More numbered points for the week ahead

1. Yesterday's PSC Tea was proof of what I've told many people about absolution and relativity - the group of us in attendance (as with the other 8 sessions) make up 10 of approximately 80 offered candidates who are all at once epitomes of the collective abilities and aspirations of a cohort (and by this you know what I mean; the officers in attendance never once mentioned any institution other than ACIB, RJ or HC) and yet not in the least representative of any possible majority.

2. On my Wednesday off this week I had toyed with the idea of writing a post about studies and timing, or put together, the timing of my studies, but I didn't because it would have been one of those posts about expectations and hindsight which I've been fond of whenever I meet with new directions which I would have anticipated and imagined differently. There are just two points to take away from it - that I have, with every inch of my being, wanted and tried my utmost to win the right to study in 2009 (I'm afforded the opportunity to study abroad in 2010, though I can decide not to hurry and study either abroad or locally in 2011), and that I won't be and it will with no doubt turn out to be the direction that I would not have changed for any other. I'm surprised to find myself caught up with local university admissions as I was with the overseas once not too long ago, and I continue to extend my congratulations to my friends and peers who have gained these, particularly to those who could very potentially be my faculty mates. I've mentioned that NUSMED, NUSLAW, Dentistry and Double Degree are the only courses I view in the same light as an overseas education that is worth fighting for. That I'm not in any of these 4 is simply and only because I chose not to throw my hat in the ring; it may be that FASS is not "becoming" of who I am, or that the reaction to me not having gotten a place in Oxford PPE is met with flattering flabbergasted-ness, but I will never allow myself to feel entitled to anything. I normally begin my response to all these related conversation topics and questions with "It's a funny story", and so I might as well tell of this tale here. I have 2 NUSLAW graduates as parents and am a rather involved debater with both trophies and experiences to speak of, and I blame no one for seeing a "NUSLAW" stamp on my forehead. I do not understand, however, the reasoning that prestige alone warrants trying. That's the same guiding principle for the above-named courses. I decided to accept the scholarship under the terms that I'd study in Singapore and read Arts and Social Sciences, the former because I think the only conditional offer I received from Durham (which is still up in the air because of an unanswered appeal query) was not sufficient, the latter because I had a choice between that or Law or Business, and I thought hey, why not do something with the breadth which I will really enjoy. So that's precisely what I plan to do if I do go ahead with the scholarship - read Literature or something I can really immerse myself in not just academically. Yet with many of those of my ilk who have local spaces as backups, the same applies to this NUSFASS-scholarship-study in 2011 circumstance I've placed myself in for now. If and when I do find it in myself to do this all over again, I do hope for better returns through a wiser, more discerned and optimum, rather than maximum as I think I did last time, approach.