"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."So many disjointed thoughts to put into organised, flowing paragraphs of words lately, but one thing's for sure: this week saw a strangely fulfilling kind of happiness.
It's no surprise that I would very much rather be busy like many of my other friends right now, many of whom are either in university or slogging away for their holiday jobs following their graduation from poly. I'm the kind of person who prefers to keep myself occupied, especially since the daily grind of my life in the army has long gotten to me, and I long to embark on a productive and meaningful journey once again. Seeing how many of them are either learning brand new lessons and picking up valuable skills in exchange for hard-earned money in the workplace, chasing their passions in their chosen field of study and taking risks by trying something new despite not being entirely sure of what they really want, or even travelling to faraway lands on missions and adventures that they're curious and excited about, I'm in equal parts happy for them, and a little sad for myself. It's always a blessing to know remarkable people who push forth courageously in their pursuit of growth and self-improvement, but it gets a little lonely sometimes, when all you seem to be doing is just gaze at them from the sidelines. Nevertheless, if anything, this week convinced me that my life really isn't as much of a sad story as I seem to always portray it to be – something which made me happy in a pretty special way.
What I'm about to say next may come across as a little too cheesy, but I'm endlessly thankful for my friends who are always sharing with me their stories and experiences, and the many lessons they have learned. It's one thing to be pressured to always be productive and on the move, and another to be utterly bored with nothing to do. Yet when it comes to truly living, it's a completely different ball game. This week, I saw how my friends could possibly teach me to live, through the invaluable mutual sharing of insights, ideas, thoughts... and the list goes on and on. It also felt like it has been a long time since I last genuinely connected with the people I care about, but the truth is, I've been doing it all along – I just failed to notice it while I was so caught up with my own frustrations over how my own life has seemed to come to a standstill. Ironically.
I've come to realise that life moves pretty fast, whether or not we're keeping ourselves busy or just chilling, and what really makes it remarkable is the value of our introspection and our reflections. Like a close friend of mine said, it's not time and experiences that teach, despite how many of us would think. We can live our lives going through the motions and deeming as many events as we want dull and forgettable, and they'd still be the same time that has passed and the same experiences that we've been through. What actually matters is whether we choose to look close enough. To ignite those epiphanies that can potentially change the way we look at the world and at ourselves. The realisations that serve as reminders for us to live.
I've been spending quite a lot of time with these two girls lately, and trust me, these photos are not the last you're going to see of them in this post. If there's one thing that I really find sweet of them, it's the way they constantly affirm my photography skills, even if I personally feel that they're not yet of a satisfactory standard. It also helps that they're rather... vain, too – put a budding photographer together with people who love having photos of themselves taken, and you'll (almost) always find yourself in a win-win situation. Needless to say, I appreciate their (especially Xiaoshi's) obsession over OOTD and profile shots, both for their confidence in expressing their style, and for all the little photo opportunities they present me.
Booked out unexpectedly early this week, so I was glad that they were coincidentally free at the time I left camp too. We met at Jem for an impromptu meal together on Thursday night, following which we strolled from mall to mall, talking about almost everything under the sun. They mentioned about how they really enjoy the chance we had to meet up, citing examples of how they occasionally felt stifled in their schools and/or workplaces when it comes to communicating with their friends/colleagues, but what was really nice was the fact that they acknowledged the ease with which we could get along, free of awkward judgment and measured diplomacy. I agree with them wholeheartedly of course, but after putting things into perspective for a bit, I realised that there's also value in differences and clashes in personalities, but only if we see meaning in reconciling them. I couldn't help but hark back to the KL trip with Yi Ren & Sheryl, where there were countless times when we disagreed completely with one another, from ways of doing things to the planning of the itinerary. Regardless, we made an effort to listen to one another and to air our concerns before reaching a mutual consensus, and thinking about it, I really do appreciate this honesty I share with many of my friends, and with these two as well, of course!
Saturday evening saw more OOTD shots, dinner with the cell group at a new, cozy location at Outram Park, and late night hangs at the Starbucks @ the Fullerton Waterboat House, a haunt we've been frequenting lately. Overall, 'twas a great night of quality conversations and simple joys.
We cycled from Pasir Ris Park to Punggol Waterway this morning, rounding off three consecutive meet-ups with Xiaoshi & Yuyun, as well as fulfilling the unspoken promise I made with Cliff to embark on a nature activity with him before he leaves for China next month. Initially, we planned to trek from Bukit Batok Nature Park to Dairy Farm Nature Park/Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, but the forecast of rain in the early morning ended up foiling our plans. Thank God for our god-sent tendencies toward spontaneity, though, for we still found a way to have fun in the end. It's a joy going for such trips with this group of friends also because they tend to be fascinated by the littlest things and the simplest beauties. It definitely helps to be around an excitable bunch!
So this marks the end of a great week, and the anticipation of many more to follow. Thankful for the reminders for happiness, and the many small adventures. As much as I'm always raring to go and move on from this current phase of my life, it definitely pays to slow down a little, to look closely, to feel, and to not pressurise and rush myself all the time.
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