Closely Apart

"Have you ever wondered where we will go after death?" Here I am, standing in front of hundreds and thousands of faces, black and white, thinking about life and death. It has become an annual ritual of my family. 

Food and laughter, as if we've forgotten the grand purpose behind all these. Or maybe we haven't forgotten. We're just good at covering up the grief.

Men and women, young and old, alone and in pair,

hundreds and thousands of once beating hearts,

jars and jars of ash are all that's left.

Every gaze hurts my eyes,

every mouth whispers "why?"

Why are we so close yet so far apart?

People go, memories remain.

Every touch, every scent, every smile, every word, every move,

comes alive when I close my eyes;

Every detail of your motionless eyes, nose, ears, mouth, hair,

haunts me when I look at you in your little rectangle.

Jars of lives presented in an orderly manner before me,

I know your body is there, but are you "really" there?

Where are you? How are you doing? Is everything alright? Are you in good health?

Maybe you can hear me, maybe you cannot.

But I just wanna tell you, "I love you."

Inside but Outside

Aunts, uncles, cousins... tens of them all around me, and I'm feeling all alone. Words flying pass me like bullets; children uncontrollably charging in different directions like hungry wolves; here I am, at the center of the impact, taking all these in me... 

Ever wonder how we speak the same language, but don't understand each other; how we are in the same house but also divided into separate 'houses'; and there I hide, at a corner, trying to find a place of my own...

Our Muse Waves Her Wand Again!

Shh... Just Listen to the sound from above.

Journey to Cambodia

A Trip of Realization

No street lights, but dimmed candle lights emitting from a few houses on the streets; no high rise buildings, but sparsely distributed shabby huts; no shoes on the tiny feet, but a filthy, worn-out piece of cloth barely covering the skinny little bodies; basically there was hardly anything ‘civilized’. But no, it was not the ’50s. It was the summer of 2010 when I first stepped my foot on this impoverished land, Cambodia, for a 5-day vacation with my family.

At the beginning of the trip, the itinerary was so boring because it was filled with visits to temples and historical sites. However, what I experienced on the second day of the trip had completely shifted my mindset and perception towards Cambodia.

On that day, we took a boat trip through a floating village. As a mid-stop, we boarded a floating school which was an eye-opener. It was heart-breaking to realize how few facilities there were. Everything on the boat were a classroom which could at most fit into 50 students, and an open-space “playground”. At the corner of the playground, two boys were lying on their stomachs in order to use the deck as a table for them to do assignments on their exercise books. With this scene imprinted in my mind, there is no excuse for me to be lazy given all the well-equipped learning facilities and support that I have. And this kind of self-reflection was what the whole journey was about.

As the French novelist Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Cambodia might not have breath-taking scenic views or well-developed infrastructures, but it would definitely allow its visitors to reflect on their lives. Having witnessed how Cambodians struggled under poverty, I realized what true adversity really means and am able to see what I have and how lucky I am.

5 Easy Steps to be a Life Lover

• Be excited
  If the other people are being indifferent, you don't have to be like that too. Show your excitement, and they will be influenced.
  
  
• Be decisive and determined
  Know what you're doing and where you're heading to.
  
  
• Care about what is happening in your surroundings
  Have an opinion on issues.
  
  
• Wake up early
  Get a head start and be more relaxed for the rest of the day.
  
  
• Don't be afraid to fail
  To err is human. You tried, you failed, so what? At least you've tried. If you don't try, you never know.

5 Basic Mistakes Interviewers Should Avoid

Upon evaluating my first ever interviewer experience, I realized how poor an interviewer I was. And so, I wanna list in this post the things that I've done wrong, so as to remind myself and other junior interviewers not to make the same mistakes.

Before the Interview

1. Not setting up a time limit for the interview.
   You may not have time to ask every question on your list before your interviewee tells you that he/she has to leave for another appointment.
   
   
2. Not clearly stating how much of the interview will be covered in your article.
   If you plan to cover only a small part of the interview in your article but the interviewee don't know about it, he/she may end up elaborating too much for each question.
   What's worse, when he/she finds out that a great deal of the interview is cut out from the article, he/she may not be willing to give you help anymore next time.

During the Interview

1. Interrupting the interviewee in the middle of his/her response.
   It shows that you're rude, and no one likes to be interrupted anyway.
   
   
2. Sharing your own story.
   Well, if the article is not about you, why would you occupy everyone's time talking about yourself rather than themselves?
   
   
3. Making too-ready judgement on what they said.
   No one likes to be judged. Judgment would only puts them in an uncomfortable position where they would have to raise their fences and trigger their fight-or-flight response. (Unless if it's what you want to achieve.)