No latterns this year?

It not med school thats bugging me. Its just that....

Rachel called me on Saturday asking me to come back that night because the neighborhood lantern celebration was finally here. Every year, the families would bring their lanterns and hang around in the park just opposite our house. I’m not sure bout Lesley, but me and Rachel had been waiting for this event for some time now. I love to watch glowing colourful lanterns, especially the paper ones! And walking around with them in the cool of the evening… *sigh* so peaceful! (also makes me feel more Chinese lah)

A few weeks back she even offered to use her allowance to but the lanterns we saw while shopping in Carrefour since I was broke. Now tell me: HOW often do you find an 11year old willing to share her money???

But don’t worry, I didn’t rob a primary school kid of her ‘rehat time’ nasi lemak. Because mom who was with us didn’t allow it. Anyways, I bought 3 packets colourful paper lanterns from endah parade and kept them at home, cos I didn’t know the exact date we were going to use them yet. And now that it is here, I cant go home and play with them cos im supposed to be here interpreting Vishna’s immuno notes.

Since I moved out, I haven’t been spending much time at home. It hurts that I cant spend time with my sisters like we used to anymore. And now, I kind of regret being out of the house so much with camps and projects during the 1 ½ months holidays given to me last semester. It hurts that Rachel is so young, and me as a sister cant be there for her like I was able to with Lesley. I really wish I had more time to be ‘buddies’ with my youngest sister. Maybe I’ll just have to MAKE the time from now on. It also hurts that she has to send an sms like this to try and bug me to come home:

“Yer.. u ar.. u don come.. u break lesley’s heart.. now u 2 don go then I tak mahu pergi.. u 2 ruin my weekend!.. hate u all.. come la..1 day oni mer.”

I love my course, I know I will love my future work. But I also want to be part of my sisters lives, I want to go crazy with them, shop with them, cry with them, grow into fat potatoes couches with them, fight with them, to advise them and listen to their advises.

Don’t want to lose another loved one because of decisions I made for myself. I know plenty of people out there manage to juggle both work and other things they love, it’s not impossible. Just takes more discipline on my side =)

ps: i did get to play with latterns in the end, with real mooncakes even! When we celebrated Eugene's and Tze Lin's birthday by the vista poolside. Total number of latterns bought: 6. Total number of latterns that made it through the night: 1. Total number of people that attended: 13. Total number of people landed in the pool: almost all lar.

pps: According to Poh Peng, expect to see people walking around vista with lanterns this weekend.