Finally back

After an exhausting semester, I am finally back in Singapore. As I am typing this, I am sneezing my nose off. This always happen to me when I am back in Singapore. I guess its the change from dry to humid. I think I experienced a 20 plus degree change when I arrived back today. I am surprise that I am still alright, my friend who came back a day earlier is already down with a flu. Anyway, I realized how little I had blogged this semester. I apologize to whoever that is out there reading. The previous semester was a killer. I had so many essays to do, it wasn't funny. It came to a point in time where I just finished one and started immediately on another. Compared to my first semester in Sydney, my workload has doubled the amount. Hence, when I pondered the prospect of blogging, my mind just went blank.

Thankfully, the trauma has ended. I made it back today after a rather uneventful 7 hour flight. However, a comment made by this woman sitting beside me on the plane surprised me. As she took her seat next to me, she asked me if I was studying in a university in Sydney. I said yes. Her next move was to guess my university. She guessed University of Sydney. Obviously, this placed me in a tight spot. I denied and said that I was in UNSW. Her facial expression changed and she said, 'UNSW? Isn't it the school that closed down? Are you one of the affected ones?'

I replied no but I was perturbed by her remark. Although it was off the cuff, this remark showed how low my university's reputation has sunken to. After the fiasco of UNSW Asia, the impression that people get now of UNSW is that of non-existence. The woman may have meant it as a joke but it isn't funny to crack a joke on a student of UNSW. I am in UNSW to study and I am there because of its reputation as an education provider. Yet, the name of the university is now tarnished by some selfish money-grubbing individual that placed business interest over education. It is inevitable that a bad business decision will affect the reputation of the university as a whole. After all, people judge from first impression. If there is negative coverage, it affects every single student that will eventually recieve the certificate from UNSW. And it will affect poor me as well, having to endure the taunts even on the flight back to Singapore.

Besides that incident, the flight back was largely uneventful. SIA's standard is getting worse by the day but that is another story for another day. When I finally saw the coastline of Singapore in the distance, I realized that I have already completed one year of university education. In a blink of an eye, my life has changed from a shaven military boy into an aussified university student. How time flies. Not too long ago, I counted the days to ORD. Now, it has been 13 days since the one year anniversary of my ORD.

Indeed, it will soon be time to graduate and to look for a job. I guess its essential to grasp hold of time and make the fullest use of it.