"It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end."

Journey. A year back, I guess I never really understood the meaning of that word. To journey towards a goal, a destination..I've always wondered how it really feels like. The me a year ago...he was probably at the center of a crossroad. Four clear paths to follow, only one to walk on. What criterias should I have to make my decision? What do I really want? Before all that, who am I?

Well, to discover why a plant wilts, we check its leaves. Then, we check the stems, followed by the roots, the soil and so on. The reasoning goes on and probably never will come to an end. I guess it's the same with every individual's life. Behind every character or any change in their personality lies an event that triggered that change or character to evolve. Since I too am an individual, I guess this statement would apply to me too. 

     On August 5th, 2010, for the first time, I left my beloved home country of which I have been         

living in ever since I was born. Off I was to what is now the most educated country in the world,

or at least that's what the modern society presumes; the land of the maple leaves. 

As I walked along the gates towards the Boeing 747 which would soon fly me to the land of 
Oktoberfest, there was only one thing on my mind. Regret. I regretted not completing my 

final school year in Malaysia. I regretted losing those remaining moments with friends I
have been with for the past five years. I regretted not taking a public examination 
which I have been studying hard for for the past five years. Yep, many things I'd regretted.
Despite the food being pretty good and all throughout the flight (assumed to be so by my big bro), it 
tasted bitter for me, just like the bitter memories I mostly carried when I left Malaysia.

After quite a number of glasses of apple juice (I wonder if 20+ glasses is a lot), I began to relax 
and fell into deep thought about the present and future. It was tough to let go of the past, yet
it was necessary, or else..another step forward would've been improbable. A deep breath. 
A long sigh. The worries were almost all gone. Resurrected. Fresh. Those were probably
the best words to describe that moment. 

As I touched down on the neighbouring land of 'The Land Of Opportunities', I felt a new 
hope within me. I felt that I'm starting life all over again, in a world full of new strangers.
At first, it was quite intimidating but the rush of adrenaline really motivated me to give it all I 
got and hope for the best. Despite not having an ambition at that moment, it didn't mean
that I'd have to stop moving forward. So, I decided that I'll keep pushing myself to the limit
for that one year, hoping that soon, I'll realize what I'd like to do or be in the near future.
That was the beginning of my journey, or at least, that I know of.

That one final year in a Canadian high school went by quickly. I've made quite a number
of friends. It wasn't tough to blend in as everyone was friendly and pretty open. Teachers
were sociable and supportive as well, especially two teachers that gave me some support
to always do my best; Ms de Lannoy and Ms Boutilier. Both were my English teachers
for ESLE and ENG4U respectively. Ms. de Lannoy usually gave constructive criticism
and kinda motivated me to think outside the box. Ms. Boutilier further expanded that
idea by introducing interesting principles and beliefs of which I've never heard before in 
the past. I felt that I learned quite a lot during that brief period of time. I probably
wished from the bottom of my heart that I could stay for another year and learn more. But
duty calls. I've gotta graduate and support the family as quick as I can. Au Revoir, Central
Tech. It may have been a short while, but I'll never forget you, nor the people within you
of whom I've learned so much from; not just as a student, but as an individual, and a member 
of today and tomorrow's society. Arigatou Gozaimasu, CTS =)

February 5th, 2012- Wow, time sure flies. It's almost been two years. I'm now studying my first year in Chem Eng at the University of Toronto. Getting into the undergraduate program itself was a blessing and a true honour. My ambition? Well, the program says it all. I hope to learn more about the world of chemistry or perhaps science itself and if permitted, explore the forgotten realms of the ancient art of science; alchemy (yep, blog name's already giving the big hint). For once, I truly believe that one can accomplish anything provided the right amount of effort and passion is given. The path ahead. It may yet to be carved, giving its roughness and toughness. Nevertheless, what's more exciting than walking down a path that will truly be yours, your original? Anyways, that's what I feel at least. No matter what stones, boulders, or thick clouds of mists may appear before me, I hope...nah, I will try my best to overcome them all and and truly take this path as my very own. Destination? Check. Initial starting point? Check. Paths to take? We'll see how it turns out. The future is never certain. As a friend of mine mentioned, "Improbable? Yes. Impossible? Not at all." Nothing is deemed impossible although the probability of its occurrence or success may vary. However, we'll never know till we try. After all, only we can carve our own dreams, and mold them to their desired shape with our very own hands. 

