geography

in a few hours time, i will sit for my fourth and final paper for this semester. it also happens to be most probably the very last time i have any official links with the subject of geography. since sec 1 in 1995, i always thought i would be doing geography in the university. but over the course of the last few months that was my first semester, i realised geography was not what i had come to expect as a university discipline.

sure, it provided me with tremendous joy when i was in school. it was a love affair that started almost 10 years ago. i remembered having to fight so hard just to get into a geography class in secondary three. the new zealand geography trip also figures very prominently in my memory. it was at picton that my geography teacher hammered home not only the importance of geography but also important life lessons as well.

geography is a subject that always stood by me in good and bad times. i remembered when i was at jurong institute, my geography teacher was atrocious. i remembered i had to go to great lengths to get notes to study on my own. somehow, with the grace of God, i somehow managed and was incredibly disappointed that i only obtained a B-grade. together with literature, geography is a subject that kept me alive all those years in school. the wide coverage of both the physical and human realms totally fascinated me.

but geography also represented my nature to over-plan and what i thought to be the route for myself. over the last few months, with the help of a nondescript experience with a particular associate professor henry yeung, i was forced to reconsider my options. and for the first time, i really thought about why i liked geography in the first place.

geography in school represented the only subject that i could do well in -- even without much studying. because there weren't any other real alternatives, i hung onto literature and geography with my dear life. and for the longest time ever, they represented what i thought i was good at and was interested in.

geography also represented the other common interest i had with gerald ho, other than soccer of course. gerald ho was about the closest i ever came to having a best friend. he passed away on 23 may 2000, after collapsing from running during his physical education class in junior college. he dropped geography after the first three months because while he was passionate about it, 4 subjects was too much for him to handle and geography didn't exactly fit into his whole accountant thing. taking geography for me, unconsciously in a sense became a way i could remember him by.

starting university after a 2-year stinct in the army changed all that, i realised that i maintained a strong sense of justice. i took an interest in the things people do in society and it took three months of intro sociology to made that obvious to myself. and ironically for a person like me who cannot stand politics, i am also very interested in how society is governed.

and then i fitted my natural acumens with what i wanted to do in future -- a journalist, a teacher and maybe even public policy. while geography would probably train me to do what i want to, it became immediately clear to me that sociology and political science offers me a more direct exposure to the institutions and theories that would in a sense be more "relevant" to me.

being on geographical society in nus and chosing to produce geosphere, talking to people and writing articles on why these people chose to major in geography, also made me realise that i don't exactly belong to the select group that are geographers. ironically, working on a geographical magazine helped make my mind up about not majoring in geography.

for those of you who are in constant contact with me and hear my whine about what i think about the people taking me for my intro geography course and are concerned that this decision is a reaction to bad teachers, i beseech you to rest assured in the knowledge that i have taken time to let it chill over. i realise that the disdain for the teaching staff at nus geography department is a figment of my biased subconscious. it was bad teaching that forced me to reconsider my major, but not bad teaching that ultimately figured in my decision not to do geography.

geography remains a passion and a subject close to my heart. i am still going to keep all those stacks of geography notes i made all my years in school. but it's a chapter to be closed. and i need to move on. i don't think it's right to let the impact of my past affect my unchartered route in the future like this.

so well, i guess this is it.

the final farewell.