Saturday, February 09, 2008
Such is university life that I spent CNY eve finishing up on my AED 104 essay (1500 words) worth. Of course even on the eve itself, I had a 1 hour anatomy lecture at 10.30am before I left school to meet wongs for lunch. We played some winning 11/metal slug over at his house before calling it a day for our respective reunion dinners. I could have gone home to rest and slept till reunion dinner time but meeting up with close friends from secondary school is equally important to me as well. That guy is enlisting in April pretty soon so one can just guess how much time the class has to meet up with the busy university and army schedule that all of us have.
It has always been a childhood dream of mine to go visit and walk around Chinatown during the cny period but it's something that I haven't got down to doing. This year wasn't any different. It's either a case of always how busy I've been or just couldn't stand the crowds as cny eve approaches. I mean one can easily be forgiven for saying that he doesn't have the cny mood. It's either the fact that ur cny holidays are being burnt because of guard duties or you live in fear of being recalled.
I had a very strange dream on friday night and woke up on saturday afternoon feeling very relieved. There I was in at a new compound (I think the airbase had been renovated) carrying out a vehicle check! Back to what we will usually call Viper 1. Was doing duty with this junior of mine and as he was having problems checking the interior of the car, I was called over to give him a hand. I was certainly not surprised to see myself as the sentry once again. Before the dream ended, I recall seeing people like Jason and Hock Leong. I haven't spoken to these people for a long time. I wonder how they're doing. All that all is good for them.
Once you've been in FDS, you can never never never forget the horrible things that one has gone through. Chee Yong will probably complain that I didn't spend my cny in camp but for the rest of the public holidays, I've not taken any offs and leaves. Giving the rest a chance to do so. To me, Christmas and CNY are like the most important days in a year but I can choose to forgo Christmas but not CNY. This experience of having ur holidays and weekends burnt has come in very useful. Being the e-learning week, I was being flooded with lots of assignments and I spent a good chunk of my cny clearing them up.
Somehow, the true meaning of CNY has been lost on me. I wouldn't entirely blame in on university life because I'm not the only one going through this period. However, perhaps when I've a family of my own or become older, such occasions will mean alot more to me. Going to be 22 years old this coming May and I've matured alot over the years. When I was young, I can happily take any red packets that come by way. Nowadays, I will think twice before accepting any from any relatives and friends who are not very well-to-do. Their spirit of giving even though they need the money deserves my respect. There was once I received a $2 red packet from this rich relative of mine. It just goes to show how the rich people are all misers while those who are poor are really rich in other aspects of their life. You get what I mean.
One does indeed gets lesser red packets as they get older. I'm one of them but money doesn't really mean alot to me now. It's all about getting together with people I've seen probably once a year, eating good food and talking about old times with them.
Red packets? The thought of giving is good enough. Happy Lunar New Year everyone! Have a good year of the RAT!
