Seeds

Something I wrote on Tuesday. Reproduced below with some edits (none to the content, only sentence structure etc).

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Before leaving for 4th College on Monday 13 August [for PKV Junior Visitation], I was talking with How and Chee Seong [CS] about being politically radical and being bold to stand up for what we believe in. Many things, from running independent to Malaysian political system (and how UM politics deviates from it) and a little about CZ [name acronym-ed to protect confidentiality].

Chee Seong (and perhaps Yean Khinn) recently remarked that he seldom sees me study. How thinks I'm a very 'calm & cool' guy. And yesterday, they expressed surprise at my busyness with so many things. CS asked if I can cope.

And then, at one point, perhaps with more insight than I realised, I said I am planting the seeds early, before I get caught up in the momentum of busyness and the whole humdrum uni life routine.

Today while walking back to college after picking my umbrella up from Ann Jie [I'd left it in 9th College the night before], I thought about it again. And I realised a few things:

i) Mercifully, there are five years of secondary school, so although I started [being active] late I could still lay claim to being quite active.

ii) Mercifully, Miss Shanti was my Form 2 class teacher.

iii) Mercifully, she threw me into the deep end: early seeds of present counter-culture attitude.

[I say mercifully, because I wouldn't be where I am if not for all of this. "I nearly didn't miss the train..."]

And in Form 6, I wasn't going to sit still like I did in Form 1 and Form 2. Well, not that I was very still in Form 2, given Scrabble and GK [General Knowledge] quizzes which I used to 'host' in class, thus drawing Miss Shanti's attention, but still...

So now, here in UM, it's only three years. Only twice as long as Form 6. And so, so much that can be done. I'm planting seeds now because next year it will be too late. And studies? Truly I have never stopped studying, and my desire to expand my mind has never waned.

As I asked How and CS, "What do we want our time here to be worth? When we leave, will the void left by How or CS or Ben be felt?"

Well, maybe to seek earthly recognition is not quite right, but you get the idea. So I'm sowing, in hope of a harvest worth the effort and borne by grace.



(Computer 77 at the Science Computer Lab is pretty good! Only downside is that it opens picture files in Adobe ImageReady CS2 and this takes time to start up.)