I've started my journey. Taking a step forward by posting this. Leaving footsteps along this path. "Experience is not weighed by how many footsteps one makes; rather, it is determined by the depth of those footsteps." 

It's about time. 

Will you carve your path?

Will you leave your footsteps behind as well?

The choice is yours.

Peace out, peeps. Have a great day ahead.

P.S.-Tomorrow's the last day of the Chinese New Year season. Yep, that means its the Chinese Valentine's Day. Happy Chinese Valentine's Day to everyone regardless of their relationship status. Have a blast with your loved ones and soon-to-be's too. =D

"You'll never know till you try".

Leevend

    A gamble...that's the first thing that pops in my mind when I hear this phrase. Numerous times have I heard this phrase till I can't get it out. Traumatic it was, exciting it is, unpredictable it will be.

A journey,

To a faraway land,

An asphalt path,

bifurcating at some point,

A choice has to be made.

To try or not to try; that is the question.

Life is like a roulette,                                           A thick cloud of mist; a diverged path is found,

The betting begins,                                              The path behind shadowed by darkness,

One number; many possibilities,                          One target; infinite destinations,                    

Take a leap of faith; choose a number,                 Believe; choose a path; march forward,

Wheel starts spinning,                                         The mist slowly subsides,

Ball stops; a number shown,                               The path ahead eventually unfolds.

To lose money; but not to regret,                        A dead end, but no worries.
To reflect on the croupier's spinning style,           To reflect on the journey and the surroundings,
To learn about the game,                                   Only to gain this priceless artifact of life; experience,
A better gamble next,                                        A better path next,
Factored not by luck, but by thought.                Factored not by coincidence, but by knowledge and instinct.

Finally, the thick mist has started to subside. Only this time, I see a town ahead. Maybe this is it. Maybe not. Oh well, I've travelled far and wide. Many steps forward I have taken. A couple more ain't gonna hurt. I've got a gut feeling...This is the end of the beginning. Soon, the beginning of the end shall unfold...a new 42 shall await me. Well, no matter the outcome this journey may uncover, if you never try, you'll never know. And I'm glad i tried.

Au revoir,
I will be back.

Leevend

Leevend

Facebook...A book that has a face in it?... Or is it a face that tells a book?

Well, either way, most of us know that this 'Facebook' has begun a revolution in mankind's social life. So before we touch the leaves of this revolutionary 'plant', I guess we should start by digging out its roots first.

Facebook, or more commonly known as 'fb' (its abbreviation), first implanted its roots into the social networking world in February 2004. Now(roughly 8 years later), it has nested over 800 million active users. Just like other social networking sites, you just gotta sign up by giving a valid email address and entering some personal info about yourself (who cares if ya lie?), and there you go, you're part of this family of 800+ million people worldwide! Yep, sounds pretty viral to me. The previous site I recalled being a hit was Friendster but that site has pretty much died off, or at least, so I've heard. Well, every technology has its golden age, and so will it apply to Facebook as well.

Well,  forget about how long more before its gone. How did it even got popular in the very first place? At that particular period of time where Facebook rose from the bottom, social networking giants such as Friendster, Myspace and LinkedIn dominated its market. It truly is intriguing; Facebook's journey to the top. I've been a Facebook user since early 2009, but I've never really used it much since I was more focused on Friendster instead.

For those who have used Friendster before, I'm pretty sure you'll realized by now that Facebook is inferior to Friendster when it comes to profile background and layout. Customizations for the following parts are allowed for the latter but not for the current social networking giant, or at least, not that I've heard of. Despite that, Facebook beaten the odds and came out with quite an impressive lead over the others. Some say this is due to its vast variety of applications, better game quality, its ability to create many types of groups depending on situations and interests such as anime fan groups and so on. Well, maybe all of them are true, maybe some, or maybe none itself. Maybe it was just plain luck that Mark Zuckerberg bummed into some leprechaun's pot of gold under a rainbow and hit the jackpot. Well, whatever the case is, nothing changes the fact that Facebook's influenced the lives of many, if not all, of its Facebook users; some even claiming that they were born to 'facebook' with people.

