Monday, October 23, 2006

opening up my eyes

i think it is very tempting for me to be indifferent to my surroundings that i feel familiar and comfortable with. Due to this sense of familiarity, i assume that i have nothing important to learn anymore. it happens to me quite often.

talking to foreigners and travelers who do not grow up here in Singapore or around the region opens up my eyes to the many more opportunities to learn and explore, about our selves as individuals and the society we live in.
i am ashamed that many times, my heart and eyes are closed. Subconsciously, my experiences in the distant past ( as a child and teenager) seem to have given me fixed and predictable perceptions about the place i grow up in.it's only when i talk to these people, that i realize singapore and southeast asia could be as exciting and intriguing as we perceive it to be, and that existence here could be always seen in a different light,always shifting, depending on our feelings, the color of the sky, the music we play and the lovely souls that come into our path. in the past, i would never have any strong desire to travel to cambodia, vietnam, bangkok or indonesia.
the curiosity was never there. i took the regions surrounding me for granted.

but now, i want to go places around asia.i have a lot to learn, and i dont' want to miss anything that could alter my life, maybe not dramatically but in every little bit that accumulates to a lifetime metamorphosis.

when i was in the west for 6 years,i was constantly bugged by a sense of wanderlust because the whole place was novel, and therefore exciting to me.
this place that i used to grow up in, and my surroundings could possibly be also very fascinating and romantic if i would open up the eyes of my heart and imagination.


and of course, this is my dear sister seen in a different light:

portraits 084

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you travel throughout your region of Asia as much as you are able, have a great time in India!
Also, the picture of your sister shows what you said is true, that she has paler skin than you. (Ha ha.)
Regarding your October 16th post, I hope you can communicate to scolds that while you can unbderstand her point of view, there are other cultures with different rules, that you broke her restrictive rule, not a law.

Jie Jie Ng said...

hey Stephen,
thanks for your understanding and advice. it turned out that my friend and i have reconciled so it's now all good :)

Jie Jie Ng said...
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