This semester I decided to apply for Conjunct Consulting (CC). CC is a firm that does pro-bono consulting work for companies in the social sector. They train uni students like myself to do such consulting work. I was accepted into the training phase and what I'm working on now with my team mates is a simulation of a project I might work on in real life. It's pretty interesting and I feel challenged after each training session but I do think the analytical skills I'm picking up are important ones. Unfortunately, the programme is highly selective and it looks like only a fifth of the current trainees will pass this round. I am trying not to think too much about that part for now.

I have also mostly recently joined Burn After Reading (BAR) Singapore. It's basically a collective of young writers who meet monthly to critique each others' work and also help organise poetry-related events in Singapore. I didn't think I was going to make the cut when I went for the interview, if I'm being very honest. But I did, and I am surrounded by some very, very respectable company. 

Besides that, I've been doing so much Lit Soc related stuff recently. Lots of fun baking but also Symbal magazine things have been keeping me busy almost always. But I am grateful for the sense of community I have from Lit Soc. :)

I guess with so much going on, I have had to manage my life very carefully. I mean school at NUS isn't going to get any less rigorous but good planning has kept me afloat so far. 

My priorities have changed significantly along the course of the past few weeks, almost as if without my knowing. Spending time with my boyfriend and Cherry have become just as important to me finishing school work on time. I find that I try my best to make time to catch up with friends even though I am often lamenting how little time I have to do everything I want. I try to watch documentaries and movies online and attend talks and plays regularly now, even though I would have considered them fringe activities in the past. I schedule exercise into my life and try to eat better even when I'm in a rush. 

What I'm trying to say is that I don't care about work--or anything work/school-relatedas much as I used to anymore. And it's the best thing I've done for myself. I am able to focus so much on the good things in my life now.  My work is still important to me and I always try to do a good job. I've just stopped worrying about it as much.  I think in a place like NUS it is almost impossible to divorce yourself from the culture of worrying about grades, mostly because that is the only way I had known in the first 12 years of my education. But my time in university has been a time of fruitful un-learning of all the bad habits of my growing up years. Of course, I am grateful for good friends who remind me of this when I start to forget. My point is the rat race, or more accurately, the CAP race is probably always going to be a big part of life at NUS.  But my dreams are bigger than CAP 5.0 and a First Class Honours B.A. Degree. And I'm going to work hard to fight for the things that really matter to me.