Philosophy, Luck and I

It has always been my interest to entertain subject matters concerning meaning, purpose, potential and destiny of humankind. Thinking about the big picture of humanity through holistic ideas and abstract concepts is a great retreat where I can seek refuge from the triviality and boredom of my routine life. It is liberating and invigorating. There are few moments that bring greater pleasure than when a thought struck me. Such is not a conscious effort to logically “come up with” creative ideas. It is an intuitive process triggered by observing patterns and identifying irregularities. It produces the pieces of images which help me to make sense of reality and form part of my “big picture of humanity”. The satisfaction derived from these mental processes motivates me over and over again to contemplate issues which are often beyond my sphere of influence. As the field of politics, philosophy and economics basically covers a major part of my “big picture of humanity”, it is impossible for me not to stop my mind from venturing into this field.

This is what I have written in the first paragraph of my application essay for the NUS-in-Yale Summer Programme. Reading this always makes me wonder why am I studying Engineering Science. After attending USP classes, I have realised I seem to have an aptitude in philosophy. It doesn't matter whether I am studying a literature or a psychology module. I always find it easy to come out with something philosophical about irony, values or whatever. (That's what my classmates told me. Sometimes, I am inclined to believe philosophical = talking crap.) Of course, I hope this is an illusion. This is because if I have "wonder kid" potential (This is how a soccer management game Championship Manager 03/04 classify potentials) in philosophy, I would have made the worst choice in my life. Let's hope my potentials for maths and physics are not "limited" (another classification).

By the way, I am going to attend Yale summer programme during the holidays. I have just received the news that I have been accepted a few days ago after being wait listed for an agonizing week. In short, NUS was choosing 10 person for the programme and I'm 11th person. After spending one week blaming a God(dess) of Luck for putting me in the "so-close-yet so-far" position, I am lucky to count myself now as the tenth person. Apparently, the person who quit ditch this progamme for an internship. Maybe I should pray for forgiveness for all the expletives that I threw at my God(dess) of Luck during the frustrating week. (Maybe I shouldn't. The alternative hypothesis is that: I became lucky after verbally abusing my God(dess) of Luck). Enough of all this crap! More importantly, the lesson for everyone: Always put in your 120% in achieving what you want because you'll never know whether you'll be the 1oth or the 11th person. Well said?