I HAD a dream.

I was a little girl alone in my little world who dreamed of a little home
for me.
I played pretend between the trees, and fed my houseguests bark and leaves,
and laughed in my pretty bed of green.

I had a dream
That I could fly from the highest swing.
I had a dream.

Long walks in the dark through woods grown behind the park, I asked God who
I'm supposed to be.
The stars smiled down on me, God answered in silent reverie.
I said a prayer and fell asleep.

I had a dream
That I could fly from the highest tree.
I had a dream.

Now I'm old and feeling grey.
I don't know what's left to say about this life I'm willing to leave.
I lived it full and I lived it well, there's many tales I've lived to tell.
I'm ready now, I'm ready now, I'm ready now to fly from the highest swing.

I had a dream.

(Song by Priscilla Ahn)

Was in the car with Shalom, Ivan and Haze when we discussed about our individual songs.
Songs that had our personalities in it. THE song with character. Ours.

This was mine...

I have to admit, it pretty much sums up the person that I am.

I am a dreamer.

Was once, am still, never lost it. You be the judge.
To point out, I do daydream sometimes.
Those times when I would gaze to the sky or stare out to the open field.
Or maybe at you. So it seems, when I'm actually looking past you and maybe, just maybe...boring a hole through you.

So what if I didn't remember most of my childhood. At least my vague memories were pleasant. Boring, as it may seem but what more can a little girl ask for?

A little girl with a simple mind, easily contented. Innocent but with a big heart.

I want to be THAT little girl again.
With no care in the world.
Nothing to hold me back.
Nothing I would regret.
Looking towards the promising future.
Keeping memories close to my heart so dear.
To fly on the highest swing.
And to dream of myself with a wing.

I am ready now...
LiSs

A dedication...

Got this idea from a certain friend.
And in accordance to my pursuit of writing less gloomy posts and more positive ones...

Cheers to us!
Us and all our friends from Monash, those who managed to graduate after 3 years of hard toiling.

To A & W (they are addressed as one now):
Forever! May we never ever need to pick sides!

To Andrew:
Celebrating his 'modesty' and our constant disagreements.

To Bryan:
As a source of entertainment for his 'hard labour' in the office. I know you're reading this...*wink*

To Laura:
Never losing her countless jokes and expressions!

To Mich:
To an ambitious, a high flyer and career woman. Success!

To Yin:
With her trademark. The infectious laugh.

To Zhen Han:
His new self. Of less lonely nights and more cheerful days to come!


As we part ways into different courses of our lives, may we never forget we've once walked on this path, the one where we are standing at different junctions facing across one another.
(dang, i broke the very reason for this post. a light and cheery one =p)

With love,
LiSs ^^

Believe...Just because.

What a better way to start the new year, than with a new post?
For the new year...(though technically the new year spirit has come but all gone)

I remember when I was in Form 1...In a new school, in a new environment, with new faces. (okay it wasn't entirely alien, but with my friends in other classes, I felt pretty...alone.)
Not the point. (though 'new' works. in this case)

Now back to the story. My English teacher, Mrs. Whatever-her-name-was was your typical stern-looking, no-nonsense teacher (at least that's what I can gather after all these years, who says only teachers can't remember their students name!).

P.S. she is that SJ teacher whom my friend and I get the worse from, with a cleanliness check every Monday, her taking the last period before assembly, the class being unreasonably dirty week after week, and us being on floor duty on Mondays. (urghh, those WERE the days i definitely would want to forget)

So on the first period of her class, we were given an assignment to do (already! i know!).

An essay entitled...My New Year Resolutions.

Of course by now, I do not recall at all any of the contents of my essay. Heck, it may all sound so cliche now that I've grown up (more like getting old) but then...then.

It seemed like almost an impossible task to do.
Or something passed off as easy.
Or something exciting or interesting.

The former being a practical teenager understanding that more than half of what would be written would not be accomplished by the end of the year anyway.
The latter being an ambitious teenager who has ideas just spinning off in her head waiting to be overturned out and who never stops dreaming.

Of the combination of the two, I was slighted more towards the picture of the former teenager.

Now as I glanced back at the past, I think to myself, "What have I actually done?"
And as I look forward to the future, "What can I do?"

Surely, I have become worse. Much more cynical bout life. A realist. No longer believing in the happily ever after. At least not for myself. Not now. But no, I can't bring myself to say,

"Not ever."

Just because I want to believe in the best in others. I want to believe there's a better place out there. I want to believe I can dream dreams. I want to believe in myself. I want to believe I too, can have a happy ever after. Just because.

Start it right. End it well.
LiSs ^^

Near death experiences...

Where my whole life flashed right across my eyes...

Or so, it would seem.

Cutting a corner too fast,
I almost rammed the edge.

Holding my breath for too long,
I nearly ran out of breath.

Almost falling into the drain, with my hands sprawled against the wall,
My first few lessons learning how to ride a bike.

Riding a roller coaster at lightning speed,
I almost fell off my seat.

ALMOST. Or so it would seem.

Nothing like a rush of adrenalin pumping in your blood,
Nothing like a feeling of pure exhilaration.
Chills running down your spine,
Shocks of electricity jolting you back to life.

Giving you a reason to live.
Reminding you of your existence.
The extra push you need to exert yourself.

