Life, Laughter and Everything Else

We were all given a rectangular piece of paper, about the size of my palm, and a pencil. The task was seemingly straightforward.  On that piece of paper, write down the biggest regret we held. It did not end up as easy as I thought. Of late, after a passage I had come across in a book, which dismissed regrets as pointless, as what had happened was divine fate and therefore beyond one's control, I had personally seen a dramatic decrease in the number of regrets over my past actions. Not that I did not make mistakes. Like every other human, I had made many, and will continue to make many, but mistakes were no cause for regret. Rather, it was providence to prevent repeating it. Subsequently, all my past personal failures, from the lack of effort I put in for my PSLE, the travel experiences I had skipped as superficial, the romantic relationships I had unambitiously not pursued or dismissed when they did come my way and the potential I had failed to maximise, did not hurt that muc...

"I want to go into supply chain. Work for the next two years. Apply for a Masters in Germany and work there. Probably get married slightly after that."  Like Mao, so was my grand 5 year plan. Though, on one of my rare strolls, I peered at this plan more closely. Where did it come from? 2 years ago, sitting in an office was an anathema to me. Formal long sleeve shirts were the last thing I wanted to wear and the fatigued, emotionless smartphone addicted employee returning to his home the last thing I wanted to look like. As I left my part time work today, after hours tidying up slides according to the liking of my boss who, despite my insistence, still stuck to his concept of cramming words onto the slides, I felt like them, tired. (Just during lunch earlier, I had come across a young entrepreneur, who smiling with a cigarette between his fingers, complained how one was always too tired to do anything by the time one reached home. A uniquely Singaporean experience, he h...