Commencement 2015

Unlike the graduation ceremonies of NTU/NUS held over a couple of days, SMU's commencement is one big day where the whole class of 2015 graduate together.

I started off my day getting myself registered at the counter and then decided to skip the opening ceremony and enjoy my lunch instead. Robert Timms was still having their 1-for-1 promotion so Sam and I decided to have that for lunch!

We shared a burger set and a pot of mussels. Pretty filling but worth the $33 we paid in total. (:

We continued window shopping around Suntec and the Godiva shop caught my eye. Since Sam had not tried the ice cream before, I led him there and we got a cone each! Sam chose the dark chocolate and I had the twist (half dark, half white chocolate). Sinful pleasures. :D

The verdict: Chocolate lovers should go for the dark chocolate. Glad that it's not bitter at all because I'm not a fan of dark chocolate... hehe. I decided to get the twist so that the richness wouldn't be too overwhelming. 

My happy boy with his very rich chocolatey ice cream! (:

Time passed pretty quickly and we decided to head back to the convention area to take pictures since most graduands were at the opening ceremony and we didn't have to fight for the backdrop to take pictures! It was a good thing that my parents and brother arrived by then to join us too! (:

My family... thank you for all the support you have provided me not just through these 4 years but throughout my entire life. These 4 years in SMU have made it difficult for me be home early and eat dinners together with all of you, but I hope you know that I've tried my best and I hope that you can 放心 now that one of your two children has graduated! (: You probably don't know this but when the dean asked all the graduands to face our parents and give a huge round of applause as a form of gratitude, I teared a little because I wouldn't have been able to make it so far without all of you. (': I love you Mummy, Daddy and little bro. (:

Sam. (:

Bf, thank you for being my pillar and helping me grow stronger through these 2.5 years. Thank you for complementing my weaknesses and never let me doubt my abilities. Also, thank you for making sure I get home safe from late night meetings and vetting my assignments till you blur... hehe sorry! ily <3

Bestie Yvonne and pretty girl Vanna came too! Thank you for coming and sticking by me through all these years! <3 I feel very fortunate that next time my children will have awesome Godmas hehehe. (:

Passed my 4 years with these 2 girls Joey and Rachel (well, most of it!) (: Glad to have met Joey since my day 1 at camp and then Rachel after. I'm thankful for all the mods I got to bid together with you especially since I suck at setting e$ for bids. When I bidded my major mods in Iceland alone, I overbidded every single mod by e$20. Hahaha. That's when I realised my year 1 and year 2 bidding rounds were awesome with the both of you! Hehe. Also, thank you for seeing me through my highs and lows especially in year 2 and for tolerating my sometimes half-past-six work... I only realised it when I started my major and was a lot more focused in year 3-4. (: 

SMUX Divers - Mark, Sam, me, Iris, Kai Keng, Chin Teck, (Almeric), Lu Xuan, Che'rie! (: Glad to have met all of you in the sport I love most in SMU - diving. It has been so much fun with all of you, especially since I was fortunate enough to bid a mod with some of you in the last semester! Hehe. I hope we will keep in touch because it would be awesome to go diving with all of you again. 

Results

Happiness is an understatement. I've also never gotten 8 straight As in my life but...

I'm super duper happy! My hard work paid off! My GPA is 4.0/4.0, not once, but twice in a row! 

Dean's list FTW!!! Whee!! (':

#toohappy

Last

I'm unofficially done with school! I ended classes last week. I felt extremely uplifted when I ended my very last class, being the last presenter of the last presentation of the semester. This also happened to be my very very last presentation in SMU so I concluded the presentation with "With this, I end our presentation and I end my final presentation in SMU". Those words felt so awesome to say out loud!

Anyway, I'm not officially done with school yet. The commencement ceremony has yet to come and I also have 3 reports due and final exams to take. So much for "last day of school". -.-

Ate lunch at Nam Nam with Joey on Thursday and then we proceeded to take pictures! We tried our best to include Rachel in our photos using the tablet but with little luck.

Here's Joey and I! She was my very first friend in SMU. We were coincidentally in the same Freshmen Teambuilding Camp (FTB) group and Bondue Camp (Business School) group. It was awesome knowing her throughout these 4 years even though we distanced a little as we eventually declared different majors and couldn't bid together as often anymore. Nevertheless, <3 <3 <3!

Trying to incorporate a life-sized Rachel face which failed... In the end we just left the screen black for Joey to photoshop.

Jumpshot!

