Reflections

30th June 09.
Marks the existence of one Khoo Kok Keong for almost two decades!
Keep your little note from 'That Special Girl' ya? =P

30th June 09.
Marks the anniversary of...
Stepping into the unchartered, unknown, and under-developed land of Nilai.
Been in Nilai (and thus, away from home) for one year now.
So fast, so fast.

And yet when we're here, things seem so mundane.
Class, eat, sleep, study, stone, sit for exams.
Repeat cycle.

Just by doing that, it's been a whole year already!
But a moment ago, I was crying over the phone (yes, so the drama. =P) with Lynn thinking of the years apart, communication difficulties, the hugeee distance and leaving the little island. All the endless worrying about being far away from loved ones, being all alone in some foriegn country time zones away, the uncertainty of what's gonna happen next...Sure, i'm still clueless about my future (scared even) but i'm submitting it all before higher authority. =) I'll go where i'm called to go, not where my plans take me.

I can honestly say i wouldn't wanna change a thing about being here.
Well, except the insect ridden room and the food. That could use some sprucing up. Ehehe.
In the past weeks, i've come to realize that opting not to pursue the Northwestern waitlist was the right choice. Yeah sure, i could have been admitted (or not) into Northwestern if i waited. But there's so much more for me here right now that i can't get in US (no, i'm not delusional).
Serving, growing, learning and ultimately, changing to become a better me.
I'm glad there's an extra year for me to fully equip myself with a strong foundation before stepping out into foreign places.

In the past 365 days here,
Made new friends.
Learnt about learning ie. classical conditioning, Pavlov's theory...
Countless birthday surprises.
Squashed like sardins on board KTM.
Decimated insects by the dozens. XD
Got food poisoning.
Sleep over & movie night.
Academic award presentations.
Emo calculus test all-hope-is-gone moments.
Attended awesome conferences (Bloom Conference 08 & Revo Conference 09).
Going to concerts (this sunday!).
and so on and so forth...

The uluness is a setback sometimes. But i know my purpose here. I know it's not by chance or luck that i've gotten a scholarship to study in US and been placed Inti, Nilai.
I found it interesting that my batch is the one and only one with JPA students majoring in Engineering. None of our seniors were engineering majors and none of them in the new batch coming in this Wednesday are majoring in engineering.
So why did a handful of engineering students get sent to Inti, Nilai in 2008? ;)

Another 365 days around, it'll be time to prepare for the US of A.
We'll see what happens then. =)

Thank you for going through my 'verbal diarrhea'! =D