Thank You Day
2005-09-19 @ 8:07 p.m.

How interesting. Have been invited to take part in some essay competition to win a scholarship to Saint Joseph's University, which is in Philadelphia. First prize covers tuition fee for four years, plus room and board for the first two years. Very attractive to a penniless pauper like me who can't afford anything except NUS/NTU/SMU without a scholarship. The trouble is that I don't really want to study in the USA, but I would if it was my only way to get out of Singapore. Better there than here, as I would say. Why does Saint Joseph's want Singaporean students anyway? It's a Jesuit university by the way, which would probably make my parents very happy. You know, the whole thing about students going wild overseas. I know it's at the back of their minds, even if they don't say it aloud. The catch to this whole scholarship thing is obviously my NS liability, because to be eligible for it you either have to have finished serving NS, or be able to defer your NS while you do your undergraduate studies. Damn. It just occurred to me that if I'd known about this earlier (like two years ago), I could have deferred my NS further, since you just have to be below 17.5 when you start your undergraduate studies to get deferment. Rats...

Only re-read Love, Etc. so far, so I'll probably do that with a poem tomorrow instead of The Hours. I can see why Mr Purvis wasn't too impressed with it, although I most certainly am. He sees is as being "very clever", but that's about it. I suppose it could be the lack of feeling in this novel, both from and for the characters. Like I wrote in my Common Test essay, you don't really care at the end what happens to Stuart, Oliver and Gillian. You're more inclined to adopt Mme Wyatt's position: "So as for me, I will wait. For something to happen. Or for nothing to happen." Basically, good riddance to the trio. I think the book's quite true in its observations though. I never really placed much stock on the superiority of feeling to thought. I only believed that because I was somehow convinced that Eliot was unquestionably right, being so much cleverer than me and all. I'm inclined to I.A. Richards view of thought and feeling as two alternative ways of approaching the world, neither being superior to the other. I could quote you a bit of Eliot to support that precariously poised perspective, but I'm too lazy to reach for my copy of Silas Marner at the moment. Two days to go...