Today, I consolidated my financial position for the first time in… my life?… or at least in 2 years. I stared at the numbers and felt a shift in the relationship I had with my money, from one of escapism to one of ownership. I started budgeting the moment I…

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while, a great wind carries me across the sky. Feeling crushed by the expectations of forever being labelled ‘A graduate of X school’. For I either live up to it(“It makes sense that she’s successful — she graduated from…

My sister and I would not have been born if not for the church. Our parents — people who could not be more different in personality and temperament — were matchmade by people in church. And somehow, miraculously, wondrously, my parents accepted each other. Even if one used a fork…

When I open up about my past to friends, I feel that I cannot skip talking about my aunts and the influence they had on me and my sister’s lives. They were the reason why my working-class parents were able to ensure, quite worry-free, that there was someone reliable to…

The two homes I have strong memories of is the house I lived in age 7–15 (“537”); and my aunt’s house (“565”) in the same time period. More on the latter house in a separate post. Apart from this, we live(d) in 3 other houses: (1) Right after I was born…

Reading and writing was a cornerstone of my childhood. Somehow, stronger memories are associated with writing — perhaps because reading is a passive consumption, whereas writing an active production? (Clearly borrowing words from my sister’s latest essay) I’m not sure where the love of reading came from. Maybe it stemmed…

An anecdote of top Chinese universities The top 2 universities in China are Tsinghua University and Peking University (acceptance rate of 0.1–1% depending on your source). To walk in the hallowed halls means you must score the highest for the gaokao in your province — seats are reserved and scores vary by province (which I think…

Yesterday, over dinner, one of my colleagues, VS, revealed that she grew up in a single-parent household. She was the youngest of 3 siblings and is the last amongst them to get married. She lives with her mom now and said that her mom will continue to live with her…

I have a memory of my first day of school. It’s early in the morning, we’re all gathered near the canteen. It’s still dark outside, we’re carrying our bags, and my first friend is a girl called Manaal. I don’t know if this memory is real or not. Our bags…