Ripples

On a silent night, alone in a dimly lit room. The thought of fatherly love hits me as I am trespassing upon the land of everything that life can become. What kind of a father will I be? I have never thought of becoming a father before. Whenever we are faced with a hypothetical question, we usually consult our imagination. I envision myself having a child of about 6 or 7 years old. We will walk the road to the park near our house, and sit by a lake to watch the sunset. We will have an ice cream together, laughing as we comment on the flavour we’ve just savoured. I feel a sense of warmth, and joy, and… disconnection? I squint my eyes, trying to dive deeper into the emotional landscape that the imagination provokes. And all I can feel, is a vast distance between me and the child. I cannot feel related to the child. What is the secret ingredient that allows a father to be telepathically connected to his child?

Last semester, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the study exchange programme with King’s College London (KCL), United Kingdom. The programme spanned 5 months, allowing me to take courses across different departments at KCL. It came as a surprise to me that it still took me a while to adjust to a new environment, despite this being my second time studying abroad.

NUS-AUN Asian Undergraduate Symposium (AUS in short) is one of the series of the summer programmes that students from ASEAN (with a few Asian), from now on ASEAN+, universities can choose from. This series of summer programmes consists of similar AUS-like programmes running in parallel in different countries in the ASEAN+ region. AUS2024 has extended in scale and scope, hosting 300 delegates from the ASEAN+ universities. With the theme of Interconnected Community, students are expected to collaborate with each other to work on a project that aim to tackle the social problems facing their home countries and beyond, spanning three areas Sustainability and Environment, Needs and Wants, and Diversity and Inclusion.