prison break

season 3 is taking a break until jan, but that's not the point. not the main point anyway.

being used to travelling to and from prison headquarters in changi every mon to fri from nov 06 to jul 07, it also feels like i'm taking a break from work for the next 3 years (rather than being at university as a student per se). which i am, actually.

having said that, i'm quite conscious of the fact that i'm at york not only as a full-time student but also as a future (current?) employee of the singapore prison service. it's a break in the deeper sense that i have so many different opportunities to make the most of my time here as a pepper (someone from the school of pep), as a prospective prison officer and above all as a person.

commitments

there are days when i feel i have no commitments at all. on the other hand, there are days when i feel i have too many of them. strangely enough, they often happen to be the same days. what is the right thing to commit to? when is the right time to commit? what is the right level of commitment?

your commitments not only reflect who you are and what you're committed to (obviously); they also pave the way for your future commitments. it's like blogging about something then coming back to it days, weeks, maybe months (even years) later, realising that the old entry is outdated but that there wouldn't be such a thing as a new entry if there wasn't an old entry for it to replace in the first place.

what is history?

history isn't just one thing after another, but how the past and the present interact with each other; how the past shapes the present and the present captures the past in return. since the present will eventually become the past and the future the present, you might also say that history is how the present shapes the future and the future captures the present in return. in other words, history is as much a study of the present as it is a study of the past (don't quote me on that).

going back to commitments then, your present commitments pave the way for your future commitments. i'm quite conscious of the fact that just as i'm at york not only as a full-time student but also as a future (current?) employee of the singapore prison service, things would be rather different if just one aspect was different. not necessarily better or worse (what would "better" or "worse" mean anyway), just different.

as it is, being at york with all the personal and professional commitments i have has led me to explore how i can serve and grow in unique situations (ie. take on new commitments based on my own existing commitments) while i'm at york. at the end of the day, your present commitments pave the way for your future commitments and your present non-commitments (which really are commitments in themselves) pave the way for your other future commitments.

either way, it has to be the right thing, at the right time, to the right extent.