21 Years Old Baby!

It's my 21st year on this little planet orbited by a tinier moon part of a universe made by a creator who has a very high probability of existing.

At age 16 wanting to have a simpler existence in a far (well 5 hours by plane anyway) away island of Australia, I descended into Perth. Spent a fun year of non-study and enjoying a relatively good pair of legs. Did relatively well (totally ignorant of the fact that it would dictate the rest of my tertiary career) and flew back to Singapore to serve in our glorious conscription army (Think Russia).

What do I think of that year? It was fun and stupid and enjoyable all at the same time, if I could say which year in my 21 years on earth was the most enjoyable, it would be that single year when I was almost completely cured of my multiple exostosis (Bone problem which makes walking hurt).

At age 16 1/2 in December of 2002 I joined the wonderful Armed Forces of Singapore. For the time of basic training, my closest friends were still in JC worrying about the 'A' Levels, having no one to bitch with made the first few months of transition difficult, not to mention being the youngest person in my company.

In retrospect I think the reason it was difficult for me to adapt in BMT because I have a problem with authority and respecting older people unless I believe they deserve it. Bad idea when in the army.

For the next year I was sent to certain units which I am not supposed to talk about. I'd talk about them but our army has a habit of finding things out. (If our intelligence branch finds my website *again please don't send me any more messages I am overseas)

After a few operations in hopes of curing my bone problems, I lost the nerves on the top of my right shin and weakened my legs considerably. A large mistake on my part.

The rest of my army life will remain a mystery to everyone but myself.

Till now I have not fully recovered from my operations and in pushing too hard have torn a mensicus in my left knee. This year I hope to slowly achieve a certain amount of strength.

I returned to Perth with the intention of leaving after my service in the army. It had been a tough 2 years (I owed them another 4 months) and I had actually hoped for some relief but after 7 days of leave, school started.

From day one I knew I had made mistakes in allowing IDP Singapore to handle my accomodations. Arriving at my lodgings, I was met (not greeted) by a curly haired Korean girl by the name of Joo who obviously did not appreciate being taken out of bed at 12 noon on a weekend to open the main door for a freshie to UWA, she had dyed her hair bright red in that typical way that us asians enjoy and had the posture of a rebellious teenager who thought that the world revolved in a slow orbit around her skinny frame. Upon reaching my new room, being the spoilt rich kid who had a huge room, a huge balcony, huge windows and a huge attic (All of which I have never appreciated till that very moment and in fact I had never used the attic or the balcony in my entire life), was shocked by how tiny it was, the horrendous pale vomit coloured walls and the walking space the width of which was about the size of my frame and the length of which was about 10 paces. Note here that my parents and I were not used to living "small", the room was soon filled to the brim with things which I now know I do not need and have brought them all to Sydney only to pack them up into boxes so that they won't get in my way, but that is a story for a later time. I remember my words exactly the moment Joo opened the door to my new wonderful room:

"Wow it's damn small!"


She gave a blank look, passed me my keys and wandered off to her room, probably to get more sleep from whatever hang over she was recovering from.

And as it goes I met more people from the floor and the good part of living in a new country flowed in it's typical fashion.

Then administrative hell occurred.

I always seem to set myself up for hell on earth as I very much wanted to persue psychology as my career but having parents who stated very clearly that I will live with small amounts of money as a psychologist. I should follow my heart but I should also know that I should do business so I can make money.

Trust me just thinking of my future career and my decisions to study things in uni makes my chest hurt and fills me with frustrative anxiety.

University in first semester was hell for me, I was not ready to have to sleep in a noisy environment. Student admin was a horrible place to be.

Then school went on and first semester finished. Second semester came along and was much better in my new room and there was peace. It was a relatively good semester.

Then I figured, 4 and a half years in Perth, no...way...

In short, after researching the other universities, I ended up in Sydney.

As of today, the trial of adapting and solving to the life in Sydney has slowed down and reached a pace which I can work with.

1. The wonderful decision of what degree and majors to persue
2. Accomodation hell thy name is SUV administration.
3. The great credit error of Usyd's International Office

To make a long story short, most problems have been solved and now it is a matter of follow up.

The uni will pay for my new textbooks.

I have to catch up 3 weeks worth of second year accounting

I have to set up an appointment with careers centre

I have to wait for SUV to terminate my contract so I can move out to International House and if they do not terminate in 2 weeks I have to take the matter up with both accomodations

I still have to study the 3 other units which is starting to pile up

Here's to a great 21st year on this glorious planet.