Lately I’ve been taking a retrospective look at my life and was left wondering what the future has in store for me.
My introspection began with a series of happy coincidences that occurred across a span of a week. Things began at one of the NYP graduation ceremonies I attended. I was helping to organise and run photo opportunities for award winners and the VIPs when one of the award winners came up to me and asked if I could help them take a photo.
This is where things get interesting. This person was an award-winning student who also happened to be a former student of mine whom I trained in the art of classical guitar. When his mother approached me, whom I also trained, she asked if I used to teach classical guitar. It took me a second to place the mother and son duo but when it struck me, I began smiling from ear to ear. I also take great joy in meeting my former students. We spoke for a while, and I was particularly glad to see that the son had performed so well in his academic studies.
This chance meeting brought back a flood of memories of the various students I trained during my early twenties. It made me think about the various students I trained – some for exams or the stage, some were grand parents, children, adult learners and so on.
I’ve also had the privilege of training students from all over the world, including those from Malaysia, UK, USA, Netherlands, Indonesia, China and so on.
It was quite an exciting adventure and looking back, it feels incredulous to have trained such a wide and diverse pool of students.
But there is more to my life than teaching classical guitar.
The same week of the NYP Graduation as I was taking the train home, I met my former Project Manager from Ogilvy, Hon Peow. I was taking the elevator down as he was walking up the stairs. Our eyes met and we exchanged quick, but excited pleasantries as the rush hour crowd separated us. It’s been years since we’ve seen each other, and we continued catching up over Whatsapp as we boarded our respective trains.
I worked at Ogilvy to gain some experience and earn some quick cash before I started my undergraduate studies. It was quite an eye-opener and a great way to start my career. Peow was my Project Manager and he is a nice guy to work with. He is a fun and insanely entertaining, with a great work ethic and a level-head. We ended our Whatsapp exchange with a promise to meet over beer so that we can catch up. I’ll have to find the time to do that soon.
This opened another floodgate of memories. I remembered working in the old Ogilvy Centre next to Lau Pa Sat, pulling all nighters and working through the weekends on big accounts. It seems like a lifetime ago.
Finally, in that same week, I was running some errands around Funan the IT Mall when I dropped in on my former colleagues from MCYS (now part of MCCY) to say hello. It was nice catching up with everyone and I was happy to see that they had settled into the new ministry.
The 1 year I spent at MCYS working on the President’s Challenge was another interesting chapter of my life. Honestly, I made a lot of sacrifices to stay there as long as I did, but I was surrounded by highly intelligent people who were incredibly nice – two qualities that rarely co-exist .
To be surrounded by so many of these kind of people was a real treat, which was the main reason I stayed. Believe it or not, working for the highest political office in Singapore wasn’t as important. I relish the opportunity to work in the social services sector and I wish I had more time to do so, but my expertise as a classical guitarist leaves me with little time for much else.
These three encounters made me think about the 29 years of my life. I still consider myself a young man, but I have lived quite an interesting life.
It made me wonder what’s left of life for me to experience? Haven’t I already experienced most of the things I wanted? Are there any feelings from my youth I can recapture?
Can I go home again? Or is a jaded downhill ride all that is left?
I got the answer in an unusual way.
Recently I was doing some shopping in a department store when a young lady in her mid twenties came to assist me. We chatted for a bit, but I was too engrossed in shopping to pay much attention to her, but when I did, I was quite taken by how stunning she was.
I felt like a 12 year old boy developing his first crush. I thought I’d be too old to feel that way again, but clearly by heart had other ideas. Despite everything I’ve done and experienced, it is nice to know that I can still feel that way about someone and in that brief moment, I managed to “go home”.
It’s been awhile since I’ve tried to chat up a girl, so I was kind of rusty. I can be quite smooth and charming when I want to be, but I was really nervous talking to this girl.
I’ve been on stage several times for public speaking engagements or to perform complex classical guitar music, and done pretty well in both areas, but when it comes to chatting up this girl I was as smooth as coarse sandpaper.
So there I was, trying to hide my awkwardness, discreetly trying to learn more about her while looking for a wedding ring. Eventually I gave her my personal card with a hand-written message on the back, where I told her I found her attractive and asked her to contact me if she was single and interested.
Later that night, I received a message from her.
She told me she was flattered but she was seeing someone else. It wasn’t what I was hoping to hear, but I wished her well all the same. Even though it didn’t work out, I’m glad I gave it a shot. At the very least, she got an ego boost and a cute story from the encounter and I cleared my conscious by taking a chance instead of walking away drenched in fear and regret.
I’ve had some time to reflect upon what happened and frankly, I have no idea why I found her so captivating. I wish I had the opportunity to find out why, but I guess some things are not meant to be.
