Flying’s Friends

“I prefer working with machines to with human beings.” That was how I described my choice of future career path before I even enrolled into a university. Eventually, I opted for the Computer Science programmes in the SoC of NUS and SMA, respectively.

My unsociable nature since young made it relatively difficult for me to keep close contacts with my friends, especially with whom I did not talk to very often. Fortunately, however, there’ve been many kind souls around who always helped me, kept me in contact, and cared for me. I am really grateful for the blessing to have so many good friends despite my passive character.

I grew up in the metropolitan of Guangzhou since birth. I was the only child in my family under China’s “One Child” policy. I hardly had any friend from outside of my class in the school due to my passive nature. It was very sad that I had to part from most of my good friends whenever I graduated from a school for higher educations. But I had to accept those sad moments, just as what an old Chinese saying told, “Every banquet has to come to an end eventually.”

Since I left Guangzhou for studies in Singapore, it was even more difficult for me to keep in contact with my old friends in China. Moreover, I began to live alone in Singapore, with no family or relatives to turn to when there was any problem. So for the first time in my life, I began to get to know more and more new friends from different countries or different backgrounds, outside of the circle of my classmates.