It was on a Wednesday evening, during the early weeks of February where once more, the GRS class were treated to a guest speaker who openly spoke of the current realities of working in development projects with non-governmental organizations. On that night, I took away two refreshing pieces of thought:

what are my values, ethics, goals? do they govern how I behave or do I take them as guidelines – flexible to situations?

& what am I focusing on?

Yes, what am I focusing on? It was suggested that rather than focusing on the large organizations, to re-focus on smaller organizations – which instead offer a higher learning curve with more responsibilites. And, whether large or small, what does a “perfect” organization mean anyway? The term “perfect” seems in itself an imperfection, as the usage of the term very much lies in the eye of the beholder, just like beauty.

The word “focus” dwelled in my thoughts, and then I came across these two pictures – the same flower, taken in the same position but each with a different focus. A slight change but a dramatic difference – by changing the focus, resulted in a dramatic change in outlook.
I think this applies well to my life: it has been five months since I have started attending school – commutes by Trasit, studying, assignments, exams, socializing (?), volunteering (?), work (?)…at some point my focus has shifted from “enjoying what I do” to “just doing what I do”. I’ve been busy focusing on the background work, that I didn’t appreciate what I was doing and why I was doing it for. I had started out looking at the flower then somehow began staring at the grass – now, it’s time to re-focus onto the flower – and appreciate the beauty of what I do. I am thankful to be here, to be learning and experiencing and rather than flippantly going through these times I want to enjoy every moment, so that in whatever situation I am in, I would desire to linger in those moments. I believe that everything has a reason and thus there is a reason for everything – ultimately I hope to bask in those moments until I understand the reason for it, because sometimes we may carry on mechanically;

yet even a machine has a function and purpose.