BY LIM HUI QIN
“Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
Douglas Adams
Volare, the theme of the dinner, encompassed fully the wish our juniors had for us – to soar towards our goals and dreams after graduation. The dinner was thoughtfully planned and executed by the committee with intricate customised decorations at The St. Regis Singapore and personalised door-gifts, as well as a series of fun games and captivating performances (I’m not self-praising; all the performances were amazing), and a delectable five-course dinner.
To have juniors who are from two or three batches apart planning for our convocation dinner only reminds me how CN Yang scholars in NTU are just like a big family. We were also once the juniors who had planned a convocation dinner for our graduating seniors. Now, it still feels surreal for me to have been seated at the table at the convocation dinner as a participant, as a graduating senior.
How did 4 years of university pass so quickly?
It still feels like yesterday when we started our first semester in 2013, attending our first lectures for the CNYSP modules, going to each other’s halls to make hell loads of noise at night, still fresh and excited about learning and experiencing university life. The waves of nostalgia hit most when the juniors were showing photo montages of our freshmen year during the convocation dinner – our FOC, our first CNYSC events, Enya’s chicken pose… (Sorry Enya!) Fast forward to 2017, we have become jaded and grumpy seniors, getting annoyed by large crowds of energetic freshmen and treating lectures as time to sleep in (okay, maybe it’s just me).
I think what I have learned most from these 4 years is that completing this 4-year journey would not have been possible if you insist on sailing alone. We have godly smart friends with different strengths helping each other in the array of CNYSP modules, awesome seniors sharing with us Matlab codes and past-year answers, Ms Lee Hooi Chen giving us administrative support whenever we lost a module in the STARS war, and our professors giving us overseas opportunities and research exposure. It is difficult to imagine a celebration of success with no company to toast to and a lack of helping hand when we fall.
To my fellow batchmates, thank you for the friendship and memories. Every one of us is filled with infinite potential to fly without wings and I hope we will all achieve goals that are meaningful to us. This 4-year journey has not been easy but that is what makes it worthwhile. Without a beat to rest, our next phase of life may be filled with more challenges of a different scale, but I hope that we will never forget to –
Make a wish, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
