A Time to Gather

A Time for Everything

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

Yup, packing up and concluding my first year in Cambridge. Time to reflect on how the year had gone.

This has been one intense year. Intense on the emotions and intense on the experience.

I had begun the Cambridge year with ideals and hopes to pursue my dreams. And had spent the days between NS and Matriculation preparing as best as I knew how, to take on this new challenge, but I had little idea what I was in for, and not long into the year, I found myself facing the opposite situation from what I had hoped for.

I struggled for a bit, trying to make sense of the situation, find my footing, and regain my senses, reacted to the situation with the limited knowledge I had, and picked up many valuable lessons along the way.

Like a sailor braving uncharted waters, I had set sail in a brand new ship, as prepared as I possibly could. Headed in the direction where rumours of treasures lay, then quickly finding myself up against the currents of circumstances, and having to steer my life through these choppy waters back onto the course where I perceive my dreams lie.

Now at the conclusion of the first year here, what can I say I have taken away from Cambridge?

I have not felt as fulfilled pursuing the fundamental laws of the world, as I had initially hoped, and I can't say that I have covered much ground in that direction either.

Instead, I have discovered something even more fundamental - the reason I had found fulfillment doing these things, and the corresponding circumstances I need for that to be so.

I found that a key motivation to doing well would be the affirmation and pride of the people who care - family and friends. And a source of consistent drive to study a subject in detail, was the presence of people to relate with and share in the discovery of the world - a source of which included people who kept bugging me for help, like Kaiqin in SAJC, and Desmond in SAS. These conditions have always been favourable throughout my days in school, which led me to doing really well, and enjoying my time in school, but it was absent during the year I had spent here.

On the other hand, the very circumstances which caused me such a difficult time this year, has appropriately also given me much time to process all the emotions and experiences I had throughout the year. Which is good. Like infomation without organisation, experience without reflection is wasted time. Useless. The isolation I was in this year had resulted in lots of time to reflect the things I was feeling, and allowed me a deeper understanding of life. Guess that's what I can take away from the year gone by.

Wrapping up my Cambridge year with this post. Feels very much like packing the thoughts I've had throughout this year into a post for storage - chucking the junk away, and only keeping what is really neccessary, to be used when I return in October for yet another Cambridge year.