Singapore, and the chance of an exchange here, represented a truck load of things for me. It promised a chance to enjoy humid weather, to clear my pores, decorate a fresh new room, meet new friends, take a step back from my life as I know it, and of course, gain new perspectives.
So far, I haven't been disappointed. There have been added advantages of course...my hair has leaped at the chance to gain new heights in volume (refer pic. above, and ignore the date, I never set my camera), and I have discovered the Chinese translation of my name. None of which could have happened if I hadn't come here!!
What has really struck me though, is the very varied perspectives I've come across. If you put a whole lot of lawyers in a little campus in the middle of nowhere, they are bound to start thinking in a very similar way (much as you may hate to hear this, my dear fellow law schoolites, we are actually a little too alike!). Here, especially through the massive exchange programme, I have met people who have travelled widely, who are studying everything from business and mathematics to English and French, who have gone to a school right next to a beach, who have been a part of a circus, who have been in their national swimming teams, who have had a tribesman offer his two very beautiful daughters in marriage, who have been nerds and lived to tell the tale.....all of whom, see life through very different lenses from the ones I've been wearing. And this has been so refreshing!
It's been almost a week since I moved on campus, and already I can feel myself healing. My usual jadedness seems to be mellowing with the sea breeze, and much of the pain and anger which from time to time drives me onto the very edge of insanity seems to slowly be dissipating with long relaxed conversations and walking at the edge of the sea. Memories, as always, remain. But as newer ones come crowding in, the old bow their way to the back of the drawer.
Hair notwithstanding, I am glad to be here.
