Less than a week till my AnE marathon :D

Can't wait for MYEs to be over... the more reviews I read about Ao no Exorcist, the more I'm sure it'll be a great watch :D So many other animes, so little time. Ah well, guess there's always the Dec hols :)

Lunch with 13 today~

Had lunch with (half of)10v13 today, including Jamie who returned to Singapore for a while. Somehow, even though we don't meet up that often, it's nice to know that some things never change, like our usual conversation topics haha. Was really good to meet all of them together again after so long... Looking forward to the next class outing, whenever that is :D

Back from volunteering at another event :D

Was a volunteer at the family games event organised by MPFSC yesterday. I had a more important role in this one because there were really quite few volunteers, so me and the rest of the interacters were assistant leaders for the groups. It was quite an interesting experience, once again, mainly because of interacting with the people there :D

We've all been living quite sheltered lives, we've barely stepped out of our comfort zone to see the other half of society where people aren't so fortunate, though we like to think we do. It's very easy to take for granted what we have, and assume that people elsewhere can't be that much worse off in comparison to us. But it's really all a matter of getting exposed to these things. We'd never feel the full impact of poverty unless we visit countries where this is really a problem, and see it for ourselves.

Talking to these people really makes a difference, it makes you aware that you should be very grateful for what you have. Nevertheless, it's still quite nice to still see them all so happy and positive, even with all their woes :)

Everyone has a story to tell, don't assume there's none simply because you haven't heard theirs yet.

So much for catching up on my sleep this hols

I'm staying up late every night.... Nope not to study, just to draw. My inspiration's suddenly come back, I just can't help it. I've gotta admit, for not drawing for some time, my skills don't seem to have worsened. In fact, I seem to be able to draw much better and faster now :D Quite happy with my works so far, might scan and colour one of them after my mind years.

Urrgh mid years.

Guess the holidays aren't THAT bad after all

Think I've been slacking quite a bit this week, partially because I think it won't make much of a difference if I study more anyway. Gotta get rid of that mindset. 

But this week was good, with meeting Mr Ng to go exploring around Tiong bahru and lunch on Monday, a rather fruitful Tuesday of PW, dinner on Thursday, and meeting Keith today. Today's 5 hour Xbox/PS2 marathon was a pretty good way to unwind... I've lost my touch in SC4 after not playing for so long. But Marvel vs Capcom was still pretty good, I managed to win half the matches or so :D 

Went to the library on Wednesday, and guess what, there's a big comics exhibition right at the entrance. Quite interesting to see other younger kid's works, they're actually not bad. If only I had those opportunities when I was younger. Anyway, I borrowed a book on anatomy  by Christopher Hart, specifically for manga. It provides quite a lot of useful details that I've kinda always wanted to know. Sadly I won't have much time to practise this hols, but I'm thinking of buying the book during Dec hols, along with a few other books I found. I realised Kino is not only a great place to get manga, but also a great place to get books on manga drawing too. I swear I love that bookshop. 

Anyway, time to get back to reality. Mid year exams in two weeks. I've reaally gotta stop having such a relaxed mindset. Not exactly that optimistic about these exams as I usually am... just hope I can scrape As or Bs at least :/

So many animes I wanna watch now

I mean besides the usual long and still-continuing animes, like Fairy Tail, which I'm gonna spam after A levels. I've found quite a few short and completed animes, that are pretty good. Ao no Exorcist, Shakugan no Shana, and Soul eater. Plenty more actually. But I think I'll start with Ao no Exorcist after mid year exams, it shouldn't take longer than a weekend if I marathon-watch it :D
 
 

Decisions always somehow turn out to be the right ones.

Similar to when I was applying for IP, I had no idea what was in store for me when I applied for Interact Club. Only after being in it I realise that I made the right decision. Being in Interact really exposes you to the other side of life that we don't commonly experience, be it kids from disadvantaged families, or simply lonely elderly people.

Started the day today with the last homegroup session of the term. I'll admit, the kids were pretty rowdy and hard to control, but it was fun watching them play I guess. Though most of the games were kinda fail with the children haha. And it was pretty nice that the people from the centre held a mini party for us, with food and even a small cake for us, in appreciation of us tutoring the kids every week. I guess I would miss the kids in some way over the holidays :/

Went for Makan Love after that. I thought that I wouldn't be able to communicate with the elderly much due to the language barrier. While that was mostly true, I was lucky enough to have an English educated couple at my table. I talked to them a lot, it was a really interesting experience. Both of them were 80 and 83 years old, and they had very interesting life experiences, like studying in Cambridge and failing, but still being able to succeed in life, and also travelling all around the world, to many many countries. What I found really cool was that they too volunteered a lot, even when they were in their 60s and 70s, and only stopped recently. Was quite funny when we talked about how things have changed since the past, like how music was supposedly better than the "noise" we have now haha. Somehow after talking about their grandchildren we ended up on the topic of my want to study medicine in future. I honestly felt really encouraged, and somewhat touched by the things they told me, like how I really shouldn't worry about things too much now, and that I should enjoy my youth.

They were really eager to talk to me too, probably because they don't live with their children, so they don't really have many people to talk to. But I think a really felt a true "warm fuzzy feeling" after talking to them, knowing that I at least managed to make a connection with them, even if only for that short period of time. That's what being in Interact is all about I guess. It's not just in being a volunteer in various events, to help with manual work and all. It's about the personal experiences gained from these events. Something like how my hospital attachment earlier this year was much more enriching and enlightening than any other hospital attachment I would have found on my own.

Another thing I found very interesting and impactful was the spirit of volunteerism. It was really there, with volunteers who were complete strangers to other volunteers helping each other out, and all of us staying back to clean the place even though we didn't really have to, till like 9+. I know those sound kinda trivial, but I can't really describe what I felt that really made an impact on me. Once again, seems like the decision to join Interact was a good one, as I'm now amongst people who have similar mindsets towards helping others.

Yes, I know I'm very busy now and haven't been blogging much, but I felt this was something important that I'd really like to capture, something that I'd really like to look back at and remember, in time to come.

"Don't be so uncertain of yourself, the future will only turn out the way you want it to be, if you're certain of yourself."