I'm Year Three

Give thanks

I want to give God all the glory and praise for bringing me through SMU thus far. It's been 2 awesome years at SMU, I've made a lot of friends both local and international, students and profs. God has also given me the opportunity to travel to St Petersburg, Amsterdam and Israel. Through the past two years, I've made a ton of mistakes, offended some and delighted many. For all my fellow undergrad friends, I hope you'll take time out to think and be glad at where you are.

Year 3 Sem 1

So the semester has started, and the first question I've been asking around as I see familiar faces is "How's your first week?" The responses and mood in SMU here has been great. No one's really psyched for school but people are generally glad to see old faces and make more friends. (I think)

The real highlight of this post is to introduce you to my Ethics module. Ethics and Social Responsibility is a "law" module and all SMU students must complete this course. My first impression of Ethics was shaped by a senior's comment that "it's a soft module", meaning no hard core materials. And my mindset towards to compulsory mod has been "How hard can Ethics be?" Well guys, freaking hard.

Consider the issue when BBC fired a radio presenter for her racist remarks on a private phone conversation to a taxi firm. The questions that this hard core ethics prof kept shooting were: Were her comments really racist? If I want to hire a nanny, would my preference for a Chinese nanny make me a racist? I'm looking for a Chinese girlfriend, does my preference make me a racist?

In another issue, how about the allocation of kidneys to patients? How do we really and fairly decide who gets the kidney, given that demand will always exceed supply? By what rules and can these rules be flexible?

Nevermind the crazy questions that mess your head, the instructor is absolutely the craziest I've met in SMU. He raises his voice all the time, talks really fast, is rude, cynical, condescending and tells students to "shut up!" when someone tries to help another classmate answer his questions. I was writing down my thoughts and opinions when he said, "Anna, why are you writing? It's a waste of time. You just need to think." I went on to clarify before he could brush me off, "Are you telling me I cannot write in class [which is a matter of my own free will]?" Without the blink of an eye, he said, "Yes, you can't."

3 hours of mental attack is no freaking joke. So the question is, why aren't I deciding to drop this class? I'm really tempted to, but I've been complaining for a long time most mods in SMU bore me to death. This is the one course I've come across so far that will promise me an unforgettable learning experience (even if it's really bad) that I won't forget. So I'm gonna take some time to pray if I'm really going through with this module with the instructor.

To understand the kind of style the instructor teaches, you can watch the following video:

August is here

A few things have happened since the start of August. First up, I've quit my job! Nah, just kidding, my internship at SPH ended peacefully, with a wistful sigh, last Thursday. My time at MediaBoxOffice has been a fruitful one and I've much to thank God for during this period. Before I began internship, I prayed to God, "Please grant me favour in the sight of my boss and colleagues." And I believe I've made a couple of good friends at the company.

Secondly, on a mellower note, my dear grandfather from my Mum's side has gone home to be with the Lord. He was a man of few words. Having battled cancer since two years ago, overcoming and then fighting it again, my grandfather never complained, only in the recent months when it got a lot more painful. He always took comfort in God's grace and believed that everything was always in God control. And truly, everything still is. What gave us great comfort during this time of grief was the knowledge that we are only separated for a while, for we shall see him again when it is time to meet our Maker.

The coming week is the last of my summer hols 2010 before SMU's Year 3 starts for me. Year 3! It seems like yesterday that I attended orientation camp. Whoa, scary. No matter how fast time flies, it will always be my heart's desire to make sure my life counts for God. We can do many crazy things and yet still feel like an empty shell when the day ends.

After all the years of being a Christian and cell leader, I believe God is calling me to come back to the basics. And when I think about it, the basics of Christianity is having a really close relationship with God, so close that everything in your life just revolves around it. And now that I've come out to blog this, this is probably the direction of my life now. "having a really close relationship with God, so close that everything in your life just revolves around it"