When I go to heaven,
I want my life to count,
To meet God face to face,
Hearing the words...
"Well done, Melissa. You good and faithful servant!"

P.S. I've yet to learn how to ride a bike, properly.
LiSs ^^

Just another case of...

Being at the Wrong Place, at the Wrong Time.

Being at the Right Place, at the Right Time.

OR

Being at the Wrong Place, at the Right Time.

vice versa.

You call them pure coincidence,
mere accidents,
bad judgements...
I call them. Fate.


When what would seem to be a shed of light or a ray of hope,
Just a shift in course would be enough to place one in a predicament amidst the deep blue of the sea.

When all appears to be well and dandy,
Just a wrong foot forward would be enough to crush one's visions and dreams.

When all that one thrived on was because of a perfect image,
Just a touch of reality would be enough to shatter its fragile elements.

Yes, its one of those cases.
Nothing happens without reason.

I'm having one of those nights.
LiSs ^^

At long last!

After months of procrastinating and leaving drafted posts unfinished and unpublished, I've determined to post this, even if its gonna end up to be a short or pointless one. I'm not going to give excuses for my absence despite my unreasonably tight schedule, but for my lack of persistence and devotion.

No, I've never understood how some people never fail to take time off their schedule to update their blogs. For me, it's the television and whatever else that does not require me to use my brains (I still haven't found time to clean my room after exams =p). But it is rather comforting to be letting out a few things off my mind sometimes, I tend to keep them very much to myself.

So, what has been going on in my secret life? Unfortunately, nothing much. Yes, I've just finished my exams, officially a graduate a total bummer a missionary, traveller. Truth is, events follow, one after another. Aside from birthdays, even my mom's 50th, other celebrations and never forgetting some milestones.

Thanks to Project Management, I've learnt that milestones do not have a duration, but only marks a significant event in our schedule called life. A milestone in our life is something only for us to value as it may be only significant to some, those who are affected by it. If you think you may be someone in one area, remember you are part of a city, state, nation, region, continent, world, galaxy and ultimately the entire universe. Now, who do you think you are?

Back to my point, your significant event...may not be so significant after all. Oooh, I've just burst a bubble. Not to sound jaded, but...life's like that sometimes. It's not always about me, my and myself. Nor you, you and you. So...what if people do not appreciate you for who you are and not value the things you do...We all have our own unique experiences no one could ever take them from us. So, treasure every little thing you have but continue to stay down-to-earth.

So much for this being a short post. I drift away. Sometimes. For the most part.

Let's see what have I done so far...Right after exams, my cell group were caught up with the CouZ Talent Night by SIBKL. Every night, we would gather to practise for the audition happening on Sat night. At first, we were ambitious enough to come up with a 5 number performance. Of a dance, song, mime, stomp and media. More like a copy of 30 seconds to fame where each number would last 30 seconds centered on the theme, 'One'.

The plan failed. Miserably. Strike 1 was with the dance which was supposed to be led by Bryan who, was not very much a dancer himself (sorry Bryan! for the record, none of us are, excepting Bernice's solo with you as the pole. Told you that could have worked better with you standing still =p)

Strike 2 - Stomp led by Laura
We could not possibly some up with any neat, tight beats even after countless times of watching it on YouTube. So, out you go! Well at least we did have fun boom banging and cling clanging buckets and pans. =D

Strike 3 - Mime led by myself
This, we had some sort of idea from Lindy and were halfway there. Nonetheless, not enough to make a stunning performance and therefore, scrapped.

Strike 4 - Media by John
Due to insufficient time, he didn't manage to come up with it.

After 4 strikes, what else is left but the song, which we did. Conventional style. The Amazing Grace (My chains are gone) presented to you by One United cell.

Since I had my mom's 50th on that Sat of the audition day itself, I didn't join them on auditions. My mom's birthday's another event on itself feat. the Grease theme with Uncle Tony, the disco king.

The next week was also spent on practising for the big day, the Talent Night itself. We made through to the finals! Apparently, the judges are really nice people who couldn't turn anyone down even if they were really bad. Or they expected 10 groups to perform but since only 9 groups participated, we all made it! But auditions wouldn't be complete without comments and boy did we get ours! The judges were confused of us being a performance or a worship team? Amazing Grace, much? And the girls' voices were not strong enough. Fair enough, for most of us girls, it was our first time. We definitely had a lot of catching up to do.

After many nights of toiling...*pause* for effect...our every bit of effort paid off. We displayed more confidence, more coordination and more voice, according to Lindy, our image consultant =p Excepting the fact that, the other groups were way better than us! We knew for sure, we didn't deserve to win. Despite that, Laura contributed to us being the top 2 on the SMS votes. At least, we were mentioned apart from the rest of us non-winners getting consolation prizes of free TGV movie tickets (no surprise there).

After supper, on that fateful night...While Bryan drove Laura and I back home, we met an accident on the highway. To keep the long story short, we survived from what would have been a nasty accident with only some sprains, bruises and cuts. And the moral of the story, always buckle up, even behind!

This ended up to be a much longer post than i expected. Oh well, I'll leave the rest for another day. So, there's something to look forward to.

That's all for now, folks!
Next up, Thailand and Singapore!
LiSs ^^

life has taken on a new turn...
the world is seen differently through one's eyes...
every step is taken purposefully...
with a mission, a set goal to work towards to...