Wednesday, September 20, 2006

many things to be thankful for.

many thoughts run through my already crowded brain.

typing that makes me worry about my neurobiology module. and exams. and and....

the top 3 things to thank God for would be

1. Clay's new album is out and singapore got it one day before US. yay. and it's good. edgier, more mature, fresh arrangements of familiar love songs, beautiful voice for beautiful songs.

2. free movies! courtesy of nanyang chronicle. tagging along with sam as he watches movies and writes reviews for the chronicle. 3 free movies and hopefully more hurhur. the one we watched yesterday night was "little miss sunshine". it's really really good. i'm not bluffing. it's been a long time since i've watched a really good movie and this one takes the cake. first of all, production design was excellent. love the shots so much. 2nd of all, the script/plot was even better. the story was funny yet poignant, poking-fun but it never loses sight of the message that the movie is trying to bring across. many quirky characters, hence resulting in truly funny moments and i mean it's really laugh-out-loud. i laughed till i had tears in my eyes. 3rd of all, the soundtrack is gooooddd beyond words. 4th of all, the actors stepped up bravely to their complicated roles which is so multi-dimensional and real. even for a little 8-ish year old girl.

beautiful. please watch it when it comes out. ian tan, you'll love this movie. =)

3. got accepted to both my 1st choices for GIP and INSTEP. so rejected INSTEP's offer of queensland university of technology, although at the back of my mind i was hesitant. because i'm so familiar and comfortable with brisbane, having been there 3 times already and once with my friends. to venture out to seattle on GIP, super unfamiliar, super out of comfort zone, super far away and super long time of one winter and one spring quarter. not to mention an attachment to a top cancer research institute of US. but decided to just close my eyes and click reject on INSTEP and accept my GIP offer to university of washington. oh united states here i come.

however apprehensive-ness aside, i'm super looking forward to a whole new culture, environment, traveling, more concerts (clay please have concerts near seattle so i can goooo!!), shopping and yes doing research. then yesterday i just realised it's gonna be the last 2 months plus that i'm gonna live with my hall friends who are in their final year. the business and accountancy people. xinpei, huimin, ronald, jason, zhihao. =( having lived with them for the past 2 years plus and sharing many many memories it just struck me hard that "all good things come to an end", as carlene said. not to mention those 4-year course people who won't be staying in hall in their final year. like sam. =( =( ok i may move back home in final year but that means i'll miss them even more.

anyway thankful for many lessons that i'm so impacted by every night as i read Romans and Ephesians. it's really really so amazing how true God's word is and how amazingly applicable it is. somehow i was disappointed that my first response upon getting my exchange offers was not to thank the Lord. i shall press on and work towards putting Him first place and center.

yes and i have many new experiences that came along and are coming up. stepping into wsc main comm has taught me so so many things and opened my eyes to many things, people and sights. press conferences, istana, mingling with top- notch executives, celebrities, and my first radio interview coming up with news radio 93.8. so exciting.

i was just reading an article in Cleo and something thought-provoking caught my attention. Tracey Cox writes,

"There are basically 2 types of relationships - "co-creational" where 2 balanced people live their lives side by side and "needy" relationships, where one or both partners are using each other to compensate for low self-esteem."

i think the 1st type of relationships is true. while i disagree partially with the 2nd one. in those "needy" relationships i don't think it's always low self-esteem that is the culprit. but then again, many emotions and problems and stuff (ie. possessiveness, insecurity etc etc.) can be traced back to low self-esteem. so maybe that is indeed the root of the problem. hmmmm.

as for me, sam and i are in a co-creational relationship, which i have a sneaky feeling that many long-term relationships generally evolve to be one. we always had our own lives to run. friends, school, family, church and all. except coming together means our lives interwine with each other's. just like 2 tracks that occasionally converges to a fork before diverging again. but it always run in one direction. and sometimes while we are on our own i do feel that i want him around. a sign of "needy" here. but since the entire him-going-to-sydney-on-exchange episode i have learnt to be on my own path while his path was beside mine. and now that i'm the one going on exchange for possibly a longer period than he did, the thoughts come to mind again. now we are not just separated by 20 MRT stations, or south china sea, but asia, europe, indian ocean, atlantic ocean and US, or if you go the other direction, the entire pacific ocean. God is always throwing challenges down on my path. i can just imagine Him throwing a rock/boulder onto my path and saying "lianya this is what you have to overcome, move that rock and you'll get stronger and continue running along your path, yes and stop whining about it."

reminds me of saturday's ypg message and our memory verses.

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shane, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
- Hebrews 12:1-2

This girl posted at 1:57 PM