Tuesday, September 16, 2008
youth'em! pop: have a break, have a piece of peace!
hey everyone! this sunday's our next youth'em!
voting has closed. CHARLES is the official e348 geek! any suggestions on how he should dress up, please contact him personally... there's nerd geek and chic geek btw... i haven't gotten the judging criteria so i'll let you ppl know asap! by wed night...
please go get your friends down ya? promise, it's gonna be good. those who attended the first youth em should have an idea. this time it'll be better...
okie then... check up for more updates!
i posted this at 10:20 PM
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Sunday, September 14, 2008
Journeys
I just felt that I should post something in here... I was giving tuition earlier and chanced upon one of my old essays that I wrote, a long, long time ago. Figured there's no harm sharing it here for everyone's reading pleasure rather than let it rot in my drawers; this one's entitled 'Journeys', from, do bear in mind, my sec 4 common test, long before I came to know God and you guys. It scored 26/30. Here goes; I dedicate this to Jamie and to Zhinian, and to Hongxiu (come on! you can do better! glory to glory!):The word 'journeys' evokes images of the passage of time, in which one progresses and travels from one point to another. Journeys are everywhere around us, intricately woven into the very fabric of the universe, from the macroscopic level to the microscopic.
When the universe as we know it began with the Big Bang thirteen billion years ago, an epic saga had begun, a journey through the tunnel of time with the end, if it exists, still far from sight. Nuclear reactions, interstellar collisions, flashes of light; the universe had journeyed from a pinprick of indescribable energy to the container of constellations and galaxies today. Similarly, the planet Earth has journeyed from a barren and rocky planet millions of years ago to become a gaia, a green and blue haven for life. Could it further journey in the near future to become a planet covered with soot and pollution? That is a side issue but one which is dictated by the journeys of its primary inhabitants, humans, otherwise known as homo sapiens.
Humankind has also come a long way since its journey began during the Pre-historic age. From primitive primates (or not, for that matter), mankind has evolved. It has been a journey of progress, and with his ingenuity and guile in solving problems came scientific developments which improved lives. For hunting and defence, sticks and stones evolved to swords and bows, to rifles and cannons, and finally to warplanes and missiles. For travelling, walking gave way to bicycles and horse-drawn carriages, to trains, and finally to automobiles and aeroplanes which cover distances that would have required months in the past in merely a few hours. From beings clad in loincloths huddled in caves the typical man has journeyed to become well-rounded beings clad in shirts and pants and dresses living in elaborate man-made structures of concrete, which brings to mind journeys of a subtly different nature.
The rise and fall of empires, of societies; are these not journeys in themselves? From small communities of people in forests and caves man has journeyed to now live in sprawling metropolises housing millions each. When the ancient people of Mesopotamia and China realised that there was safety in numbers, they bonded together to form villages, towns, cities and eventually countries. On another note, the organisation of societies has also evolved in its millenia-old journey. From primitive despotism in prehistoric times where communities were ruled by the most powerful came the monarchy where the class of aristocrats controlled power. The Greeks conceived the ideas of the republic and democracy, rule by the people, and Karl Marx more recently contemplated the idea of communism. The polarity between the last two has subsided with the end of the Cold War. Now, would people hundreds of years from now look back at that part of society's journey with fascination?
More down to earth are journeys of a personal nature. Be it commutes from home to work or school to the journey of an entire life, it is impossible to dismiss any part of our lives as not being a journey. Taking a bus to work is a journey in the literal sense. However, reading a book or participating in online forums can be journeys in knowledge. Encompassing all these is the journey of a life. From the time of conception to the time of death, a living being embarks on a kaleidoscopic journey of senses and experiences, of sights and sounds, of ideas and emotions. There is no rest-point, no break in this journey, and the only possible point where it can end is at death.
Journeys exist not just to teach, to tell, and to entertain. They exist to be experienced. Just as reading a book of fiction or watching a movie, a journey serves to bring character to any being, be it animate or inanimate. As for us, our journey has a long way to go. Taking the words from a computer game Alpha Centauri, 'Eternity lies ahead of us, have you drunk your fill?'
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So yeah, there you have it, 'Journeys'. Some journeys run in parallel, some converge at some point or another. Like what Mark mentioned on the train yesterday, all of us are going through our own stepping stones and stumbling blocks in our individual lives. We are not alone in our journeys; none of us are. I have come a long way since writing the above essay back in sec 4, and I know I have a long way to go yet. I know I am not alone in my journey of life, because I have you guys, and God, with me. =) Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
Charles
i posted this at 7:31 PM
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You are amazingly a profound writer even at the young age of 16! Like Jamie, I like the last paragraph the best becos it's the easiest to understand and connect with! =D
