A week and a day more to go, before I'm removed from these binding things many refer to as shackles of freedom. To me perhaps, they aren't shackles. Rather, they are barriers, that limit your path of progress for a certain period of time. For the bulk of these two years, I was aiming for the day this barrier would disappear. At first, the barrier seemed tall and mighty, with no end to its existence in sight. Almost two full years later, this barrier of mine is almost gone, and many things have passed since then.

Many say that it's the people that make up a place, a society, an organisation. Well, no doubts to that. For when I leave where I am now, I will no doubt miss the people and the culture (the good, the bad, the quirky and the ugly). But perhaps the very place would be missed as well. Perhaps it's different in my case, for I saw the end stages of it's construction right up to its infancy and now its childhood. Like a parent, blood and sweat have been shed in the growth of this wayward giant of a building. The time spent beautifying it, ridding it of its teething problems (its still growing up), understanding parts of it in detail, and many more certainly have not been easy. And that is why now, at this point in time, when I finally am ready to take my leave, do I experience a bittersweet pang. No doubt will I miss the corridors, the large rooms and all the problems that came with it.

Then there's the culture of the place. Even though the culture (and the people) rears its ugly heads many a time, it's part of its identity (though all those ugly heads have no excuse to learn to be more beautiful). Surely, I will miss the fast-flowing information that passes through that place daily, without ceasing.

For someone so inexperienced as I am, I have experienced much in these two fleeting years. Yet there is so much more to experience, so much more to learn. The white building on top of Gombak will surely be missed.

Elvis has left the building.

Labels: Life

|| posted by Kuan Hui