Is like a somewhere slowly sinking sun
So I have made it back to Singapore - it is every bit as sticky and hot as I don't remember. The humidity hugs me like an overzealous aunt, and I feel like I'm constantly under the oppression of the sun and the water that hangs around in the air. But this is where I grew up, this is the place where I became who I am today, and so for all the heat and the sweat and did I mention the heat, i still am glad to be back.
It is 7:59 am here, usually I wouldn't be up this early but I am still jetlagging. Spent my first day back hanging out with jac and hongjie at jac's house, we helped to make pizza and then we drank lots of tea and talked about lots of stuff. it was almost as if I'd never been gone, except for the fact that we were all talking about college experiences rather than about PW or about 1B or about army. What felt the same was I guess the distance, or closeness, I felt - it's different from talking to any or all of the people I've met in my first year of college. There's a shared experience. There's a relatability. I feel more at ease. Perhaps it's just a function of time; it probably is. I also think it's a function of timing - I can't help feeling that beyond this point in my life, most of the new relationships and friendships that I form with people will be fundamentally different from those before, just because my earlier years felt so much more formative. That's not to discount any of the new friends I have made though, and again I am speaking way ahead of time because only time will tell and really it's only been a year. So yes. Time shakes its shaggy locks at me in weary disdain.
Spent all of yesterday at my Mom and Dad's workplace, helping them with the latest order of chemicals; this time it's mosquito repellents. Left home at 8, got back at around 10pm. Talk about a long day at work. I don't want to say too much about what the work was because it's not terribly interesting, but essentially from it I got a glimpse of a couple of things:
1. My mom and dad work extremely, extremely hard. And I haven't ever really heard them complain about their work or say things like "Do you know how hard we work for you"". Even when they do it's very embarrassedly, and it's usually when we do something terribly wrong. Point is, they work hard.
2. Earning money is not easy. This is one of those things which will keep coming back to hit me in the head, I think. Money doesn't grow on trees and even if it does those trees don't grow by themselves and you still have to harvest the money and that requires time and workers and investments and machines...anyway, point is that there's a lot of work that needs to be done, and a lot of starting work will seem useless and fruitless and not profitable but it is an investment.
Few more things I didn't get down, but I have to go now, training starts at 9.