Singing Radiohead at the top of our lungs
With the boom box blaring as we’re falling in love
I got a bottle of whatever, but it’s getting us drunk
Singing here’s to never growing up
So 2 months have passed since I ORD-ed. Time seems to pass really slowly these days, especially due to the mundane nature of my work. Work Monday-Friday, weekend breaks and this goes on and on. Of course, not being tied down to the SAF feels so great, but at the start it feels like we were just thrown back to society and had no clue what to do. Some people already had plans for themselves, such as backpacking overseas or getting a job already. As time passed, I could feel the transition of us becoming young adults and gradually having more responsibilities. No one is going to spoon-feed you or protect you in the outside world, it’s really you against everyone else in the world. I have 5 months till university starts, so what will I do with it?
WORKKKKK
With zero income (yays to being officially unemployed from the SAF), it would become a must to find a job to earn some money. Of course, it’s very tempting to slack all the way till university starts, but 5 months is a very LONGGGGG period so my job search began! Immediately after collecting back my pink IC at camp, I went to Orchard with TY and A to fill up the application form for Recruit Express. Since I had no job experience I was left stoning at home and waiting for possible offers to come up. Nothing ideal came up for a while, and fortunately B just found a job as a tele-appointer at Prudential and they were looking for people to join them. The pay was good, the work place was an okay distance from home, the work schedule was flexible and the job scope… let’s just say it’s not the most enriching, but of course it could have been worse. At the beginning, it was really difficult as I was never the type who was confident, let alone over the phone. Over more days of work, I slowly got better and now looking back, I’m glad I took up this job. I met some new people, as well as reunited with some Dunmanians (Since B called up all of his friends, which led to his friends of the friends, and the networking continues..). Yes I’m like the worst performing part-timer there, and I was so bad that I wanted to quit like just a week into the job. But I told myself everything is just an experience, and everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, it’s just that calling isn’t really my thing LOL. Nonetheless, after weeks of calling I’m getting bored and much less motivated to do well, so I see myself calling it quits soon maybe around next month and I’ll just relax for July. I think the people there aren’t too happy with especially me because I’m just chilling there talking with others like it’s a coffee shop here and not an office. Well, that’s what you get when your job is so luck-based (yes no matter how you convince me, I believe for this job it really just sees how lucky you are). There’s no need to slog myself out, I’ll definitely earn more in the future right! (forever procrastinating me >.<)
Other than a normal 9-5 job, I also started to teach tuition, and I must say teaching is an enriching job. I only can teach maths, and I was surprised that I was able to recall some of my H2 maths. I was very rusty at the start, to the point where I just stoned at some questions asked by my student and had to get back to her (so embarrassing…). Through more and more lessons, I got back my maths touch and I became more proficient in my teaching. Of course, there will be some topics which will come back and haunt you (ugh I hate you recurrence…), but other than that all is going smoothly in teaching tuition. I always see myself as an okay teacher and before I have considered a profession in teaching since it seemed like one which will be enriching. I don’t know why I ditched teaching as a possible job path and went to accounting (which is what I heard the most boring job ever). No regrets, I won’t look back and shall just try my best with the present. Putting jobs aside, tuition isn’t really very mentally tiring and it feels more of me as a senior helping my junior, rather than, “Hey, you’re paid to teach!”. When university starts, I’m not sure if I will be able to juggle tuition commitments but many others have it worse than me, so I shant complain. I’m really digressing here so in short, teaching tuition is really enjoyable (much better than my normal office job).
