Last year, I spent my birthday in a machine-gun box on Jurong Island. When I told the private who was on duty with me that it was my birthday, he told me not to pull his leg. Many people make a big deal out of turning 21, but I passed it with the comfort of the knowledge that true liberation comes with the pink i/c, which was coming in only a couple of months. (For foreign readers, the ‘pink i/c’ refers to our national identity card. For the period of our national service, the identity card is kept with the military. Receiving the card marks the official end of our two years in the military.)

I ushered the first hours of my 22^nd birthday studying for my calculus test in the library (sigh, don’t talk about it). I went back there again in the morning and worked on math till around lunch time. Uncustomarily, I went for a swim in the evening. But there were signs of it throughout the day: Ray pulling Stanley aside at the basketball court, then whispering to David at the lift landing, and Alfred peeking into my room.

Was walking back to my dorm after checking out a torrent software in Ray’s room. I opened the door…and out came a plate of shaving cream…

My friends started streaming out from my room after that, which was a more pleasant surprise especially considering the number of them and the size of my room. The workload here in CMU can be quite overwhelming, so it was nice and a little touching to see those friends who had came over from their faraway dorms as well as those friends with a reputation for hibernating in their dorms to do homework. Other than the shaving cream (which I had a taste of thinking it was whipped cream), I am very thankful for the cake that Menglong had skipped econ lecture to buy, the gifts, the greetings from friends back home, the kind words in the cards, and especially the friendships that had made college life so far so meaningful. A heartfelt kum-siak to one and all.