6th January Reflection

Cr: Ong Yong Jia

I am extremely tired from playing and working hard. The past few days had been really fruitful and my group has been productive in terms of having fun and checking items off our to-do list. I can see the deliverables of our fieldwork coming together and I am really excited. Hopefully whatever I envision in my head can come to reality through the media deliverables and the final report.

The OTOT slot given to us today was one that I had been looking forward to for the past two days and I feel like my group deserved it. I had a great time today with my friends; as we saw the initial empty streets of Chiang Mai turn into a bustling hub, as the day turned into night. We got lost, we saved each other from near-death situations i.e. almost knocking into a car, or, getting knocked down by a car, ate new and interesting foods, and taking the weirdest photographs and videos together.

This reminded me that this trip is not all about work. It’s about the people, too. As I walking behind my entire group and observing their behaviour through my camera lens, I saw a lot of light. Bubbles of light from the street lamps, and streaks of light coming from fast-moving vehicles that flew by me, and, the light on my friends’ faces as they interacted with one another.

“I don’t think that anything happens by coincidence. No one is here by accident. Everyone who crosses our path has a message for us. Otherwise they would have taken another path, or left earlier or later. The fact that these people are here means that they are here for some reason.”

– James Redfield

I chanced upon this beautiful quote just earlier this morning and it stuck with me for the entire day. It was only when I saw the light on my friends’ faces did I really resonate with the content of the quote. These people whom I have had the privilege to work with the past few days, are here for a reason, and every single time I interact with them, they leave a bit of themselves with me; an personal information, a facial expression etched in my mind, or a sound they produced, as I do so with them. We all complement each other’s being in one way or another, and at the end of this extremely long and tiring day, I am proud to say that I think my group complements me in the best way, and I am thankful for that.

Note to self: It’s the people that matter.