Yet another year’s passed and the first day of 2013 seemed a better time than any to take a look back at the year 2012.
In 2012, I have reached 3 landmark moments in my life. Firstly, in March 2012, I celebrated my 21st birthday, marking my official entry into adulthood. Sure, there was no sudden revelations of maturity, but a couple of days back, as I was clearing my old emails, I realised I have come a long way from signing off emails with “LiFe iZ liKe a sTraw, iT sux”.
Secondly, in July 2012, I completed my 2 years of National Service in the Singapore Armed Forces. It was an enriching experience and I often look back at those times with fond memories. Though those times are mere memories now, the friendships I have forged and lessons I have learnt will definitely last a lifetime.
Lastly, the end of National Service also meant it was time to pursue higher education in university. In August, I matriculated into the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, part of the National University of Singapore. Enrolling into medical school was a tough decision to make, especially given that I was offered an scholarship to pursue an Infocomm Systems degree at Carnegie Mellon. Infocomm was a large part of my life and CMU had always been my dream university, but in the end, I chose to study medicine as I figured it would be more fulfilling and meaningful career. So far, after one semester, I am still quite sure I have made the right choice.
However, 2012 was not without its regrets. The greatest regret I have is not making full use of the free time I had before school started to pursue my personal interests and activities. I largely failed to fulfil my 2012 new year resolutions of learning to drive and improving my photography skills. Now that the academic year has started, I found myself having much less time to engage in such activities.
Nevertheless 2012 had been a pretty great year for me. Here’s to hopefully another good year.