Well, to me, Facebook played quite a role in a particular period of time of my life; to be specific, my final years of high school. I was a shy (not timid though) boy who went into an all-boys school, so you'll might be able to expect the difficulties faced when speaking to the opposite sex, whether it may be in person or online itself. Despite going to a mixed elementary school, puberty just came at the 'perfect timing' and at the perfect place as well. Since then, all those days where I could speak to girls leisurely were numbered. I started losing contacts from my elementary school, and eventually, even some of my really close friends became distant from me. Moreover, being an academic-oriented kind of person, I never really joined extracurricular activities, so I didn't really had opportunities to break loose from my cage of embarassment. Imagine, life of a shy, nerdy boy in an all-boys high school; not a scenario one wants to get involved in.

This continued for about 3 years until I was in Form 4 (16 years old). At this point, I was pretty much tired of studying all the time. I wanted to join activities, not only to be active in other fields, but also to be able to communicate effectively with anyone, everyone or even someone. This time, I had opportunities knocking on my door. I went for extra classes in a tuition centre nearby my high school, not to mention, a mixed class. However, I couldn't muster the courage to randomly speak with strangers from other schools (coming from an all boys school, girls = students from other schools, excluding Form 6 students). I was on the verge of giving up, yet I was really determined to make some progress. I thought about it for a couple of days and that's when the idea of a social networking site hit me. I had Friendster before that, but I hardly used it besides just uploading certain photos of school trips and all. I decided to give Facebook a try. Did I regret doing that? Well, let's just find out.

With the touch of a button( unfortunately, not literally), I signed up for Facebook which is already a step forward in that goal. Now, I had to make my move and if possible, reconcile with some of my former schoolmates. I gave it a shot. Surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult as I imagined it to be. Chatting online seemed to be so much easier since we didn't need to meet with that other someone in person. I kept progressing through this somewhat brief journey.

A year had passed. I felt so much more confident speaking to others now. However, that was just chatting in Facebook and in instant messaging programs such as Windows Live Messenger and Skype. This wasn't enough. I had to do something else. What could I do that could apply these newly acquired skills of mine in person? Where can I apply in the first place? The first place that struck me was my tuition centre. I gave it a thought and decided to go along with it. I remembered thinking for a long time before I actually approach someone from the back and start introducing myself to them. There were plenty of awkward and embarassing moments, but I don't think I've regretted them. Those moments helped me become who I am today, and I'm satisfied with my current self.

Besides giving a small boost to my self-esteem, Facebook was also a starting point where I actually learned about relationships. I would usually see my friends' statuses regarding them. Yep, eventually, my curious and fired-up self found someone special. Naturally, it was someone from my tuition centre, since it was really rare for me to find girls from other schools anywhere else besides tuition. At first, she was very shy and would hang out with her group of friends, and considering the fact that I'm a shy person by nature as well, it took quite a while before we eventually talked and became friends. Since both of us were shy, we hardly talked even if we meet each other in person. Just a simple 'Hi' and 'Bye' or 'Nice weather today, huh'. Besides that, the awkward silence often shadowed our surroundings. Seeing that we both had Facebook, we added each other and started chatting there instead. Quite to my surprise, she was not that shy in Facebook. I guess she might have been just like me. Eventually, we chatted often and became good friends.

However, due to my migration to Canada out of the blue moon, I decided to confess to her before I left. So, in the end, we rushed things a bit and I guess it crumbled..Nevertheless, I don't regret those decisions I made; the decision to speak with someone I like, to often chat with that person, and eventually confessing to that person. Those experience taught me so much about relationships and how we should take things one step at a time despite life's brief candle. All I hope for is that the other person feels the same way and moves on, living a happier life than before.

To sum it up, Facebook helped me in boosting my self esteem especially when speaking in person to others, and also taught me a thing or two about relationships. It might have not entirely played the climax of those scenarios, but it really proved to be quite the pivot points. Thus, I hope others will also benefit from its use and not abuse it for some other purpose like destructive spamming (Peeps, please stop spamming me with Cityville requests. I don't play anymore =P) Okay, back to that question earlier on, do I regret giving Facebook a try? Not at all (maybe except for those procrastination moments it caused me). So, thank you, Mark Zuckerberg. Despite all those criticisms about you, I guess I owe you one.

Peace out and have a nice day, peeps =D