In just a blink of an eye, we are already 11 days deep into the new year. This year is special in so many ways. To some, it is a foreboding time of immense doom for the Mayans had foretold the end of the world on the 21st Dec this year. What say I? Bullshit. It's best to ignore any unconfirmed presumption that loom ahead which might very well become yet another heresy. In all sanity, let's keep calm and move on. And to others, 2012 is a leap year which albeit doesn't bring much elation nor does it stir our matrix of emotions composed of a myriad of indecisive, human-like feelings, stokes a bunch of special people on this planet earth for they celebrate their coming to this Earth on this day that only occurs once every four years.

For me, it's as very simple as the fact that I'm starting a new chapter of my life. To enter Junior College emanates an air of maturity and I like to imagine it's akin to a ceremony of "the coming of age" which is practised by many tribal nomads. And as apt as it can be, this year's open house theme was "Welcome to the tribe" so in all its barbaric spin offs, I am entering new pastures of the wildlife.

And even though it might be a tad too late to look back in the past year, I must say that it had been an eventful and very much fruitful 2011. Just reminiscing about the past makes me long for its return and I sorely miss being an adolescent once again (well, I'm just one year older but JC does draw a fine line in one's maturity level). Life in Singapore is just one hectic ball rolling down a hill and one's journey can and must only get faster. Our gaze and vision is fixated ahead, locked on to the base of the plateau but little do we know that we're missing out on the finer details of life--the grazing bunnies that waltz along and stare in curiosity at us rolling down top speed; the tiny shrubs that whose bristle-like leaves whisper callously in the throwing wind; the miniature flowers that seek our attention but instead get trampled over by our haste.

No more.

Or at least that's what I hope to say. For now, there is nothing more I can do but resign to fate. The next two years are bound to be fast paced (faster than I've ever experienced) and perhaps I do long to reach the end of the hill. But as we all know, the hill never ends. Below that is a mountain, situated upon a never-ending descent into god-knows-what.

And all we can safely do, is to sheepishly peer back at marvel at the holes which the bunnies once lived in, the bushes which once stood pompously when it was full of leaves, and the flowers, now flattened with humility and endless beauty.

When will we learn to stop.

And stare.