third time's a charm? i'm dun intend to find out.
after the recent bombing in London, a very big issue just dawned upon me. my second uncle's family on my mum side have survived 2 disasters within a year. Back in December, my uncle, together with my aunt who was visiting, was working in Sri Lanka when the Tsunami struck. thankfully, he was not working in the coastal regions but further inland. my cousin, the eldest daughter of my second uncle, is currently working in London when that dastardly attack happened. from what i gathered, she was in the other part of London when it happened. in between, i survived my own near-life-ending bicycle accident. oh my, it seems that this past year hasn't been very good for me and my family.
talking about bicycle accident, i remember back in 2003 when i had just joined NTU not long. a fellow schoolmate was involved in an accident and had died. no offence to Alvin Boey and his family. i can not say i knew Alvin because before the accident was flashed in the news, i didn't even knew him. why i picked upon this to relate because in life, you never really know who your friends are till something happens. when news of that accident broke, for reasons unbeknownst to me except the local media, the name of the student was reported as Alvin Ho. yup same name as me. it was repeated in all the news telecast and in the papers. Alvin Ho was spoken printed and flashed over and over again in the local media when in fact the person was Alvin Boey. what made it even more eerie was that this guy was in the same course, same year and same age as me. when news of this broke out, i did not even realise till i had a hurried phone call from my secondary school friend, Benedict. he called my home and asked for me. he seemed anxious and very reserved. i was perplexed as to what happened and he told me that he was afraid that the person in the news was me. i assured him i was alright. after that, Herman called. seeing that things might get abit out of hand, i decided to call my mum and my extended family to put them at ease. got a couple more calls from my secondary school mates and everyone was glad i was ok. thanks guys, i really appreciate your concern. what vexed me though was that, nobody from my camp bothered to call and find out if i was ok. in fact, when they heard the news, some were even sniggering. thanks guys, i feel so "safe" trusting you guys. i know i'm mister unpopular but you guys are so fricking "compasionate".
couple of months later, when i was involved in my project term, EID, this topic was raised again. we were all into the groove and had got to know each other better. during lunch one day, Karen had happened to bring up the topic. when she read the news initially, she was thinking, "Oh my, we have not even met to begin out project and he's dead?" well, now that so many things have happened since, Karen, I wouldn't blame you if you wished that it was i who was in the accident back in 2003. then again, i know you are not capable of such malice. you are capable of being hard hearted but i know it is not you to have such immoral thoughts. however, if such thoughts did cross your mind, especially after my accident back in April, I forgive you.
many a times, we always take for granted the things we have, we never really cherish what we have till we lose it. we think that everything we have is so because it is our right. nothing in life is ever yours because it is your right. someone, be it yourself or someone else, had to fight for it, work towards it, before you got it. in life, there are no constants. trains can be late, taxes can be adjusted, even a very fat person can become just normal fat. when things change, we often are only seeing what others want us to see. this is so because if we are shown what we do not want to know, we would be resistant to the issue. we always need to look at things from different perspectives, not just from both sides of a coin. doing so will help us accept the issues, to allow us to have our individual opinions. else, we would be no more than a relay station or worse, a broken record.
talking about bicycle accident, i remember back in 2003 when i had just joined NTU not long. a fellow schoolmate was involved in an accident and had died. no offence to Alvin Boey and his family. i can not say i knew Alvin because before the accident was flashed in the news, i didn't even knew him. why i picked upon this to relate because in life, you never really know who your friends are till something happens. when news of that accident broke, for reasons unbeknownst to me except the local media, the name of the student was reported as Alvin Ho. yup same name as me. it was repeated in all the news telecast and in the papers. Alvin Ho was spoken printed and flashed over and over again in the local media when in fact the person was Alvin Boey. what made it even more eerie was that this guy was in the same course, same year and same age as me. when news of this broke out, i did not even realise till i had a hurried phone call from my secondary school friend, Benedict. he called my home and asked for me. he seemed anxious and very reserved. i was perplexed as to what happened and he told me that he was afraid that the person in the news was me. i assured him i was alright. after that, Herman called. seeing that things might get abit out of hand, i decided to call my mum and my extended family to put them at ease. got a couple more calls from my secondary school mates and everyone was glad i was ok. thanks guys, i really appreciate your concern. what vexed me though was that, nobody from my camp bothered to call and find out if i was ok. in fact, when they heard the news, some were even sniggering. thanks guys, i feel so "safe" trusting you guys. i know i'm mister unpopular but you guys are so fricking "compasionate".
couple of months later, when i was involved in my project term, EID, this topic was raised again. we were all into the groove and had got to know each other better. during lunch one day, Karen had happened to bring up the topic. when she read the news initially, she was thinking, "Oh my, we have not even met to begin out project and he's dead?" well, now that so many things have happened since, Karen, I wouldn't blame you if you wished that it was i who was in the accident back in 2003. then again, i know you are not capable of such malice. you are capable of being hard hearted but i know it is not you to have such immoral thoughts. however, if such thoughts did cross your mind, especially after my accident back in April, I forgive you.
many a times, we always take for granted the things we have, we never really cherish what we have till we lose it. we think that everything we have is so because it is our right. nothing in life is ever yours because it is your right. someone, be it yourself or someone else, had to fight for it, work towards it, before you got it. in life, there are no constants. trains can be late, taxes can be adjusted, even a very fat person can become just normal fat. when things change, we often are only seeing what others want us to see. this is so because if we are shown what we do not want to know, we would be resistant to the issue. we always need to look at things from different perspectives, not just from both sides of a coin. doing so will help us accept the issues, to allow us to have our individual opinions. else, we would be no more than a relay station or worse, a broken record.
posted by Prosage at 11:57 pm
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