Saw quite a few of you do this. So please bear with my self-indulgence a bit.
2005 is upon us. So fast; too fast. I can still remember this fateful day 3 years ago when I got a little drunk and said things I shouldn't have said. But that's another story. And it's even scarier to think that 10 years ago; I was in sec 2! And I can remember that year so cleary, cos that was the year I picked up M:TG.
2004 was a very depressing year for me honestly. I knew God was (and is) testing me, putting me through some very tough scenarios. But well, 2004 is over, so here it goes for prosterity sake.
January
Semester 4 starts. I do my most difficult module to date; MA3110 - Analysis. Crazy module, but by the grace of God, I seem to be able to understand it! I also do my most easiest module; MA3111 - Complex Analysis. Get's me interested in complex numbers; including some difficult unsolved problems like the Riemann Hypothesis. For VCF, a strange burden starts to sink in; one that I felt only once before. Jan 31 is powerpoint. Post powerpoint is when depression really kicks in.
February
Was asked (politely) to reconsider my commitment to the 11am worship team; and I agree that I should step down from the roster due to my commitements to the youth. I play one last time for PAWN, exactly a week after Powerpoint. Looking back, I realised that the reason for me to step down was so that I could take up the leadership of the VCF min. A tough one considering I once said that I would never get involved in the leadership of VCF in any way.
March
I turn 23. Was challenge a few weeks before that to write my testimony. I kind of write a 20-page long life story. I finish it exactly on my brithday. School works kicks up a notch with the exams approaching, and I kind of stop attending MA3110 lectures and tutorials as the material covered was just too dry and all the proofs start looking the same. Thank God the exam format was to be partial "open book". (ie the exams questions would be released beforehand)
April
EXAMS!!! I spend my first semester with the science exam fellowship rather than with my maths friends. You see many interesting things happen; the most happening of course is Grace Liao and Kelvin Tan getting attached under our noses. But those 2 have really encouraged me a lot this year. Thanks guys! TGIGF was held in early april; 2 days before my first paper. Was tasked to do this crazy 12 minute long powerpoint presentation. As soon as exams end, I am told I need to hand in a proposal for the min. I decide to take a "personal retreat" one day and I end up walking home from Parkway Parade. (Yes, even I am amazed!) The long 18-week NUS summer vacation begins.
May
I officially take over the min on 5 May. I spend the month running back and forth helping the mission trip and planning for GAP Camp. After a while, the logistics for the mission trip turn really really bad and I end up on a rescue mission rather than a logistics team. The month ends with 2 camps back to back. First the VCF Leadership Planning Camp at SU Campsite; followed immediately by the YM Leaders Retreat. Both were really refreshing to me; especially the VCF LPC. My results come out; semester 4 is my best semester ever. Scored A- for both MA3110 and MA3111; that was really the grace of God.
June
GAP Camp. God spoke to me a lot during this time. Will just leave it as that. During this time, NUS announces that it will reduce its honours requirement. All I can say is that, that was really an act of God.
July
Resting month. Needed time to recuperate before school started. I go for 3 camps, retreats during this month anyway. The first was the VCF Freshman Orientation Camp. That was a fantastic camp, I had not laughed so much in a long time!!! Then a week later was the min retreat and my FOC OG's bbq. They were more like stayovers. CORS began, and I end up with a crazy 4 8am 6 day 6 MA module semester. My friends think I am mad, I think so to. July ends with Jubilee.
August
Semester 5 begins. And I go kind of crazy at the stuff that I need to study; really really crazy. Once again I start skipping lecture and don't do tutorials for MA3252 - Network optimization; as the lecturer really sucked. Ironically I score a full A for this module. Marvin leaves for US, and the house becomes strangely quiet again.
September
The rides to and from school don't seem so lonely anymore. But I also begin to wonder if my car is really a blessing or a curse. Midterms begin, I do OK for a few and I die at a few. Algebra and Geometry are starting to emerge as the super jia lat modules. Graph Theory seems to be OK. I score well for my level4000 module's midterm, Complex Analysis II. Who can forget, Amy and Ber get attached, much to the delight of everyone. It was like a "finally..." kind of thing.
October
This is when I really start questioning my motives on certain issues. Indeed the car can be a blessing to others, but maybe a curse to myself. Exam fever kicks in again; and this time I mean the O and A level exams!
November
Exams. Study with the Science CFers again. This time I cannot afford to slack on my modules and so I study like a madman. It was very demoralising that the first paper of the exam season, MA4247 was a killer of killer papers. I start keeping score of my papers vs NUS and I end on 3-3. Somehow everyone on MSN does the same!
December
A quiet December this time round. Needed some time out to recover from my 6 maths module semester. It was certainly a welcome respite. But, there was still ONE Camp. Madness, that's all I can say, thank God I wasn't in-charge of anything or I would have blown my top at the campers a few times. Patience; count to ten, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10... Anyway, I commit myself to more VCF activities this time round. The most significant being the PRC Orientation camp. I never spoke so much chinese in 2 days before man! haha!!! But December ends on a much brighter note than the rest of the year. The leadership retreat and the crazy running around the last few days of the year are something I will remember.
Unfortuantely, 100,000 people die in the most disastrous natural calamity I have ever seen in my life. That is really a display of God's power; indeed, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
