Anyway, now that everything has come to an end, it's just the beginning of a new adventure. Aint my life exciting? Filled with new challenges and experiences, I like :) But somehow good times don't last. 天下无不散之宴席。I think my chinese is getting rusty after 3 months and a pile of scientific papers.
When you look back on a journey, if all that resonates in your memory is laughter, laughter, and more hearty laughter, you know you haven't lived in vain. I daresay my time in lab has been the best I've had in NTU. All the jiejies, sunbaes, crap and laughter...Never dreamt that I'd feel this way, but as I walked out of SBS after poster day, I felt a tinge of sadness which was reminiscent of the feeling when I walked out of MBS that last day of school. I didn't cry this time - no longer a pri 6 kid - but as much as we hate to grow up, we are, at this very moment, and we realize that change is the only constant. For the first time in a long time, I seem to want to hold on more than let go. For once, I don't feel trapped, restricted, tied down or burdened...I don't require liberation, and I don't know whether that's a good or bad thing. But I have to psycho myself to look forward, and embrace the future, for that's where I'm heading. In just a few days.
And now a tribute to NTU-SBS-04S-29 JT Lab:
Mukesh, Krupar, JT, CY, JT and JT. In JT's office, after poster day. :)
My poster! That's boss. "Boss, photo maybe?"-->"Why not?"
Jo's poster!
Ja, Siok Wan, Mukesh, Krupar and Lin Xin.
Our gigantic card. Boss is smiling! :DBoss, who's ever critical, sacarstic and doubtful, but who's actually sporting, smart and humorous. Without his bochap style and attitude, we wouldn't have learnt full autonomy. Proud to say I can conduct my own experiments, handle my own stuff (Thanks to my mentor too, who MIA-ed half of the way but trained me to be independent) and give passable impromptu presentations :) To boss who stressed us with surprise meetings that came with mandatory presentations, and short-notice 1-to-1 meetings, thank you. Thank you for constructive comments at the end, for tolerating all the noise we generated, for our impudence and cheekiness, and for playing along with us. Although he's stingy and only cares about E protein, he's still the dear old godfather, the grinch, the harapucchi, the shining beacon of light (and hope?) and dear boss, who finally broke his 5-yr record by giving us a treat =) Also, thanks for spreading your smell and musking the other bad lab smells. Haha. I hope he drinks less wine, beer and coffee, and invest in more H2O maybe?
"So, who's paying?" --> "YOU, MAYBE??"
"What do you mean?"
"Excuse me?"
"So, have you fitted the data? Did you try incompetent fraction?"
"It is a pentamer!" *slams hand on the table for empahsis*
"What is this? Bad taste!"
"I'm supposed to keep this? But I have no space. I'll throw it in the bin then."
"It's freezing. Even my coffee is freezing."
"Is this what I ordered? I can't remember the name but I know it's Italian wine. Are you sure this is the right one?"
Siok Wan, my mentor, who's patient, nice and helpful...who's respected by everyone in lab and dares to defy boss. Who knows her stuff and speaks up in front of boss. Who's paranoid about contamination and obsessed with protein recovery, who has a mini self-sufficient lab on her bench, who knows so much about everything, many heartfelt thank yous. Respect. Without your guidance and advice, I couldn't have done it. Thanks for all your support!
"Like what?"
"Uh-huh...hmmm..."
Ja, the molecular cloning expert who never gets mad at us no matter how noisy we are, no matter how irritating we are, for imitating her ever so often. A really sweet and nice person, whom boss can never say no to.
"Maybe?"
"Really?"
"I donno! Ask Krupa!"
"He can't say no rightt? We need this righhtt?"
"Ya ya ya!"
"Up to you"
"Sorry ah!"
Mukesh, for (un)constructive conversations which made me experience what a real language barrier is, who's super funny and entertaining, but always really nice and apologetic, who loves coffee breaks and squash, who likes learning chinese with his cute roomie Vikram, who's so much more active in the night than in the day, who looks to boss as his idol...Thanks for letting me be the first to see your crystal, and I hope it grows big and shiny and can be sent for diffraction.
"xxx, can you do me a favour?"
"Thank you very much."
"What time you are leaving the lab?"
"Ja told me to do like this."
"Ok I will do it."
"I think so."
"You people are coming back during the weekend? No? Good. Have a good weekend."
"What is this herb in chinese?"-->"Oh basil? Can cook curry."-->"Coo-curry? That's what it's called in chinese?"
Krupar, who always tells us to relax but gets stressed himself when boss pushes him for results and gives him deadlines. For entertaining us with his pek-chek expressions when we surround him and speak in chinese, for looking like winnie-the-pooh...
"How can you do like this?"
"I'm gonna kill u!"
"Relax, it's ok."
Lin Xin, who's not physically in lab cos he's with the computational side, but he's the one who did my tetramer model so thank you all the same :) Really cheeky and monkey-ish, I still can't believe he's married. Lol.
Now to the jiejies, who're not really jiejies cos we're all actually the same age. But you guys are the ones who've braved the odds with me, and I'm so grateful for that. Thank you for being there when I was stressed, for anchoring me to sanity (or insanity?) when I was freaking out and rushing for deadlines. Thank you for helping me with so much stuff, even if they're just inconsequential favours like photocopying.
Janet, whose presence ensures that life will never be boring. For bouts of laughter that made me so tired, to the point that my jaws ached...We're on the same frequency and we play along so well, I'll miss you loads. I'll miss laughing with you at Mr. Bean, spiderman and bank-count, and silly cliche movies...Thanks for teaching me the yuan yang skill and taking the trouble to proof-read my poster, version after version :)
Chiew Ying, our data processor. Thanks for constructive discussions about AUC, help with sedfit, sedphat and origin...Without you I'd take even longer figuring out those stupid softwares...thanks for helping me with my thesis in those final minutes :) For feeling our stress and stressing with us...for pointing me to relevant papers about M2...Without you beside me life would have been very different.
Last but not least, my bro Jo! For going home together every day, you made shuttle-bus waiting less mundane, shuttle-bus flinging less frustrating, and train journeys less boring. (Other than the times we both K/Oed, or the times when I drove and you fell asleep in the passenger seat) For waiting for each other, complaining and supporting each other, I'm so glad we got into the same lab. (Thank goodness I didn't get char-gu afterall!) For lunch and coffee and cakes =)
To the 3 of you, for spontaneous sharp turns at the sight of boss. For buffet camping during convo ;) For company, camaraderie and all things in common. I'm so glad we'll all be convocating together in the end. See you guys in heels and square hats!
All in all, a big THANK YOU to all at JT lab, for tolerating our nonsense and noise, for teaching us so much, for never getting mad, for beautiful sunsets and even more beautiful times of fun and laughter. Congrats for getting "contaminated", successfully infected with our mimicking lingo. I love you guys :D
Also, thanks to those at Lars' lab, for tolerating our unbelievable noise levels. I know we suck. We do try to stifle our laughter but sometimes (or most of the time), it's too much to bear. But who cares, we're out of there now, and anyway we're students so who can blame us? Hahaha. We're the ones who make life so interesting, RIGHT?
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