Time flies, and you know it when one month passes by in a week (or so it feels like). Case in point: the newest Attack on Titan chapter came out and I was like wa so good ah, I thought the previous chapter just came out last week (it's a monthly serialisation). Turns out my feel was horrendously off and I was genuinely shocked at having 3 weeks less of summer than I'd originally thought.
Clearly I've been busy, but not entirely aware of how much time I've been investing in things. It might be coz I never had a fixed schedule and so was able to take on any worthwhile activity as I went along. It's nice to have such flexibility, and a series of "ok!"s and "can!"s later, I was left with no time to collect dust at home anyway. Fits my style!
So... what goodies has Flow brought me? Personal development aside, getting out and about has led to lots of interactions with many different people. I have seen each of my usual friends like maybe once this whole time, so most of the time has been spent getting to know new people, or getting to know people I was already aware of better. This sounds trivial but when I think about the usual school days, the opposite is more likely to be true. A large proportion of normal school time is spent with usual friends, and any interaction with people outside cliques within the course/CCA is rather fleeting/perfunctory. Even then, I hardly get to stretch beyond "friends of friends" before retreating back to the usual comfortable circles.
This summer's been very different - when Flow and Affinity collide, magic happens. Something like "there are no strangers, only friends you have not yet met." Err wait no, not exactly. Some strangers, even after they cease to be strangers, do not ascend to the rank of friend (I detest whiny guys). But what is more true is that among strangers, there exists friends waiting to meet.
So most of my last week was taken up by facilitating a camp and preparing for it. I liken signing up for this to jumping into a black hole (paid to do so). I have no affiliation with the camp organiser and the participating organisation - I just knew someone who asked if I was free to help. With the initial "setting" being as random as such, I was really starting to wonder what I'd gotten myself into. [At Ubin + cannot bathe = omg lucky 2 nights only] The camp works on the philosophy that when humans are deprived of their basic needs (like home comforts for us pampered sg kids), they turn to those around them for survival. In this process, bonds are created as everyone strives to survive together.
If I were to take the theory a little further and add this extra icing called Affinity, that's when a handful of good friends start to rise up out of the sea of bonds. Affinity led me to find someone I knew from the one-year exchange, and also another climber!!
It's kinda amazing when you meet someone for a few hours and then you're suddenly talking like 一千年的好朋友. Let's give a context. I've probably seen the same climber at previous climbing competitions, but back then she was just another face in the crowd. In a familiar setting, you're not likely to go up to random people from other schools and just start talking. It seems that a random, unfamiliar setting can be the catalyst to bond people who have inherent similarities or connections. [It also helps that most climbers are friendly ppl hahaha]. And that other person I knew? Well, I saw her and she saw me, and we were pretty excited to be meeting again! Right there on Ubin! This camp's not the first time I've experienced this, where good friends just burst from unexpected places. It's like seeing those same juniors most days in the RPR but never saying even a "hi". Until an unusual thing like IVEC came along for us to bond over hard times and a little bit of bitching haha.
Just to summarise and make sure I'm clear of my own thoughts: as we take random paths in life, beyond our usual circles and comfort zones, we meet people that we likely have met before/will meet under more familiar circumstances, but only in this new unknown circumstance are they likely to become lasting friends.
If I was slightly unnerved at my final choice not to force out an internship at the end of the last sem, I think I can rest easy now. My top strength according to Gallup is adaptability, which means I go with the Flow and make the best out of each moment I live in. This summer's been an awesome mix of experiences which I don't think I would be happy trading for one single internship hahaha. The last stretch of summer is packed with quite a bit of traveling, but I ain't gonna neglect making time for all these new friends I've made since the start :)
[There really is a book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which I'm currently reading (koped off Sean's goodreads). I'm not very far into it but already I've run into lots of quotable lines, one of them being: "the best moments occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." Exactly my philosophy for RE7088 >:)]
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