National Sobriety Day/Swap Ideas Day/Sewing Machine Day
2008-09-10 @ 11:55 p.m.

Last day of work, for now anyway. The students were okay, and I actually recognised some of them from another training a couple of months ago, so at least I ended on a good note. I was really sleepy today though. Shaun Ho just flew off tonight. I sent an SMS to wish him well, which he replied to when he was in the aeroplane. When it comes to my turn, in slightly less than two weeks, I will not cry at the airport. I will not look back as I step through the door. After all, I'll only be away for two months. The real test will be next year, when I won't set foot on my native soil for almost half a year, simply because not to travel would be such a waste of opportunity. I love my country, in ways that even I sometimes don't understand, and I certainly don't share the vitriolic sentiments that some of my peers would express about how our country works. Yet no person in their right mind could look me in the eye and tell me that I could have just as an enriching a university experience locally as I could overseas. To say so is to deceive oneself. Which is why no matter how hard it will be to leave (though for me I suspect it might be easier than for most), I must. I really hope nobody cries at the airport when it's my turn. I wouldn't quite know how to react. Not that I don't know the right things to say, but I can't mean them, not fully. Call me callous. This is just one of those things that I refuse to lie about, even if it's to make people feel better.