ruckus Rubix at NUS Museum on Tuesday. I was kind of hoping to meet Jeremy Sharma after corresponding with him through email about one of his pieces but I don't think I saw him there :( I also went across to the Conservatory to check out the Wind Chamber concert. I enjoyed it slightly more than A Wind Evening but Cellisimo is still the best one for me so far. I really really liked the Debussy piece (put a smile to my face) and the Bassoon version of Carmen was interesting as well.
Obviously I have been holed up in my room typing like a mad woman and flipping pages faster than drunk drivers are flipping traffic cops the bird but I managed to find time for friends as well. I had lunch with Shizhen and Serene on Monday. Shizhen mugged with me on Wednesday. Thursday, I met up with TK, Xinyu, Cherie, Jeremy and Remy for dinner at Munchy Monkey's. MM was having a Mandopop Top 40 Night by CAC Voices. The singing may not be stellar but I really enjoyed the pub-like atmosphere.
Honestly, life is tough as year 4. The amount of work and expectations piled on you is no joke. But this is the first time in four years which I can honestly say I am really working hard and playing hard. I am disciplined and conscientious. If I ever said I was in the past three years, all those were lies. This is the real deal. And even if I do hate the suffering that I have to go through to accomplish all my work, I relish the challenge of doing so. And at the end of the day, when I complete this semester, I can tell myself honestly that I worked hard. Because I will never have this experience ever again.
So let me remember this week...
And remind myself that I can do it...