random korean class picture lololol
I finally did something which I listed in a post a few months ago, which was to sign up for Korean classes! Signing up for it was really out of the blue; it was on a random weekend which I was waiting for someone and had nothing to do, so I just walked to Kembangan Plaza and went for it. I was a little hesitant at first, but the people there were nice and I did some placement tests before joining the class. I wanted to learn at a faster pace so I chose a class with 2 lessons a week. I could only self-learn Korean to a certain stage and it would be only soon till I needed external lessons if I wanted to go further. The lessons turned out well and I learnt much more than expected during this short period of time. I just completed the Basic 3 stage and I’m really looking forward to completing the Basic stage at June. Again, whether I would be continuing classes when university starts is another big question mark. Also, these lessons are not cheap at all, and although they are fun, it’s not feasible for me to keep continuing lessons throughout for the next years. This is yet another “see how it goes and go with the flow” kinda thing. Who knows maybe by then, the Kpop in me already died out and I wouldn’t be that interested in more lessons, or by then I would be dying in university and won’t have time for it. GAHHH what’s with the negativity lols…
As most of the guys ORD-ed, it seemed natural that we all would have more time to meet up, which we did but it took a while. But with everyone’s work schedule, it seemed that only weekends are the common time. At least now without army, we could meet up during evenings as well. There were many 21st birthday parties during this period, and it is always nice to see faces which I don’t usually get to see. Other than the chinese new year gathering at Mr. Yap’s house, these parties actually serve as a catch-up sessions for most of us guys. I haven’t seen MR and WZ for a very long time so within these few months, I saw them quite a number of times as well, D also since he has been also busy with his air force stuff and now with a “significant other” haha. So I missed J’s birthday party due to New Zealand, which was sad but I went for JJ, T, C and D’s birthday parties. I gotta admit, during all those parties, I didn’t really have the chance to speak with the birthday boy/girl, and in all these parties it felt like, “Alright, actually if I didn’t come it wouldn’t matter to that person.”. Okay maybe except for D since it was obvious that he has 2 groups of friends, the Dunman gang and his church friends. Nonetheless, I shall not turn this into another ranting post so putting that aside, these parties end up us a catch-up session, seeing old friends and like the good ol’ times, just chilling and enjoying the moment. D flew off to the US recently so we had supper with him 2 days before, and sending friends away may seem more and more common as time passes. It’s kinda obvious that some friends are starting to fade away, and this will continue when university starts. Not only my DHS friends, but also the friends from army, I really wish that we will still keep in contact. Cheers! (i didn’t know how to end this para LOL).
SEOUL~!
I’m finally going to KOREAAAA, 대한민국~! During this long break till university starts, a getaway trip has always been one on top of the list. Seeing all those constant travel pictures on instagram from exchanges/holidays (BX is such a badass going to North Korea and Russia), fuck yeah it’s finally my turn. There has been discussions over the past few months, with me and L being the two who are set to go already. YS and T tagged along and we assembled our group. We booked tickets, lodging and did some research, and after 1 month, I’m all set and go! Work, work, work, time flies and I’m now moments away from going to the airport. We’re even stopping 1 day at Vietnam during our transit back to Singapore. I’m really hyped up for this trip because: 1. It’s freaking KOREA and it’s actually my first time there, 2. I’m going there with friends, so it would surely be a different experience as compared to when I go with the family. I’m only spending 6 nights there, and I would have loved to stay longer if time permits but I’ll be okay with what I have haha. There are just too many places that I want to go but wouldn’t have a chance to go (Gwanju, Jeonju to see the famous Taeyeon Shrine, Jeju Island, Busan), so I’ll leave that for my next trip. Hopefully, in an attempt to revive this dead wordpress, I’ll do some posts regarding my travel experiences in Korea. Of course, it will be beer, soju, BBQ for nearly every meal, along with street food, it’s time for another weight loss program once I come back and I’ll have to bring my lazy ass out of the chair.
Yes, this is getting so repetitive, I haven’t been posting here and I missed an April post. And this post is rushed as well because I’m going off to the airport soon LOL. It isn’t really that I don’t have, but rather I haven’t been making use of my time well. On my ‘downtime’, I just lie on my bed, watch videos and do nothing, so I hope that I will be more productive even when I’m slacking, such as learning more Korean, posting here or even just a short run. Time is what I have the most now, and in the future, free time would be so precious. In my korean class where majority of the people are working adults, they only have annual leaves from their companies, so if they want a getaway they pretty much can kiss half of their leave days goodbye. Transitioning into adulthood sucks a lot, no one wants to have responsibilities. But you don’t run away; you embrace those changes and don’t let it get the better of you. Until then, let’s enjoy the last of our youth, do whatever I love and even when I grow old, everyone knows that there’s still a youthful side on you hiding inside (in korean you would say choding). So here’s to never growing up~
(P.S. I will try my upmost best to do more posts here, I have so many drafts rotting here at my dashboard so I would delete some and finish up the rest. There are some which I do want to release ASAP so let’s hope that this place won’t be so dead by then).
And again, the obligatory SNSD gif, Korea here I come! ^_^
Nick // Guardian 