Not Every Note is Perfect—and That’s the Point
“When I say Change, I mean Evolve, but my old friends, they just, Dissolve” (Steve Lacy, That’s No Fun) Are you ready to evolve and embrace? Or dissolve and dissipate? My one-week internship experience with Encompassing has felt a lot like my relationship with music. At 16, I am still in the process of exploring […]
I Decided to Shave My Head Bald
I’m 28, and I’ve been noticing hair loss since I was 25. On Wednesday, I decided to shave my head bald. If I’m going to be bald one day, I thought it’s best that I get used to it. While I felt very liberated afterwards, I was extremely conflicted beforehand. A part of me accepted […]
Money vs. Meaning: Living on My Own Terms in Singapore’s Rat Race
Most of my friends secured jobs before graduation and began working immediately afterwards. Although I felt the pressure to do the same, it did not sit right with me to do so. I wanted to discover a path on my own terms. For one, I was scared to enter the “real world.” I did not […]
The Perpetrator in All of Us: A Reflection on Inclusion and Exclusion
This post was originally published on Evelyn Lee’s Substack on March 4, 2025. I am taking a week off work to immerse myself in learning about group dynamics and group psychotherapy at a conference in San Francisco. I wanted to understand how people interact, how unspoken hierarchies emerge, and how inclusion and exclusion take shape. […]
What My Dog Taught Me About Being in This World
Recently, I faced one of the hardest moments of my life. My beloved dog, Guinness—the first baby girl of our family—was diagnosed with cancer. The photo above is the last one we took together. Hearing the news was devastating. I was shocked. Then came the painful realization: Our time together will now be heartbreakingly short. […]
“Kiasu” is “Kiasi”: Existential Therapy and Death Anxiety in Singapore
Many Singaporeans and I are compelled to recite a cultural script that prescribes a standard life trajectory: one pursues a university education, finds a job and a partner, marries, applies for government housing, has kids, and works till retirement. This script is not unique to Singapore, though, it manifests in forms idiosyncratic to Singapore’s culture. […]
Friends at a Distance: Social Strangers, Existential Companions
What does it mean to be a friend, much less a good friend? Not that I’m not surrounded by good friends, but I’ve noticed my incapacity to be truly vulnerable with them, even the closest ones. It’s hard to reveal my inner concerns without being prompted first. In this sense, my unsatisfied cravings for intimacy […]
We Are Called to be Responsible For Our Voices
I’m so glad this CNA commentary came up. It says something about our voices. This specific commentary discusses a viral incident involving online personality Kurt Tay, who was heckled while leaving court. People online were divided over the clip. Even when internet figures seem to “feed” their trolls, CNA argues that they still do not […]
We Can Have Many Different Ways of Living
Tan Kheng Hua was a familiar face in my younger years and for many Singaporean millennials. I remember growing up and watching her on TV in Masters of the Sea and Phua Chu Kang. She was also in some of my all-time favourite productions by Wild Rice and TheatreWorks: Animal Farm, The Eleanor Wong Trilogy: […]
Filial Piety and Obligation
The other questions I have long struggled with are what is love and what is obligation? To put it simply and dichotomously, it seems that the West values love while the East values obligation. I’ve conducted my own informal research in this matter by bringing up the example of Jack and Rose. You know them! […]