Death of a Trusted Companion

On Tuesday (08 Mar 2016), I was getting ready for my fourth teaching session for the day. While fiddling with my phone, the screen stayed lit despite pressing the "turn off screen" button. I could not get it to respond in any way so I decided to do a reset by removing the battery and putting it back in.

It never turned back on since then. Sadly, my trusted companion had met its end.

As much as I like to say that my life doesn't revolve around my phone, I do take for granted that it will always be there to get information that I want to look up at any time. I'm talking about Google search, not social media.

It was exceedingly frustrating to have 3 teaching sessions to go, all the way until late at night, without any form of contact to other people. Granted that I did not have any more pressing appointments that day, I still felt annoyed.

Nevertheless, I survived the day without a phone, and most of Wednesday as well.

I learned that the information age can be truly insidious. It has caused us to expect quick transmission of data and lament lag and disconnection.

An experience like this makes me realise how neglected our social skills and resourcefulness become due to having so much information at our fingertips. We don't even bother to remember phone numbers anymore because "they are stored in our phones, anyway". What would we do if a media meltdown occurred? How would we react and would we help each other?

It really makes one wonder...

Looking Out For Events

Ever since the learning events I participated in, I've been on the lookout for more to join in. Normally, I'm really apprehensive about such things, much preferring to keep to myself, stay in and think.

However, I have seen how important and useful it is to meet new people. Not only does meeting new people give us chances to help each other, the experience helps me to broaden my outlook and provides more material for ideas.

Already, I have come up with a number of new directions and plans to work on for the next few months. It's going to be pretty exciting to get more ideas.

In this coming week, I'm contemplating attending two events, one on Thursday about networking, and one on Friday, a design-type symposium. No confirmation yet, but they definitely look interesting.

A Series of Interesting Events

Last Saturday, I attended an event held at BASH.

It was organised by Talent Tribe Asia and attracted about 50 individuals from various universities in Singapore.

I was there by invitation of one of the speakers, an expert in Personal Branding, with whom I am also working on some lesson plans for schools.

How I met this expert is quite a tale in its own right and I want to do it justice, so I won't elaborate too much here.

After he finished his segment, the following speaker was a friend of his, who happened to be the founder of a local start-up company that I had researched for my book. I never approached the company because I was so intent on finishing my book and, because I am so close to the finished product, I had thought it unnecessary to delay its printing further.

However, here he was in front of me! I believe that all things happen for purposes beyond my mortal comprehension, so I went up to him, introduced myself and found that we had a number of areas of common interest.

Subsequent correspondence has led to a meet-up that is slated to occur in the early afternoon later today. Through this meet-up, I hope to learn more about him and his company, as well as see if we can do a co-marketing campaign for The Introvert Teacher.

Here's to a fruitful collaboration!

A Birthday Thank You Post

A certain number of years ago, I was born on this day. The heavens didn't burst into brilliance, the earth didn't tremble and people still went on with their normal lives. All in all, a very normal birth day.

Since that day, I would like to say that I have impacted lives, made a difference and that people will remember me when I'm gone. The truth is, I don't really know. I suppose nobody really does until they are truly gone, by which point they won't be able to know.

Nevertheless, I know that there have been people who have impacted my life, made a difference to me and these are people I will remember even when they are gone. For these people, I am thankful. Without them, I wouldn't be the same person I am today. Some of them don't even know that I exist, while others are closely familiar with me.

To you who have changed me, shaped me and forged me, thank you. This post is dedicated to you. May your influence over my life extend to the influence I had, have and will have on others in the years to come.

Why such a strange post? It's not a complicated answer. I do not revel in birthday parties, feasts and presents. They are but by-products of a culture that holds little meaning to me. I enjoy thinking and today, as I took time to think about the significance of another birthday, I thought about who I am and why I am who I am. I remember that a large part of who I am, though sculpted from my choices and decisions, have been influenced by those around me, positively or negatively.

So, again, to you by whom I was influenced, thank you for influencing me. 

I don't have birthday-ish pictures to post, so I thought I'd post the picture of a place that I have many fond memories of: The canteen (close to present-day) of my secondary school, Chung Cheng High School (Main).