I’m beginning to feel like I’m getting old. Seemed like just yesterday I was fresh out of secondary school waiting for my O Level results. Before I could even think of what to pursue in terms of tertiary education, I jumped straight into Informatics Computer School. Hey, I had 6 months to kill and there was no way in hell I was even considering junior college for the sole reason I never wanted to take Chinese again.

Learning programming and scripting seemed the right thing to do when I was 15. It was only when I actually went into it that I realised that I didn’t like it at all. Had I not explored that juncture, however, I would have never found my passion for writing and designing. I’ll admit that I may never be as good as my idol, Neil Gaiman, but that’s beside the point.

Studying Mass Communication has shown me the best years of my life. Not only has it opened my eyes to a whole new arena of work, it has brought me so many close friends that I’d gladly lay down my life for. As if that isn’t enough, I became designer for TheUrbanWire.com, the e-zine that my own cousin, Sebastian, helped pioneer. In fact, he himself said to me not too long ago, “You have grown into a beautiful person just like your brother.” It warms my heart to see that I’m becoming just like the wonderful people that I’ve grown close to.

Being in the media industry, I’ve learned that things are never as easy as they look. Television programmes, radio talk shows and even online magazines are the results of a lot of hard work. It’s just like a song. Your lyrics and the accompanying music have to come together perfectly before it can even make waves. It is not all glitz and glam like people perceive.

Bottom line is, life is too short for you to allow yourself to stay hidden under a rock. Life is all about choices, right ones and wrong ones. But it’s not which choice you make that counts. It’s learning and growing from each and every experience.

Cheers to Mass Comm and TheUrbanWire.com for making my life more complete. I love you guys.

Cue The Cranberries with Ode To My Family…

And everything fades to black…

::Melissa-Ann Tan::

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