Musings of a fresh grad

project mates!

Awesome friends made in uni!

my fav photographer friend :)

My no.1 supporter <3

no.2 and no.3 :P

Coby is the top student for our cohort!

The extended family

So once again I'm at a transition stage. And its really so true that you learn the most about yourself and God in such moments. We always think that trials are there to test our faith, but really, trials also reflects our weaknesses.

Today I'm going to list a few nuggets of wisdom shared by some of the most respected people in my life as well as my own insights. Pretty much food for thought.

First of all, how do you define success? Different people will naturally have different definitions of success because we all have a different life purpose. If my life purpose is just to make alot of money, then my success will be defined by how much money I earn a month.

Sometimes when I see my peers earning so much more than me as a starting pay, it does eat me on the inside a little, and especially so whenever people ask me what's the pay I'm getting. I find myself silly when I peg my self worth to my pay cheque and know I shouldnt. I use to be affected by comments like "cheap labour" or that 'look' which I cant decide if its pity or "looking down" still bothers and I find myself having to "defend" my passion or the future which I'm "sowing" into with my long explanations. Not good.

During my graduation, I was sitting beside an acquaintance for like 2 solid hours, and we both agreed that the dreaded question of the year is "have you found a job?" And its funny how the economy seems to be doing okay and yet today I have a NUS fresh grad taking over my internship job at $450 a month.

By the way, I'm totally glad that I took up this internship. Even though I keep complaining about the lousy pay and "sai gang" that I have to do, but really, I get a crash course and hands on experience of the Public Relations function (something which I was totally unfamiliar with previously, but I soon realise is a very important skill), and more importantly understanding how things work in this industry simply through observation. I feel like I've learnt ALOT, and definitely added value. Theres alot of people who think I'm wasting my time, but I think its worth it if I can say that I'm more equipped today than I was yesterday. Who says learning has to stop when you graduate?

So yes, back to those nuggets.

Well so how do we know what's our life purpose? I mean there's no loud booming voice from heaven telling me what my future entails..

But what I do know is that God has created me personally, specifically, and it was well thought through when he decided what sort of interests, passion, characteristics and personality to put inside of me when he sent me to Earth.

There are many people out there in the world who are closer to God than they think they are simply because they are moving in the area of their talent.When you move in the area of your talent, you are moving in the path and purpose that God has prepared for you whether or not you are a believer. Someone once said this, "don't try to be someone else because you can never be better than that person at being himself/herself, but you can be the best YOU."

I have many talented and smart friends around me. And its a good thing! Did I mention that out of the 300 student cohort in my course, there were only 24 degrees with distinctions? And out of this 24, 8 are in my project group or circle of friends at school?! Thats how important environment is. And I really thank God for putting me in such an environment!

But at the same time, we tend to compare ourselves to our friends (subconsciously or not). I always think that Janet is more creative than me, I can never dance as well as debbie, adeline is a better version of me when it comes to work, esther is like some super power who is smart, creative and has a heart of gold, shu ann is very capable (probably a future "woman of the year"), weini is gorgeous and has great design skills and the list goes on and on.

Can you imagine how lousy I will feel about myself if I did not know that God has made me for a specific purpose and has placed a unique mix of passion, talents, personality and skills that no one can be exactly the same?

Don't worry, I'm not being sour! In fact, I thank God for such awesome friends! Great people to work with because we all complement each other, some way or another despite having so similar traits! I know right... why are we all so similar?! All I can say is, light attracts light.

So anyway, to end of this post..

On Thursday, I was invited to attend a Bebe Fashion event organized by my new company.

Never thought my future would be that of what I saw on TV or in magazines.



Yea, the bible says God will give you more than what you can ask or imagine. The glitz and glamour of it all is tempting but I'm not sure if this is really what I want. Will take this 3 probation months to find out and in the meantime continue learning and developing my skill set.

What's most important is I did not give up on my passion and allow myself to be sucked into the crazy rat race or the mundane life of a 9 to 5 job just for a better pay.

ITs funny how I use to say that I will not want to work in a start up company or a small agency, in fact my dream was to work in some large company, become a manager some day and yes I am brand conscious even when it comes to a job!

But I realise that working in a big company may not be a good starting point for a fresh grad after all. I've been to quite a few interviews with these big companies and I realise that even though the designation is that of an "executive", there isnt much room for you to be "creative" or opportunities to contribute in decision making processes.

In fact, after my short stint in a PR agency, I realise that much of the "creative" work is outsourced and the communications or marketing executive's job in the big company is to liaise with the agency. Of course I'm not saying that's the case for all companies, but you get my point!

Shall end off with a picture of my first name card!