Someone very wise & dear to me once said:

"Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy..every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before..."

I very much agree.  Strength comes from within.  Strength is understanding your own limits and following your instincts, doing what you know is right.  Often, strength is not the power to retaliate when others hurt you, but rather, strength is the ability to resist the temptation to seek revenge, the power to tolerate others' errors and to rise above them.  But most importantly, strength is being capable of finding your own equilibrium again should you find yourself walking astray - we all fall, but only those strong enough can get up time after time. 

Ying's Picnic Pics

I remember saying many-a times that I would never miss high school, coz I never liked it... but lately, I've found myself kinda lamenting the loss of certain elements of high school life - well actually to be honest, it's really only the one thing haha...

It's not the cheap lunch (eg triangular sushis and mamba and buttered bread rolls), it's not the jigging to St Leonards park, it's not the coffees at Eighty-Ate or at Coffee Club, it's not the fighting with bitches with alien heads, it's not the long horrifying hours spent at the Principal's/Deputy's office (often as a result of fighting with the aforementioned bitches), it's not the train-ride home, it's not the scribbling on the school bench, it's not the screaming at annoying juniors like 'o-really-ah' and laughing at 'de ja vu girl', it's not purposely breaching the school uniform code, it's not the nicknames we made up for each other...

But it IS the people I experienced all the above (and so much more) with!  I miss our high school group, and although I see those I was closest with pretty regularly, it's still not the same as seeing each other everyday.  I suppose something positive always comes out of everything though - I've realised you don't need to see each other everyday to remain good friends, because if you're tight it feels exactly like old times when you meet up again, even if it is once in a blue moon.

"We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly..."

For 2 years, I believed in this but now I question whether I was being too damn optimistic.  So what if you can learn to see that "imperfect person" perfectly?  It doesn't mean they'll stop taking you for granted and start treating you decently.  It doesn't mean you won't get hurt.  It doesn't mean this "love" will last.  In fact, it becomes a genuine problem when you begin to see that "imperfect person" TOO perfectly - you forgive them for all the wrong they do and you give them chances time and time again even when they keep disappointing you.  You just end up feeling sad with or without them, and you become too dependent for your own good - it's a sad-sad situation really. 

Once bitten, twice shy.  I think I'll just wait for the perfect person to come along...

if a picture says a thousand words, what do these pictures say???

[photographs courtesy of kenzo and jubes]