Embrace love and life.

AA3 people, you gotta hear this! It's to Kanye West's 'Homecoming' song. :p

Audio link here.

( OTHELLO IN A RAP )

Who would have thought you could integrate Shakespeare with hip-hop music?!

Life is so exciting and so happening right now that I couldn't be happier. :)

2008 was great, I have so much to be thankful for, especially so in this financially turbulent times.

Hope to do a memory recap but no guarantees cos school is starting soon (IN ONE WEEK?!!!). Sian. But cannot start the year off the wrong foot! Let's try again, I'm so excited for school! Excited to see all my friends again, and to take Computer as Analysis Tool as my first class of the semester! *crosses fingers*

(Ok the second part was a FAIL.)

I emptied my drawers and shelves, in attempt to junk out all my A level notes and files. Secret's out, I've been procrastinating cleaning for gawd, half a year! The floor's so messy and from prior experiences, it usually takes about 2-3 days to neaten up the area, and this year's clean-up is no different. While it gives me great satisfaction to tie up 5 NTUC plastic bags filled with rubbish (But I set aside the papers for recycling.), I also deliberate over the things that hold many memoies for me, like school memorabilia and.. this is the ultimate, lots of cards, letters, gifts and even notes we passed in class behind our teachers' backs, from friends from Primary and Secondary school, and even during my ACJC years. All that accumulates to one huge drawer's worth of space and almost a lifetime of memories.

I thought that I am not as sentimental as before, but I guess a leapord never changes its spots. I cannot tear myself away from these things, although they may be mere pieces of pretty paper. I find my fingers delicately opening the envelopes, eyes scanning through the letters that from words and words that gradually form sentences, and I usually can't help but just smile. These memories were awoken once again, and then I realise that it's pretty easy to just box up the past as the present comes along to whisk you into the future. I doubt that I would bring out these to the trash tomorrow; it would be as if I am physically emptying my memory banks and there isn't a reason for me to do so, these memories, mostly during my formitive years of being a tween, an adolescent are definitely for keeps. 

I do see myself as a seventeen year old at heart, but who am I kidding? I can't believe I'm reaching the big two-O next year, and would be bidding being a 'reckless, impulsive' teenager, goodbye while taking the time to savour the joys and woes of adulthood, bundles with a whole new set of challenges and new memories of course. 

When I read all the letters, the cards; there are many emotions that flow through me. Firstly, encouragement, because these people who have wrote regularly and whose letters I keep, always have a word or two to lift my spirits and bring a cheer to me. Although there are some, and I say this regretfully, whom I have drifted far, far away from over the course of 5-6 years, I am still grateful for their presence during that point in time that they've been there for me. Who knows what outcomes life would bring? Maybe we'll be having a reunion a few years down the road! 

Secondly, this may come as a surprise, but sometimes, I feel embarrassed, due to the immaturity of some of the subjects discussed. Having said that, it's more like a Ohmygawd HA-HA-HA embarrassed rather than a guilt-induced kind of embarrassment. It's like digging up your Sec 3 and Sec 4 blog entries and reading them all over again. I'm just SO glad I'm past that stage in life, that super-protected, my-world-is-a-happy-bubble kinda place. And as I look back, I can really chart how much I have grown, in terms of my character, my beliefs, my outlook in life in general. For the better, I feel. 

The ultimate is when I dig out photos. I get excited and then just stare in amazement at how different many of my friends and myself have looked then. I have to make it a point to scan some photos in. I was an awkward kid, with ugly glasses. So embarrassing, but I can accept that, at least that was when I was an age where the lack of any fashion sense was forgivable. I love my Primary One class photo, there are so many people that I am actually quite close to now, and I'm happy for that. Wouldn't it be cool if there was an MGS 1995 Primary 1.6 reunion?! It's been more than a decade man. And our form teacher then is back to teaching MGS again! 

I look different just 2 years back. So many changes have taken place, even though it's just 24 months back. A little scary. 

One thing I noted is that it was a habit to write a letter to each other at least once a week; maybe because it was an 'era' when handphones were not as rampantly available to kids as compared to today (I got my first handphone, a Nokia 8310 only in Sec 2 I think), and when most of our Internet connections have yet to achieve broadband status, hence emailing is too much of a hassle. I'm glad actually, to have received things that I can easily retrive over the next decade or so, despite yellowing edges and such. I don't have many photos of say, the present and the not so far back future because everything is digitalised and I haven't exactly printed out photos as compared to the 120mm rolls of films that we developed almost immediately once 36 shots were taken. So note to myself: Send some recent photos for printing if I don't want to seem like I'm still stuck in the 90s, or early to mid 2000s.

Ok, back to clearing my floor/table/drawers. Hardly done, and no where near done. Wish me luck! Might unearth even more gems or ghosts of my past. Whichever fits the bill.

Why don't you rake up some physical memories of  your past too?
Leave a comment to tell me how it went! :) Or if not, just share some past memories with me!