An interesting encounter.

Today, I stop and ponder about whether my perspective on all Singaporeans are actually correct. It isn't because I have a lot of time in my hand. In fact, time is slowly seeping away from my grasp. It was because of this incident that had happened when I had to get something that I had zero knowledge of.

Let me begin my story.

It wasn't a good day to begin with. I woke up to the cacophonic discordance of sound - from that of the construction that had been taking place around my neighbourhood. summoning all my energy I could to get up from my motionless self, I began to sub-consciously move around my room, I didn't know why; It has been a routinely habit that was in me for a long time. Aimlessly wandering outside my room, I searched for things to do. I was greeted by bright sunlight that shone in the morning skies. I then realised that it wasn't early anymore. Frantically within my thoughts, I tried to gather dates of different events to see if they matched today - 10 June 2010. Luckily, no dates matched, I heaved a sigh of relief and continued wandering around. I chanced upon a notice that probably no one in the family knew how to read and It wrote :

" I am happy to inform you that your precint has been selected for the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme(NRP)"

I made a mental note - It was probably the cause of all the noise within the neighbourhood. I didn't enjoy my day at all. To make it short, everything went wrong. The environment wasn't friendly and all the drilling made the block of houses tremor like a mini earthquake. It wasn't a conducive environment at all, I couldn't start studying, I couldn't start dreaming, I couldn't start sleeping. Everything couldn't be accomplished because of this tremor that in the end would only result in slight convenience to either lazy people who don't give a hoot about the environment or the less fortunate disabled people. Perhaps in the future, when people start to think why Gaia was ending they would think about all these minute temporary help that was, in end result, a recipe for disaster.

I needed a great escape. I then planned to go to school to pass up what I needed to that was due last week. I did just that, only to return home again disturbed of my peace by the drilling noise. Trying to win the noises by playing my music at max volume would be a really stupid and illogical thing to do at this time. Suddenly, my speakers stopped playing my favourite music, at my favourite chorus. It was weird because they had been working fine for the past 3 years, being a birthday gift from my mom 3 years ago, It had a lot of sentimental value to me. Although it has stopped working countless of times, I tried various ideas, regardless whether it was from a ridiculous hypothesis or not. It always seemed to work in the end.

I was especially intolerant of anything today, and because I think I gave it a try, although not as desperate as in the past, I decided inform my parents to hopefully get me a new sound system and of course, being mollycoddled all my life, they both agreed. I didn't really care about whether they reluctantly agreed or not. Yes is yes. I didn't have any sense of sympathy for spending my parent's money.

Never did I know that I would meet up with someone that would change my perspective of a typical Singaporean person.

I explored two shops without doing my homework - checking information about speakers. I hadn't any clue about which one to get. They all seem convincingly good. As I was no audiophile, I struggled in both stores to choose a speaker I like. Even the store helper didn't pose much of a help. He spoke inaudibly and I could hardly hear what he was trying to say. Just then, I saw a man. From the looks of it, he was quite old. He had uncombed hair and had many wrinkles. I figured since I couldn't get much information, let me try my luck by asking him. It turned out to be a right choice. He immediately filled me with details about his own perspective on the different speakers. He told me he was a gamer and from what I could hear from him, He was pretty much quite an audiophile.

I had always thought that Singaporean people like me were people who didn't give two cents about other people and always helped people only if they could gain the upper hand. Was I wrong? He had no gain in helping me at all. Perhaps my mind is ruined by prejudice. I was indeed VERY wrong. I guess I have never come to really see someone help a stranger to this extent. He thoroughly told me the pros and cons of each of the speakers. In the end, when I had chosen the speaker I wanted that was within my budget, I thanked him repetitively and he left.

I guess I still have much to know about the world and how it works. Especially my misconception that all people in a nation behave like what other people say. Each people has their own personality and it is shameful to admit that I have only realised it now...