THE STUDIO 3 SHOW (13 MAY 2008)

(More photos on my facebook after I've caught up with my sleep...haha)

The Wrapping Up Party yesterday after the final presentations was FUNTASTIC! Thanks Issac for suggesting it the night before. And thank you Everyone in Studio 3 who belanja-ed us tutors!

I enjoyed the mad photo session, I enjoyed hearing all your little speeches, I enjoyed the pizza, I enjoyed your company most of all. Hearing Wei Shyan and Yu Sheng speak was like...wow...a stunning experience! Haha.

Sorry I spoke at the speed of the bullet train---that was my strategy for blocking out my feelings. Otherwise it would have been kinda messy (haha.)

For those of you who missed it (the party, I mean) here's my little speech. Not word for word---how can i remember it word for word...haha---just the formalised gist of it.

GOODBYE UNMISSED

(wa...got title somemore... Good presentation must always be labeled mar...haha.)

Well, guys, this is it, I guess: The end of one hectic semester. And quite possibly, for some who may care to think of it that way, it’s kinda the final leap over an important milestone.

Milestones that matter in life are not often measured by the money you make or the fame you achieve, nice though those things may be. Rather, markers that matter are perhaps that little remark from a friend, that small gesture that came at a time when you most needed it, that prank you played with your classmates—completely carefree and unrelated to architecture—or those small hours you spent together, your bodies so weary you wondered if the sun would rise for you...to go and face yet another crit!

Treasure those moments, my friends, for you will remember them more, much more, than the great lessons in architecture—which will take a lifetime to learn. And remember those who stood by your side through them all.

It’s been a pleasure running this program for you. Experiential poetics is always the fun part of architecture. And if you are still a little blur about it—don’t worry: It’ll come to you…after many hours of sleep (with dreams), after many more days of looking at the world, and some more years of practicing. The important thing is… in Studio 3, Taylor’s College, 2008, you started.

(Along with V & K) I am a tutor because the rules of the game require tutors. But really, as I am just as passionate about architecture as you are, in a deeper sense I am a colleague, learning alongside you. Sure I’ve seen much more, read a bit more, built some. But creativity is no man’s captive. It is a gift of God to everyone, regardless of age, yours as much as mine. And each time you showed me your designs, however tentative, you allowed me a peek through yet another window—yours—into a world I’d never seen before. And for that I am always grateful, and about that I am always excited.

I may appear a little Banana to you (haha.) But I assure you, this banana’s very much dipped in kaya! Haha! Really, I am very Asian at heart—and proud of it, too. And I see no embarrassment in doing the Asian thing in closing.

If I have said any unkind word, if I have ever been overbearing, or if I have sometimes appeared just too harsh, please forgive me. It is not because I hate. Rather it is because I love enough to see a better you.

I bid you farewell in the greater things to come, and thank you for teaching me as much as I hope I have taught you.

Thank you, and Goodbye.