Quickly, and as often said here or elsewhere, in a blink of an eye, here we are at the tail end of 2022.
When I was young, I always felt that time seemed to be moving faster with every year. I was sure that there must have been some mechanism that makes everyone dizzy while time tries to go faster every day such that its job is completed when the end game comes.
When I was serving my national service, I still remembered the above. Although time seems to be draggy, it didn't change what I had thought about time. The amount of nostalgia felt for my NS days is something that cannot be explained in a few paragraphs. If I still feel so attached to my NS days and remember that so many things happened, surely time could not have moved faster and faster.
For the nearly the past 3 years, life has been a blur. With so many of life's usual practices stopped, changed or revised, life can't be treated like how we live in an endemic. To try and get back our old lives as much as we can, we learn how to live with Covid. Ie, learning that taking vaccine and wearing the masks are part of the minimal protection and living with the risk of being infected on a daily routine. Some day or another, there would always be someone nearby who would lying in bed and recovering from Covid.
The year 2022 will end with the hanging up of my soccer boots eventually. While it was really fun and challenging to pit my fitness weekly on the soccer pitch with several soccer kakis, ultimately all good things have to come to an end, no matter how good it felt. As a young boy, I took it upon myself to form my own soccer team at 13 years old after seeing a flying newspaper notice in the New Paper about a soccer 7s at Sentosa. After making several friends and getting the privilege to play with several skillful players, I was glad to have managed to play in a couple of 11-aside games which at the age of 43. 30 years on and a broken ankle, I have only the Primary 6 interclass trophy to boast of in terms of accomplishments.
Be better than the Best! This is the mantra I remember by heart. It was taught to me during NS, when my platoon commander Mr Pritam Singh made us come up with a water parade chant. Although it doesn't make any sense in English, it is a phrase which I have kept close to my heart, believing that one can never be the best for more than 2 seconds. The minute you think you are the best around, it's time to be that better. So in short, these 2 words better and best can never cohabit. You are always trying to be better (than when you were best). I believe this was also what the entire company bought into and took it as their own mantra, to be always outstanding in what we do and be proud of it. The minute we let ourselves an indulgence, standards will drop. it is the same in work. Why be second best and when you can be the best?
2022 is also the year that Argentina won the World Cup again after so many years. I can't really be bothered about Messi, but Argentina and Maradona were my heroes when I was only 6 years old, and my dad and brother brought me to a place outside the National Stadium for a Panini Sticker Book event. I was so happy whenever get to see Diego Armando Maradona's sticker. He was my favourite player and I loved seeing the Argentina soccer team in their famous light blue and white stripes jersey. The final was one of the most exciting and nail biting games ever and now I hope that Arsenal can also do the same and end the season with the title, something which this great club has not won for a long time.
Everything resets in a few days' time. I would say that 2022 has been a defining year of sorts. It is the year Singapore and rest of the world (China, albiet a little later) have come to cope with Covid and resumed most of the normalcy before Co19. Will life be the same again as in 2019? I seriously doubt so.