the beginning of the end

it just struck me recently that this semester is drawing to an end, and with it my life as a university undergraduate. i'm awash with a sort of bittersweet feeling, though much more bitter than sweet.

the workload for the final semester was quite crazy thanks to design project, with many days and nights spent reading countless articles, musing over the design of the plant, and churning out reports and diagrams. in terms of project work, this semester takes the cake, trumping the other semesters easily. as the semester draws to an end, so does design project, and the freeing up of calendar space to spend more time enjoying myself with non-academic stuff will definitely be welcomed.


however, with that being said, design project comes with its own fair share of joys as well. through the many ordeals and headaches we had to endure for the design project, working together proved to be quite an enjoyable experience on hindsight. submitting the interim report just 7 minutes before the 2359 deadline was certainly a first-time experience for me. the countless hours spent in the YIH student society area hunched over our laptops trying to churn out the design project report was certainly memorable as well.

however, more saddening than the end of design project is actually the end of the undergraduate life. this will be the last reading week i'll have in NUS, the last NUS examination period, the last few weeks of hall stay, before my friends and i all split up and go our separate ways. we'll probably meet up in the future, for dinner, for movies, for random outings, but we'll never study together again, we'll never do projects together again, we'll never live together as hall neighbours again, we'll never re-live the undergraduate experience together again. All of us will proceed on with the next phase in life, and what's left of this phase will only be memories that will eventually fade with time. how sad is that.

the passage of time is both cruel and merciful. for now, i'm feeling its cruelty as it slowly robs the last few precious days of my undergraduate life away from under my nose.