My trip back to Singapore was a good one spent catching up with family and friends. I got to meet several babies whom I had become ‘Auntie DSD’ to last year. Friends whom I had gone to school with have become parents and sometimes it’s still hard to believe that we have grown up. Bleah, I don’t want to grow up. Unfortunately, not only do we grow up, we grow old too. Seeing parents and older relatives growing older has a sobering effect.

Now that the Year of the Snake has begun, I feel like the year has started proper. I felt a little sad when I returned home to an empty flat in Hong Kong. But well, this is my life for now and I just have to make the best of it – there are others in worse situations than me.

About a month ago, I volunteered in an event organised by my company’s CSR (corporate social responsibility) department. We had to take a child from a low-income family and his/her mother out to lunch, and after that the three of us went to visit an elderly person living in Sham Shui Po, bearing rice and dry food like biscuits for them.

Danny, the boy I was assigned to was a well-behaved and intelligent 11-year-old who was eager to practise speaking English with me. After lunch, we went to see a 65-year-old woman living in a small room within an old, crummy flat in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Hong Kong. The small room – 2m by 2m – was dark and musky with hardly any air circulation. Due to a leg injury, the old lady also had difficulty in walking, thus she was stuck in the room most of the time. The living conditions were deplorable. Even though I had seen such appalling situations on TV, it still comes as a shock when seen with my own eyes. The rich-poor divide in Hong Kong is so great. Just three train stops away is Kowloon Tong where well-heeled people are shopping in the swanky mall, Festival Walk, and living in big, posh apartments or bungalows.

That day was a reality check for me. So every time I feel like crap, I think back to what I saw and tell myself, “Things aren’t so bad after all”. Still, sometimes I can’t help but think all my friends seem to have it better – all those happy, shining people I see on Facebook. Now that’s for another blog post altogether.

Anyway, in the Year of the Snake I hope I can get accepted into any one of the postgraduate courses I have applied for. I sent in my applications before I left for Singapore and will only know the results of my application in about one to two months. I feel stagnated in my life and job, and would like to work my brains a little more.

*Fingers crossed*