Does anybody else feel like the year 2000 wasn’t too long ago? It amazes me that:

– I will be 19 years old in 8 months. Wow. I have friends who I remember from primary school or secondary school as boys who are already serving NS, and some have even ORD’d!

– It’s been 7 years since 9/11- I remember watching it on TV on my sister’s birthday, and calling my friends and staying up all night to watch the event unfold. I remember when Bill Clinton was president before that, and the whole Monica Lewinsky thing was going on. I remember when Ong Teng Cheong was president before Nathan, and his funeral was a rather quiet affair in comparison to Wee Kim Wee’s later on. I also remember him playing Piano on the President’s Star Charity, which used to be an interesting annual affair.

– I’ve been a part of the local music scene for 6 years now. I can still remember how happy I was to be able to work out the Smoke On The Water riff on bass, and the intro guitar part to Fade To Black on the acoustic guitar. I couldn’t tune any instrument then even if I had a pitch reference, because I simply couldn’t hear it. I remember a time where I could listen to a song and NOT immediately identify the hi-hat, snare, bass and vocal harmonies.

– I remember when David Seaman, Tony Adams, Dennis Berkgamp, Patrick Viera and Marc Overmars were my favourite Arsenal players! And Man Utd won the Treble and Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole were scoring all the bloody time. I haven’t really been watching the EPL (oh wait, BPL) as much since then.

– I was in my first and only relationship 5 years ago- it lasted 3 years and i’ve been single ever since. Didn’t seem that long ago that we fell in love, and doesn’t seem that long ago that we ended it either =\

– I’ve been close friends with Ahmad, Boon, Po Liang and Jeannette for only about 2 years now. It certainly feels much longer than that! I can vividly remember how life was before them, but now I can’t really imagine what it would be like without. In contrast I’ve known Lerping for 6 years already, wow. Like he likes to say, he’s certainly watched me grow up.

From time to time I like to think about the past. How it tells a story, and how it becomes a part of who we are. And perhaps more important than what happened is perspective; how we look at it and how we choose to accept it as a part of who we are.