Letter to Singapore

by stormie

Dear Singapore,

I remember falling in love with you during my growing years, like a starry-eyed teenager indulging in puppy love. You were the best country with the best port, the best airport and the best this and that. Your economy was strong and thriving, your streets were clean and your politicians were whiter than white. I was so proud of you. I saw everybody else in a lesser light. They could never compare to you. You were my knight in shining armor.

I was young and blind.

It was only until college that the shiny polished layers peeled away. I saw you for who you really are. Dismay turned to disillusion when I realized you would never change. Not in my lifetime anyway. After about a decade of trying to change you and then trying to just live with you, I threw in the towel and left because I couldn’t deal with the disappointment anymore.

Singapore, you are still my first love. You’re like family. Sure, I live somewhere else now and I haven’t been any happier. Life is definitely better away from you than with you. But I know you have a special place in my heart because I’m still confused about the term “home”.

Is “home” the land where I spent my young tender years, where most of my memories were made? Or is “home” this new land where I found peace and my true calling?

Your constant drone of money, meritocracy and contradictions you fed me over and over again — they went away. I could finally hear myself think and reason. Without you, I was whole.

When I left, I could finally see for myself that the grass on the proverbial other side isn’t necessarily greener. It’s different; but it fit me. It didn’t pretend to be something it wasn’t.

I truly hope that you will change, even if it is not during my lifetime. Life isn’t always about doing just about anything to be the richest, the most beautiful or the smarte st; it’s about appreciating, loving and listening to the people you have grown up with. I’m not saying that you should throw away everything you’ve worked so hard for, but appreciate and consider the finer intangible beautiful things in life and donŐt sweep them aside in the name of progress.

Singapore, I still have great hopes for you. Maybe someday you will be my knight in shining armor again.