Basket.

To all of you who today wished me "Happy Birthday", as well as those who went to all the trouble just to get a gift for me, thank you very much. You people have really made this a very special, wonderful and truly unforgettable occasion, and I really, really appreciate it.

So, it's been another year, and I'm now 18.

Well, it doesn't feel far different, but I think birthdays are always excellent times for self-reflections. 18 years is certainly not a very long time, but it's a fairly long period: nearly two decades. I mean, in 1986 they hadn't even completed the MRT, which so many of us depend on as a matter of life-and-death today. Can you imagine a world without the MRT? But of course, relatively, 18 years is less than the blink of an eye.

Ah, what am I saying. I have so much I need to spit out but I can't find the words. Ever have that feeling? It can be frustrating. Never mind, I'll try my best.

18 years... I don't know. Sometimes it feels like I just woke up and I'm suddenly this old, and sometimes it feels like an age has passed and I'm only this young. I probably have a long, long time ahead of me yet. I definitely haven't seen it all, yet sometimes I think I've seen plenty already.

But today, I feel like the former scenario, where time is concerned. It is all just so incredibly fast. Exactly one year ago it was a Saturday and I was at home preparing for the Promotional Examinations starting on Monday, 6 October. That... it... it does not feel like one year ago. It is hard, so hard to believe that it has been that long ago, and since then we have survived 12 more months and this is the last two weeks of lectures and last two weeks of schooling in the mainstream Singapore education system. Really, this is it. It's an ending, and next year is fraught with uncertainty. One year later, where will I be? I can quite honestly say, I have no idea. So much, again, would have changed by then. Will I be here in front of this computer, still maintaining this blog, writing almost the exact same things? Who knows?

Yet is it really a good thing to be able to predict the future? Sometimes we would rather not know.

I ramble too much. But I need to get it all out. Today was practically the last chance for enjoying myself until nearly two months later when I get (probably) a short window. All things must one day end and today it seemed to me that they were all closing. My brother flew off back to England today to begin his second year. I'm not going to be able to see him very often anymore after this year. I can't bring myself not to feel even a little sad at partings, of any kind, even if they are of a very temporary nature. For me, every parting is an ending. Today, the endings all seemed to come together.

We'll all have to part soon. I hope we can stay in touch with each other.

Thanks again everyone for the wonderful time you all gave me today. I really love you bunch.