Epilogue.

Like most other bloggers, I've attempted to blog my reflections on the year gone by for the past four years, and not once have I managed to stick to my intention of doing so. The year 2007, however, has been an exceptionally memorable and special year for many reasons, and not writing about it here would be a total and utter sin. So here goes, a 'better late than never' thematic reflection on 2007, through my very own eyes, and in my very own words.

Chapter One: The Road Less Travelled

If I had to choose ONE single memory to represent the five years I'd spent in Melbourne, I would say that it was my Honours year, in less than a heartbeat. Of course, Honours was something I'd always aimed to do since my first year at university, but actually being able to complete it successfully and with satisfactory results... I didn't quite envision that. I mean, the most significant part of Honours was having to write a 12,000-word thesis, which was something I hadn't done before and sure was NOT looking forward to - good grief, I already had enough difficulty producing 2,500-word essays throughout the past three years, let alone a year-long 12,000-word thesis worth three credits on a specific topic with a supervisor to answer to?!?

But the truth is, I came out of Honours unscathed, and feeling like it was the best experience I'd ever had in my years away from home. Sure, there were the many frustrations that came with being an Honours student - writer's block, research woes, tensions with the supervisor, sudden change of topic after completing the first semester (and the panic that resulted from that change), having to visit the library every week during my summer vacation in Singapore, countless nights spent writing and writing - in bed, on my desk, on the couch, writing in the wee hours between short naps, lack of motivation, feeling like it was the end of the world, etc. All these experiences inevitably came with the decision to do an extra year, and while I absolutely hated my life and found myself waking up everyday in the second semester wondering why the f*ck I put myself to such misery, I will tell you now that it was all worth it.

Honours was not simply an extra year of academic challenges and triumphs to 'add glitter' to my otherwise ordinary Arts degree, it was also in that year that I learnt the most valuable lessons, forged friendships with some of the most amazingly intelligent people on this planet (the SMACers whom I saw ever so frequently in the postgraduate lab), and of course, successfully completed what I thought of as 'the hardest task in my 24 years of existence' (i.e. the thesis). All in all, no regrets - I cannot think of any better way to finish off my final year at school. I am grateful for the entire Honours experience, and the people who were a part of it.

SMAC (aka my second home), where I pretty much spent my ENTIRE Honours year at

In the lab with coursemate and good friend Scott (who is the smartest 27-year-old alive)

My labmates... I mean, 'housemates' - Yuxing and Caz

To be continued...