As July draws to an end, it is with a sudden realization that I’m a man whose days (in Singapore in the near future) are numbered. At least, I can heave a sigh of relief that I know where I am heading to, but it’s going to be a whole new challenge living in a foreign land, away from family, friends and country. And the dreaded thing is – I have to study.

So it is only wise to spend the time left visiting people, places and memories. My secondary school site is now used by another school. Taking my favourite walk along the Esplanade bridge, and I realize numerous cranes now dot the skyline. If the physical environment has changed, it is no wonder that feelings would too.

As time passes, we would grow to have different opinions and different priorities in life. I guess that perhaps alters the essence of friendships. It is no longer about “needing 2 hands to clap”. Our paths begin to diverge because we cannot agree on something so fundamental, which is our belief.

Sometimes, we can’t really do anything about it but just get all nostalgic and reminisce about the good old, better days. We may still be friends, but something, which we once had, is missing. Maybe it’s spontaneity, the ability to be in the same “wavelength” because we understand each other.

In the end, apart from this nagging sense of pity that it turned out this way, there is really nothing else. For we move on. It’s as simple as that.

I’m thankful for the people who have stood by me, as well as their company. And a little astonished at how little I know about their lives of these days. Hence, the need to meet them and update myself. Love is indeed in the air.

And while I'm on it, Singapore! Preview was a couple of nights ago. Beautiful, brilliant, and romantic. There were moments when I was choked by the urge to tear in mid-chorus. Like I’ve said before, this being the last NDP before I head overseas, it is of exceptional meaning to me.

But after the high during the parade, it would be a low as I walked to the train station alone, looking at the dazzling floodlights still switched on, the colourful banners fluttering in the wind, and the chattering groups of people moving in the same direction.

(Random: still on the Preview, while I was entering the platform during the Finale, I was looking at the LED screen showing the choir, and I went identifying my students – some of them are lip-synching without life and energy. But they couldn’t recognize me thankfully when I saw them later. I had this student who looked straight at me in the eye and didn’t know who I was. I guess contact lens work wonders.)

July has been time well spent meeting new friends, who are spontaneous and wacky in many ways, breaking in the process stereotypes of what they (and I) will be in the future.

No doubt, it was a bane dragging our feet to Punggol Jetty, not much of a jetty though, in a wet morning, but OBS has been fun, be it struggling to climb the Impossible Ladder, the one where the gap in between each log is humongous, or the kayaking. The latter is a liberating experience, being set afloat in the open sea and just looking at the beautiful scenery passing by.

My watch was great. Many of us broke out of our comfort zone and challenged ourselves, doing things that we previously thought we couldn’t. And there were always lame jokes to entertain us by.

Then there were the various indoor sessions after that with chiming bowls, official thankers, snowballs, the One and what-nots. Of course, filling our tummy remains the order of the day and for that, we have a dear friend to thank, our warrior in the buffet queue with the plate filled with puddings/cakes/edible stuff so that we could share. We almost burnt down RGS during one course, and we had to stomach French beans soaked in butter. Read: I am a disaster in kitchen.

So as we put our finishing touches to the play, which has been in the making since Day One, I must say that I am really happy I met all of you. I always thought they may be high and mighty, ambitious and aggressive, just like those filling up the other half of the room in the College. But you have been equally intelligent but much more approachable and friendly than I would have expected.

Now students better be thankful for what they are going to get in future. Haha. :)