Sew Pei Xuan
20, Singaporean
Year 2 Psychology

“Life in Singapore is too stressful!” Yes I am definitely agreeing with this sentence. Being a Singaporean for the past 20 years, I grow up being told by my parents, teachers and the society that I need to work hard to get into a good school, a good university, get a good job, or my life is ruined for eternity. That stress accumulated within me has drove me to long for tranquility. Therefore, one day at the age of 15, I jogged to my neighbourhood park and I noticed how incredibly calm the “nature” was. It felt like the surrounding landscape was whispering to me “Everything is going to be alright!”. When I am in nature, I feel free to be myself and I could let go of the competitiveness, insecurities and trouble within me.

However, as I took on this Conservation Psychology module, I came to understand that the urban parks that I visit every week is perceived as artificial nature make by humans and machines. In comparison to the artificial nature, I observe a lack of interest in the “real” nature reserves and biodiversity. Hence, the motivation of this blog is to analyse the difference in attitude between built and natural world in Singapore.