More than a year has past since I returned from the island of Útila in April 2020. It signaled the end of my travels as I had found a job back in Singapore at Republic Polytechnic. My views on work have changed somewhat during this time. For example, I no longer think that my passion has to be my work or I have to search hard for my passion. Instead, I relish each opportunity to experience and learn new things and once I’m done with it, I moved on to the next experience to learn new things.
But I was lucky that in the past year, I was able to still practice my craft of instructing through Apnea 42 after I picked up a freediving instructor certificate at Útila last March. In the short span of a year, despite it being a pandemic year, I taught students in 50 sessions in the open water how to freedive. And I realised that I enjoy conveying a set of skills to someone and seeing them transform from having no prior experience to now having the capability to continue on learning the craft.
And even though my interest in writing has waned in terms of becoming an independent writer, I had opportunities to write on the Singapore philanthropist, Tan Tock Seng, an opportunity shared and given to me by my cousin. And that experience opened my eyes to what goes behind the scenes of historical research and writing. And enabled me to meet people (Mr Kwa and Roney Tan) who sincerely desire to write and record history. I also had a chance to teach a writing retreat to a group of lecturers in Thailand, an opportunity given to me by my friend, Jan, and to be a copyeditor to two graduate students.
And then through my work in RP, I realised that my strongest skill set in research is in writing. I am able to quickly synthesized knowledge into a textual form. This skill is probably most appreciated in research, and explains my decision to continue working as a research assistant, despite my many past desires of changing my career.
I have started to accept the way the world works and that I will be paid for a skill that someone recognizes as valuable and they judge this from my past experiences. So I am going to stay on working as a research assistant and use this as a passport to help me achieve my other goals and purposes – learning and growing.
I also realised that my strength may lay in being able to take on projects and create something out of nothing – like I may actually be good at making something happen, sort of pioneering or completing something, and my interest and desire fizzes out once this task is completed. It helped me understand that doing a PhD may not be that good an idea for me, because instead of doing one big project, I may be happier and more effective doing 5 small ones. My sense of urgency and desire to complete things quickly, and my lack of fear of embracing the new and picking up something from scratch, are strengths and not weaknesses. Instead of fighting that, I have decided to embrace that and go with the flow and my natural inclinations. Instead of staying on long at a job or a place, I will complete my work and then move on.
And this is what took me to Hong Kong. I am now doing a two weeks quarantine at a hotel in Hong Kong. And getting ready to begin my work as a senior research assistant at the Education University of Hong Kong.