Category: Personal Reflection

The memory of it still remains.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been a fan of musical theatre. So when the opportunity came up to be in the Musical Revue, I took it. From the complex choreography to be learned to the vocal ensemble that had to be sung, it was truly a memorable experience. Despite the regulations and the sometimes pressing deadlines, I felt truly alive and happy. I now fully understand the challenges that go behind the arts. The work behind the scenes and the perseverance of art despite all circumstances.

I have been learning piano for the last 8-9 years and continuing it seems like nothing. Although in my journey I have realised that I needed to take a step back and understand it further. I decided to reaffirm my groundwork in music, specifically theory. I took a break from learning new pieces for about half a year and decided to strengthen my foundations on music. Now that I have a better framework I feel that I’ve learned to appreciate music more.

Writing is a weird amalgamation of procrastination and pressure. It’s one thing to get inspiration, it’s another to terraform it into something spectacular. The harder part is the weaving together of words into an aesthetic phrase so that something is conveyed. Then across that field of fumbles that you are required to cross, there lie many rabbit holes hidden in the path. The redundancy, the melody, the interaction between words. There lies the true task, to recreate and relinquish all power to words. Only ever hoping they land in someone’s heart.

I decided to postpone my current book project in favour of a new one which I believed was more pressing. I came upon it many months ago and realised that it would be one of the most important works I needed to finish. I wanted to cover the racism against Asians due to the coronavirus, the family dynamic, the clash between Asian and Western cultures, and one’s personal journey in recovery from mental illness. All in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a behemoth of a task to perform and write, however, I do believe that it is one that is needed to be birthed out into existence. The duty of the writer is not to write but to show.

Although seen as an integral part of the UWCSEA experience, project week felt harder than it was. In some weird way, I was quite pleased that it was cancelled. It may seem that all the effort placed had gone to waste, but our initial plan was falling out of place. We had things postponed after every single event and by the time we had something coherent, a volcano erupted. Despite this, I realised that all the skills I was supposed to learn from it, I already had with my other commitments. Even though it may be unfortunate, it helped me realise things that I would have not any other way.

The soft globules of congealed milk reach up to the sky in a swirling posture. Yoga is like yoghurt, well at least the aim of it is. To centre yourself with the world around you. To smoothen yourself out and be beneficial for your body. It collides in the innate nature of bacteria in yoghurt. Something living. Being in yoga has enabled me to feel alive a bit more. It helped me rekindle a fire that I did not know existed. One to be centred and grounded while being alive.

During CAS, there existed a sudden urge to do things. Especially those I was good at. During the course of Yoga, I never thought myself as a flexible person, but I realised, comparing myself to everyone else in the group (as one does) that I was actually more supple than most people. Over the course of the next few months, I exercised my flexibility and slowly I became more flexible which I really appreciate. CAS has helped me learn, not only of my strengths. but how to exercise them as well.

I was never good at working with kids, but I knew that it was a skill I had to learn for the future. So when I decided to join and become a student director I knew what I was signing up for.

Not to expound on any details but I now understand and have even more respect for Primary school teachers. It also helped me learn how to communicate with kids. Although the activity was cut short. The little that I had learned, I will keep and develop hopefully in the future.