Where I have travelled

I turn 25 tomorrow. Actually, I am already 25, since it's the 20th in Singapore and that is my birthplace. But for now, I am in Ann Arbor and it's not quite the 20th yet.

A quarter of a century. It sounds a lot when I put it that way. But I still feel young...-ish. I'm not world-weary, but I've done my time in the teenage angst years, the university bit, the working world horrors.

This is not an inexhaustible list, just a look back at the milestones in my life:

1978 - born to dear parents and enter the life of my big brother, Randy, who waits eagerly for my arrival at the hospital.

1981 - the earliest memory I have is walking round the pool at Marymount Kindergarten talking to myself (with my finger pointing to the sky), knowing full well that my mother was taking a photo of me. It was my brother's birthday celebration at school and my mom brought a cake and me along. My mother still has that photo.

1982 - I enter nursery and I remember crying or getting upset about something. That gets the teacher's attention and to console me, she lets me play Sleeping Beauty in the skit that afternoon.

1984 - I am in K2, and a boy at school collects a string of girlfriends. He picks girls who have cute things like nice pencil cases or ribbons in their hair. I'm curious what a girlfriend is, so I wear my pink shoes to school and am immediately claimed by this boy. I hate it, go home crying, get consoled by my brother, and vow never to wear nice things to school again.

1985 - Primary One at last! Mrs. Tan tells my mother that I am a bright, chatty girl. I am also the smallest in class.

1986 - I get bullied at school and eventually change my seat so that I don't sit in front of the bully anymore. Despite my traumatic experiences and somewhat lazy approach to homework, I wind up seventh girl in class at the year's end.

1988 - I transfer to Singapore Chinese Girls' School, where I meet some of my oldest and closest friends - Desiree and Van Tan.

1989 - I compose my first poem in the shower on a Sunday morning. Naturally, it is about one of the great concerns in life at that time - growing up.

1990 - Still the smallest in class. Now be-spectacled. Pass PSLE decently.

1992 - I am a prefect, amazingly. People actually seem to like me. My brother gets contact lenses, and I am handed a pair too. Discover that I like writing descriptive prose for fun. Start French classes. My first male friends, a couple of young NS men - one plays piano, another reads Asterix in French (or tries to). French teacher has grey eyes, can't recall name though.

1994 - By now, am fast friends with Desiree, Van Tan and Joan. Still a prefect, and they make me secretary too.

1995 - Victoria Junior College. Still the smallest in class. Choir girl. Am stuck with permed hair. Strangely, some folks like it - I suppose I manage to have my mess pass for style. I play Under A Killing Moon and LeisureSuit Larry on the computer. Really enjoy Literature. I read Lord Of The Rings for the first time. Make friends with Mogan, June, Xinyi, Mandy. (Mogan was already the star that he is today.) Visit Europe for the first time - Turkey, Italy, Austria. Meet my first boyfriend.

1997 - I teach at Changkat Changi Secondary School. What an experience. I can actually get students to like me. Going to university...overseas! I am an English major. I take Anthropology, Art History, Music Theory and something else.

1998 - I go ice-skating every other day. I dislocate my kneecap while snow-blading in Canada. I stop ice-skating every other day. Young love doesn't last, I discover. My dad sends me my first Tomb Raider game. Desiree, Van, Joan, May and I start our emailing group (which still goes on today! and with weblogs too!). I take my first creative writing class and am told to apply for the sub-concentration. At the year's end, I move into Willowtree Apartments and find a nice neighbor called Lin Kiat. We take a Greyhound to Ohio and buy a black Honda Del Sol that I call SOLMATE.

1999 - I take several Italian classes. I pass my driving test. Lin Kiat and I study in the grad library most days and we stop for hazelnut steamers before heading home. I go for my first major camp at New Hampshire. I carry the heaviest backpack I've ever had. I climb up and down the highest mountain in Northeast America - Mount Washington - on a foggy day, so there's no view. I attempt to skinny-dip. I don't bathe for four days. I discover which type of leaf is the best substitute for toilet paper. I go home smelling of earth and trees, and Lin Kiat still seems to like me.

2000 - I complete my thesis, win a few writing prizes, and have a public reading, which is attended by my family and friends. I say goodbye to friends and professors who tell me to return some day. I leave Ann Arbor and spend several months in Florence, Italy. And fall deeper in love with the country. I hike the towns of Cinque Terre, and in October, I walk the boulevards of Paris with a scarf round my neck and a French song in my head.

2001 - My first real job as an assistant editor at Cambridge University Press in Singapore. I am the smallest employee. I insult my boss a lot and make him angry. But I get a pay raise anyway. The first Lord of the Rings movie comes out. We watch it in California.

2002 - I find new friends in Barney and Karen, who I've been sending messages via MSN. I still insult my boss and make him angry. And I get another pay raise. We start playing Counterstrike at work, and I get to gun down my boss a lot. Lin Kiat proposes! Or did I propose? We watch The Two Towers as an engaged couple. I send in my application for grad school at the end of the year.

2003 - I am accepted into the MFA program. They also give me some money. I continue insulting my boss and also tell him that I wish to quit. I get rather stressed planning a wedding. But it turns out better than I planned - all my dearest friends are with me and my family is happy. I get a new family too. The husband and I arrive in Ann Arbor. We take a Greyhound to Ohio and buy a white VW Golf that I call the White Rabbit. We part for a while so that I can start grad school. I am a nervous graduate student who misses her husband. I am the smallest person in the program. The Return of the King will be released on December 17th, and Lin Kiat will book the tickets for us. The world wanders down its unwieldy path, the stars continue to decorate the night, the air gets colder, and I daydream with a grin as I turn 25.

Posted by Monoceros at September 19, 2003 11:13 PM