East.Side.Back.Street

Communication is the most important thing in relationships, which includes friendship and BGR. One thing I took away from my exchange is,” If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” & another thing I took away from school and reflections during the past few months is that,” If you don’t say, people won’t know, and they will start imagining things.”

I was having lunch with some of the interns from GE, which included a French, a German and a Swedish. Interestingly, the French and the German argued over simple topics as if they were going to fight, but after that they were as close as ever. I think Asians, on the other hand, tend to avoid conflicts. But does this stand in the way of effective communication? In my point of view, effective communication is more important, even if it meant some bruised egos. But of course, everyone should treat everyone with the respect they deserve.

More often that not, people treat one another with a wall surrounding their hearts. This can’t be blamed though, as people want to protect themselves. It takes a great level of humility and many other qualities to lower that wall to allow people to climb over, and at the same time, protect yourself. But I believe opening up yourself allows you to open the people around you up too, and hence allow effective communication to take place.

I realized that the clique isn’t meeting up as usual, but I sort of realized these few days that, hey, if I wanted to talk and understand about what is going on in your life, a phone call may be as or even more effective than meeting up in a group. Ideally, a small group meeting would be the best, which most of us are doing now anyway. This is especially so when most of us are tied down by time and other constraints. And recently I also feel like, hey, there’s no need to keep trying so hard to organize so many outings if I do not even call you during normal days, if the objective is to call and care and concern about you. Meeting up so much would not necessarily make anyone much closer.

And I guess that thinking that communication is the most important thing made me type the things I’m typing now. If you care about the person, pick up the phone and call him/her. Friends, you all can give me calls too. :)

Internships. 2 more weeks to the end of the GE and beginning of Citi. I feel lethargic everyday and need to get a grip of myself. My motivation levels are fading, and I think it’s high time we start motivating one another to have a more fulfilling lifestyle i.e. more exercise. I have come out with a strict and fulfilling exercise regime last week but failed to adhere to it on my first week. Let’s hope I see see some results soon as I watch Olympics.

But I'm guessing that people and I are not exercising because we do not see the direct incentives for doing so. It's not as if your bf/gf will dump you if you have a float around your waist, or your chances of heart disease and other health related problems will increase exponentially without exercise, or that you will become incredibly fit if you hit the gym everyday, or that the amount of effort you put in now into the gym is better spent doing something else. I hope I find my source of motivation soon. Time to pick up the Lance Armstrong biography I bought years ago.

Blackie is getting married this year. In 6 years time, we’ll be 30 years old. That’s like freaking old. Time to start planning. Maybe aim to be a millionaire before 40 years old.

Short term goal: Strike 08/08/08 8 million Toto draw
Medium term goal: Get gold for IPPT (HAHAHA)
Long term goal: Get into Ivy League Uni for MBA

Songjie