A Singaporean In Australia

I'm not young, already at the wrong side of 30 but age is never a reflection of wisdom. There is so much ignorance left in me that I can feed an entire starving continent for a centuries if I can convert that into food. 

Just this week, I experienced taking my first air flights alone. Every new experience carry some reflections. The most noticeable difference was how many things I needed to check or guess from the moment I headed off from home to the moment I received customary grin and greeting from the air stewardess welcoming us on board. Prior to that, my wife did everything for me. Somehow I survived both trips. Oddly, I could not sleep on the plane like I always did. I wasn't sure if that was due to taking the plane alone or there was just something on my mind. I was tired, yet I couldn't sleep. That wasn't usual.

Then suddenly I found myself home alone. It would be a bloody few long days before I could be reunited with my family. So this was how staying alone feels like, coming home to some walls without any hint of the living. I remembered asking myself during a bath what would I feel if I was alone all these while without spouse or kid. What if the house I am living in is mine, all fully paid up and I have 2 cars to drive around. Will life be better or somewhat meaningless that I feel at the moment? Will I rather live in Singapore or will I still choose to live in solitude in lonely Perth?

I found myself unwilling to do shopping though I was well-equipped to do so. I didn't cook anything despite being more than competent to do so. Even work seemed very uninteresting all of a sudden, not to mention writing things in a blog. So from these I know my motivations to live. Everyone has their own motivations behind the way they live their lives. Any one of us required some form of recognition of the others. The family man derives it from his family. The single man accumulate cash and assets to make himself attractive to women. The teenagers obtains results from the classroom or the field. Would any of us bother to dress up, or make our best leap on any day if we are the only human being living on an island? 

The hunger for recognition dictates how we act and live. Why else would a man insist on owning a car that cost as much as a small house in another country? Why else would a man who couldn't close his mouth properly due to age chose to release yet another book?