24

I turned 24 today, and since my first post (though I had written this on paper first) in 2009 this website has been a part of me for a quarter of the journey. What started as a pragmatic endeavour for General Paper (with an inevitable pinch of youthful idealism) – marked by unwieldy content paragraphs and convoluted sentences – has grown steadily six years later. I am the same charlatan who (still) holds too many opinions, yet I hope the experiences through junior college and National Service (NS) for instance have made me more mature.

This time last year I was in chilly Helsinki, Finland, surrounded by newfound friends and looking forward to trips in the Netherlands (the cities of Leiden, the Hague, Utrecht, and Amsterdam), Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

And thus, thank you for all the birthday wishes, and a bigger thank you for reading these posts through the years. The Internet has opened more doors than I could ever imagine – to the rallies and the national conversations and the Committee to Strengthen NS, to a research paper and academic publication, and even to the Breakfast Network – and there is nothing but gratitude in my heart.