As I listened to her talk, I felt a sense of admiration for this friend of mine, who had shown me that there was nothing wrong with daring to dream big, ludicrous or impractical as it might seem, and who had taught me to look at life and see all the possibilities it had to offer. Hearing her talk about her aspirations made me take good, long, hard look at myself.

All my life, people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I would tell them, naively, ' I want to be a journalist',  not realizing that I had been limiting myself. Other than journalism, I hadn't the faintest idea how to go about pursuing other choices. I'd entertained some options, but being a pragmatic Singaporean, I dismissed those thoughts, knowing that it would be nearly impossible to succeed.

 But now I tell myself, to hell with it, who cares what people think? I don't want my idea of success and a good life to be defined by just these symbols of status- having a stable job, a relatively high income, marriage and 2 kids, owning a car and living on private property, being wealthy enough to take my family to the country club or splurge at the shopping mall every weekend. Surely there is more to life than material comforts?  I find it scary how many Singaporeans work are contented with living in stifling conformity. And the thought of being trapped in a rut but not being able to do anything about it, or being just another disillusioned office drone in this rat race is simply terrifying.

Pursue what you love and don't be too quick to write it off, you never know until you've tried :)