A Quiet - But Interesting - Afternoon
It’s 5:13 in the afternoon right now. I’m in the library with Tim Hortons and arguably I’m simultaneously surrounded, engulfed and swimming in an orgy of media: Music through my earphones, a textbook on mass communications, and the internet running.
My attention consistently switching between an amazing line of lyrics (”Why are there so many songs about rainbows? And what’s on the other side?”), or a particularly fascinating piece of information (Once-top magazines “Life” and “Look” tried to decrease circulation to cut postage costs, but ended up loosing attractiveness to advertisers because they didn’t have as much circulation - how stupid), or bits and pieces of interaction and engagement on Plurk, Twitter and Facebook.
It’s days like this where you wonder how come you’ve heard a song tens or hundreds of times, but never picked out that one line that jumps out at you.
It’s days like this that I’m thankful to be from a country like Singapore and a school like SMU and a family like mine and have the opportunity to experience living pretty much alone overseas. To really be exposed to a starkly different lifestyle and culture.
It’s days like this where I wonder what the hell I’m doing studying business and marketing, because reading a media textbook doesn’t even feel like studying. Then wonder if I had chosen to study media, if I would wonder why the hell I didn’t choose to study business and marketing.
And it’s days like this where I simultaneously feel achieved by what I do in the online social media space, and challenged that there is yet so much I do not know, questions I’ve never asked, questions I don’t even know exist.
In other words, it’s a brilliant day to be fully alive.
heh - i like this post. It sounds like exchange is taking effect!!
i’m not used to this.
@Dor: Haha is this a well-documented effect on us exchange students? Did you have it??!
@Fiancee: Why not!
oh, i know days when a line from a familiar song jumps right out from oblivion.
get the whole octoberfall album. it’s worth it!
@Daryl: totally did man. Its just like SMU culture doesn’t allow students to really pursue what they want y’know? Everyone feels compelled to get hired into banks or else EPIC CAREER FAIL. Keyword is “alive”. I felt constantly alive on exchange cos the pple were so accepting and v inspired to just…learn. yeah.