Problem kids

Some guy from my uni wrote a letter to the listserve. He was going back home to finish his degree in NUS. He had been battling depression, going on food and exercise binges.

It’s not the easiest places. The work there is tough, the people are a little unfriendly – no better or worse than the average Singaporean. The weather is miserable. The food is American. Had to keep on telling myself that the salvation was me getting a supposedly world class education.

There was this other girl from that uni who had to return home because she attempted suicide. She was diabetic so she attempted an insulin overdose.

I used to make fun of all those people there who attended Christian Fellowship. It seemed to me like a bunch of fundamentalist crackos, even though around one third of the Singaporean community attended. But I am a little more sympathetic of those who turned to religion to get them through their days. Maybe I didn't mind it so much because I have a lust for bookish learning that approximates the Count from Sesame Street, and also because I'm probably less human than most other people.

I’m still glad I went there because you know me, I love learning. If you take away the stress of the exams and constant weekly assignments and the grumpiness of the population and the so-so food and the sleep deprivation I was like a kid in a candy store. There were some truly marvellous times.

But yes there were easier places to spend those truly marvellous times.

That which does not kill you only makes you stronger, but that which does – like, kills you.