Packing Up

I'm in the process of clearing my desk right now. Someone asked me how I was feeling -- am I sad? Well, yes and no. Certain things make me sad, like reading Russell's request letter to take literature and knowing how he left (he wrote something like, "I don't believe you can really study literature, because literature studies you", or something to that effect, along those lines) and that got me briefly angry, because if he could write that letter, he could have jolly well done better, but, ah... such is life. Some things make me laugh, like the (I think it's Annabel's) Spider essay that I saw somewhere in my file. Some things touched me in the strangest, most unexpected ways... But all in all, as you guys understand now that your A' levels are done, I have stuff to clear, so I have to throw away a lot of what was accumulated. And while I have certain regrets and certain memories of happiness that I wish to keep for myself, I have to move on to face new challenges and conquer new fears.

I'm happy with what I've done in the past few years. I had an inkling that I was going to do my Masters again in the future, so I knew at some point of time I had to leave. It was just deciding when. As I told someone, part of my decision to stay (yes, I think you all know that it must have crossed my mind when the Exodus happened) was because of you all. I hope I did a decent job because I'm sure that many times, I must have been running round like a headless paranoid chicken (yes, another person did mention that my blog sounded like a stress-relief outlet). I enjoyed teaching my current IP 3s as well and I guess I would have continued teaching them, if I hadn't decided to leave. Perhaps the H3 experience with some of you sealed my grad school convictions further, because I'm reminded of the kind of intense but rewarding experience that writing a thesis-like paper on your own can be like (ok, but last-minute work does NOT always yield sufficient results, contrary to popular belief). Now that my main job is done, I'm quite satisfied.

Yes, it occurred to me that I might see some of you in NUS. (Perhaps a coffee/tea sometime? What are you all doing now?)

I read somewhere in the preface of the commemorative IP book that if there was one thing that you all should remember was that you were loved. And that was true. At least, in my case anyway.

So now, all that's left is for you to go out there and make something out of your hopes and dreams and your lives.

Iconically, Ian McKellen in MacBeth

I'm clearing out my desktop and I spot this -- have I ever showed you this before during WP?


MacBeth with the three witches

Beautiful.

Quotation from Louis McNeice

Henceforth, this blog shall be a repository of random artsy-fartsy things:

"I would have a poet able-bodied, fond of talking, a reader of newspapers, capable of pity and laughter, informed in economics, appreciative of women, involved in personal relationships, actively interested in politics, susceptible to physical impressions."