Text reside here but blogger is elsewhere.
This time of the year, for the past 2 years, I'd be begging for tutorial slots, hooking up with friends to do modules with me. Specifically, Aaron Susu for most of the time, simply because we believe we're brothers if there ever was a last life.
And I can't believe it! Here I am, comfortably perched on this chair in the office, overlooking the city of Shanghai, touted as a city more high-tech than Singapore. It almost feels like I've graduated and am working already, save for the peanuts as renumeration. But that's beside the point, bodies in NUS supporting students going overseas are giving more than enough to supplement what's needed to live here.
For this, I do not need to graduate later, I did not spend my undergrad years in one location (take that, Kate and Caryn ;p), I get to intern with a company overseas and learn what it's like being in another culture so I can compare when I'm back in SG, or HK for that matter. I get to know what it's like to study in another university other than our dear NUS. What more can you ask for, seriously? NOC, it's the program to join. Here are the 14 talented people (correct as of Jul 18 07) who have gone through 2 rounds of intensive interviews, been crazy enough to handle company interviews (some through trunk calls with the employer overseas and some through meet-ups in the Singaporean offices) all during the exam period, and are willing to leave all that they have in Singapore behind to come to a foreign place and see just how far they can take it. The theme at the end of the day, is technopreneurship, and we mustn't lose sight of this now.
To just leave here with the knowledge of the mechanics of working in a company would be to throw a spanner into the gears of a machine you just built after months of non-stop effort. Yet, all this post serves to do is to show gratitude, that such a program exists in NUS, and I found out about it. This is the closest to personal space I can ever ask for, some time away on my own to grow. And yes I miss my friends and family. It's sinking in. I won't see most of them for a year. But they're still very close to heart everytime we connect on MSN.
A short moment to think of those who've gone, may you find peace wherever you are.
