A Year in Texas
It’s been a year in the States now and I think I have come full circle.It has been a year full of tumultous ups and downs. I still miss Singapore a lot. However, Life has made some moving changes here in the States. I am now vey much vocal than before. My mind’s open up to a harsher culture where instincts are intertwine with survival and culture.
I enjoy the vast land of Texas and the ability to just jump into my Beetle and drive out of the city into the hill country. I’ve travelled to the hill country and to the little towns around Texas. This year has made me stronger, and more affirmed of myself. I never regretted the decision to migrate to the States, and a happy thought arose when I think of myself as a tourist when I go home to Singapore for my holidays. Finally, the ability to be a tourist in my own country. I will see Singapore in a different light, a different sound.
It has been a tough year to say the least, sweetened by a first love and a discovery of a new romance that didn’t evolve and grow. The American culture has cultured me extensively but it has also brought me closer to my Asian roots. I sometimes wonder what it could have been had I not make this decision for this out-of-SG experience in the US. I probably would have gone on my monotonous living and working in Singapore and never knowing what I have missed. Or even knowing that I have missed anything at all.
The irony still lingers. The choice of a continuous monotonous hand-to-mouth dead-working nursing career in Singapore to a rewarding and well-paid nursing career in the US but the sacrifice of my beloved Family and Friends left behind in Singapore. The choice of a newly found independant lifestyle in the US to a lifestyle that I can never afford in Singapore. The lonliness of living alone in the US to the close proximity of strong bonding and establishment of my Family and Friends in Singapore. It is tough but sacrifices made are sacrifices done and rewarded with time. Another year and another full circle.
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Artist: The Fray
Title: How To Save A Life
Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it’s just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you’ve told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you’ve followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he’ll say he’s just not the same
And you’ll begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
Ozona, Texas
Today I drove out of San Antonio again. I had the entire weekend off which I needed to give myself a much anticipated therapeutic break. I decided to visit the little town of Ozona about three hours drive out of West San Antonio. The driving itself was already therapeutic to me as I was cruising down the highway with neverending land on each side of the road.
The town Ozona is the hometown of Blas. Blas grew up in Ozona. Ozona is called "The Biggest Little Town in the World" because it really is a little town with a big history that actually shaped Texas to what it is today. A statue of a man called David Crockett who came down from Tennessee to help to fight against the invaders of Texas, stood tall and high in the City Park Town Square.
David Crockett and 13 other volunteers fought their best battles in The Alamo, a historical monument situated in the city of San Antonio. A monument was erected for him and the county was named after him. This was what made the little town Ozona famous. Apart from all that history, it is a really tiny tranquil town.
I even found Blas Street. A street called to his name.
The drive home was again a calming effect. Cruise control. With blue skies and all.
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