Also, because 5 of us divers were in the same Ethics class together, we took some shots before leaving school too!
Jesslyn, Che'rie, Me, Teck and Luxuan

School is finally "over"! Sort of at least. Still got to meet these deadlines even though I already feel kind of burnt out right now. Tata... to a good night's sleep and a new day tomorrow!

Summer is coming!

It's the start of week 13 and it is my final lesson week in SMU! Time passes too fast and now I find myself savouring all my favourite foods in school before I don't get the chance to anymore - Prawn Aglio Olio from Tea Party, Green Curry Rice, Coco Custard and Thai Iced Tea from Loaves Me, Dumpling Soup and 7-inch pizza from Koufu, freshly-made Ham and Egg sandwich from Breadtalk. Yum!

Before I leave, I think I also need a dip in the swimming pool and the gym if possible. The library has been my favourite place this past year so I can say I've definitely made good use of all the new furniture and facilities after the renovation. Hehe.

I've an individual essay due tomorrow and I guess I am here to stir up some imagination in my brain, again. Heh. School life has been hectic ever since we finished the Chingay parade. I guess hectic can be good especially when I've spent the past year mostly alone after watching batches of friends graduate, including Sam. =/ School can get really lonely sometimes because we all take different modules but I guess this is going to be how it is, and I only have 1 week left! YAY! (I'm totally excluding the fact that I do have final exams after this one week is done though hahaha.)

Well, I guess it's back to work now for me! My next post will probably be when school is finally over! (:

Year 4

It's 2am and I have (sort of) a final exam tomorrow for one of my modules, but it is days like these that inspire me to write something.

Being a year 4 and about to graduate, I've become an expert at living this life in SMU. I have less than 4 weeks left and just thinking about it makes me feel a little sad. It's week 11, I have 2 presentations and 2 reports due next Tuesday and these are barely near completion, yet I don't feel the stress. Managing projects like these have become second to nature and it's the weekly plannings I've been doing that takes the stress away from my never-ending pile of work so that I can just focus on the tasks to complete.

Chingay 2015 - one of my modules

This semester, I'm striving to meet an academic goal I set out for myself. I don't know if I'm halfway there yet because the bulk of the assessment relies on my performance these final 4 weeks. I can only hope that it will turn out okay.

Listening to ex-SMU students have also made me realise a lot about the working world and their experiences help shape my expectations. I think something I've been doing right or trying to do better is to focus more on my loved ones and family. Coming home early, eating at home, chit chatting and teasing each other are some things I know my parents look forward to from me - and I've been trying my best recently. I'm glad I'm trying to incorporate some work-family balance in my life.

Reflecting on my own life, I can only think of 2 things right now: 

1. Life is short, make time for your family. 

2. Live each day without regrets.

I hope I will always keep this close to my heart. (:

Fab Feb

It's mid-Feb! And what can I say? The semester passed so fast. Less than 2 months more and I'm a graduate! This semester has been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride for me, I've been running on short bursts of energy, been kind of physically and psychologically drained but other than that I think I'm fine!

Today was a pretty eventful day, considering it's my first and last formal lesson of the week before Chinese New Year holidays. My 2nd class tomorrow is just proposal presentations from each group. Woke up early and left house early today. My first agenda of the day was to meet Joey for lunch and I was late because the train broke down! The electricity died on us in the middle of the tracks between two stations. This was my first time experiencing this in Singapore so at first I thought - oh no biggie, and continued reading my notes. After only 5 minutes, I realised how hot and stuffy it got and found that it was harder to breathe after about 10 minutes. (The curse of no ventilation). After 20 minutes, I think something pulled the train to the nearest station and the train driver manually opened the first door for everyone to get out. Called for a cab because of the extremely long taxi queue that formed and cabbed to town with mum. 

Met Joey for lunch, we had noodles, was not bad! Then I went for a manicure! Yay to pretty neat nails! We walked around aimlessly for a bit and then I made my way to Miramar Hotel to pack some Chingay goodie bags. 

Left around 4.30pm and headed to an imaginary career fair - it never existed! Turns out I mixed up the dates with the 2014 emailer (omg how could I!) Sigh. Anyway, I headed to school, ate my dinner, rested awhile and then went to class. Today's lesson was pretty chill and halfway into lesson, fireworks from afar started exploding outside the classroom window - was some CNY event. Prof decided to turn off all the lights so that we could enjoy the fireworks as it lasted! Guess today wasn't so bad after all!

Had a couple of ups and downs recently and I guess I just have to remember how very fortunate I am and to not take things for granted. (: