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Exciting Life Updates

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I know I haven’t been updating this blog because I’m too lazy. Years 2 and 3 have been an exciting flurry of business (both work and busy-ness). I constantly spew bite-sized thoughts that stream into my mind on Instagram Stories anyway, and I am remarkably easily bored and excitable, so longer, more considered pieces on Blogger aren’t sustainable. I digress. Many exciting life updates! I’m now officially done with my undergraduate PPE programme at King’s College London. I loved every bit of it: the depth, rigour and intellectual intensity of the course, the international student community, the bustling city of London and all the travel opportunities around Europe. Words can’t do justice to the profundity of the experience. In typical Quincean fashion, I milked everything I could out of the three years: went to Cumberland Lodge (for free) as a photographer with the Philosophy Department in Years 1 and 3, clinched the Principal’s Global Leadership Award (PGLA) in my second year (spending
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Thoughts, November/December 2021

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I kinda figured it out. Maybe. Maybe not. But probably. I will not specialise in Economics.

This term, Year 1 Semester 1, I am taking four modules:

  • 4AANA102 Introduction to Philosophy I: Logic, Ethics (Julien Dutant, Winnie Ma)
  • 4SSPP110 Political and Economic Philosophy (Federica Carugati, Thomas Rowe)
  • 4SSPP103 Comparing Political Systems (Damien Bol, Fredrick Ajwang)
  • 4SSPP105 Principles of Economics (Maia King, Marco Giani)

I remember catching up with Ms Phay at a Sixth Avenue sandwich café early this year, and I told her my plans and why I chose to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In High School, my favourite subjects were literature and mathematics and my most abhorred ones were chemistry and history, defying the standard art–science dichotomy. At the end of Secondary 2 when I refused to join HCI’s Humanities Programme or Science & Math Talent Programme, I was asked: Why? Which side was I on? I answered that I loved to dabble in both. Fast forward two years: when it was time to choose my JC subject combination, it became clear to me. I have always been abstract, not concrete. I hate memorising minutiae, but I love grasping the big picture — concepts removed from, but based on, reality — then apply it to the real world however I like. Why bother memorising what a substance transforms into at a particular temperature and pressure when I could imagine lines and conjure up a short equation which would work in all circumstances? When I met my primary school classmate, Thern Khai, at the PAUL café at Three Quays (Tower Hill), he said the same thing: a decade ago in primary school, I was always asking the hard, unanswerable questions.

I think I will drop the Economics sequence next year, which means I will be doing the BA, not the BSc. Maybe due to my brief background in proof-based mathematics, I am interested in formal systems: logic, game theory, social choice, etc., not so much empirical modelling. I may take econometrics to add more tools to my quantitative methods toolkit, but I will weigh the opportunity costs when the time to decide comes.

So… I caught COVID-19 in Edinburgh while travelling with Jeff. I planned to fly back to Singapore on Christmas Eve, but that got derailed. Singapore also recently banned VTL ticket sales due to the Omicron variant. I guess there’s no way to go back this winter break. A huge dampener but oh well.

On 21 December (when I started self-isolating), I got myself some 汤圆 to celebrate the Winter Solstice. 但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。

The year is drawing to a close. My HCI Google account will expire on 31 December: symbolically, the final ending. I’ve backed up all the school projects I did. It’s interesting how I still feel HCI to be somewhat the cornerstone of my life and identity. NS was fun and challenging and meaningful but it’s just two years spent rotating around various police divisions; the emotional attachment cannot compare. Dr Chen has resigned, Dr Yeo Hwee Joo, Mrs Rosalind Lee and Auntie Zhen Zhen have retired. The future too: making a few close friends in the office, going about the daily grind, people coming and leaving, changing jobs every few years. I have a few anchors, but it seems that our paths will not overlap anytime soon. Amidst so many changes, my constants are: (1) my sense of self and (2) the uncle group. As for my family, they are there, but of course everyone’s growing older, and it’s just not the same as it used to be. It’ll never be the same again.

It’s 1 am. I look at the M&S dark chocolate digestive I bought in Edinburgh, dark brown a half-crescent sitting in my bowl. Ryan Seow texted me “*hugs*” on Instagram. I chuckle. ∎

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