Was there a time you wished all that had happened in the past few years never did?

That you could turn back time its self, and undo your mistakes, or prevent a calamity.

If u were given the chance, would you take it? Would you risk everything, just to correct a mistake made long ago…every night haunting your dreams, filled with regret.

I’ve faced problems…a lot of them. My family is happy and content, but my school life isn’t. Everyday, I’m reminded of all the things I’ve done wrong. All the things I could’ve done better and fix a path to a much stronger base, to be cooler, to be fitter, to be smarter, to be friendlier.

I’ve many regrets. Yet isn’t that part of life?

Before I start, I’d like to say my perspective of life is solely my own. So Christians, keep your ruddy believes to yourself. I have my right.

To live a perfect life without problems, to have fortune and fame spoon fed into your mouth, with luck always by your side, and the decisions that you make always right…now THAT, I would say…is an imperfect life. Not even a worthy one, in fact.

To me, I believe, every person’s journey in life is a story. A book with many chapters, pages, and sentences. What is the book? And where do you read it from? Simple. The person itself, is a book. It may not be as simple to read a person’s story as opening a thick covered copy from MPH, but its much more interesting. Talk to a person, and hear their life story. One of my favorite ‘books’, would me my grandparents. When I was young, I’d listen everyday to my grandmother’s story of how she survived the Japanese war, and the horror she saw. From meeting my grandfather, to how she kept calling the hospital every minute on the day I was born.

And how do you become a character in his or her story? You befriend them. Look at my story, and you’ll see that the main characters are diverse, and interesting, with their own story to tell, yet build mine. You’d see many times of me mentioning Amanda, Zakhren, Derek, Fern, Ooi Hong, and others. These people make my story complete. Without them, I’d be the only character. All alone. Nothing.

Back to being able to turn back time. If I had the chance, the most I would change is the fact that may I’d not eat so much, and was less moody. But I wouldn’t change my path of meeting Amanda, or failing to get a post in LEO recently. These things, no matter how much I regret, I will not change. And why? Because no matter how painful the memories are, and how much my heart bleeds with every reminder of it…that’s just what it is: Memories. It's what makes me, me.

Memories, whether painful or happy, are important. I don’t know how to describe it, but I treasure every moment of hard times, and more the sweet. It’s from this, that I learn. Like I said…a life without regrets and hardship, where all is spoon fed, is a life not worth living. No one in this world would ever be say that there hasn’t been a time in their lives they felt real pain. Would the happiest person in the world say they did not have a moment that they regretted? No.

The past 4 years have meant a lot to me. From form 1, being bullied, I became stronger. From knowing that I had feelings for her, I expressed it. From there, I learnt how not to contain my feelings. I made friends. For once, real friends. Those that are actually by my side.

I learnt that the world is not perfect. There are people out there who are inconsiderate beyond reason, while also people who were caring and kind beyond reason.

Amanda’s last day of school in Malaysia ended today at 12.30pm. At that moment, a chapter in my story, amidst many more to come, had closed.

We’re about to reach the end of this chapter. Come 21^st August, it ends, and a new one enfolds.

And if one day, when maybe I am no longer in touch with Zakhren or Fern, I’d have these stories to alway look back at.

Life’s a story. One we write. One we share.

And in others, we’re the characters that make their story complete