Monday, July 28, 2014

Departure


Departure is about dreams dashed and passions rekindled. Well it has finally happened. My time in Australia comes to an end after 8.5 wonderful years.



Only 3 days before I leave Sydney and I am getting sentimental about the impending departure. I started to pack up my stuff today and I want to prepare myself with an uncluttered mind prior to my departure.

I decided to simplify everything by throwing away redundant and unnecessary items. Some of my unused gears were cracked and useless so I threw them away. Some documents were obsolete so they went straight to the trash pile. Some of my books (unread and read) were kept in the garage while some just had to go. It is not easy to let go of some of the things as I am always a sentimental creature. The cleaning up task is indeed a lost-memories recollection process.

Marathon of farewell parties in the past few days have enough eloquent moments to compensate for its sickly sweet sentimentality. Saying goodbye to my friends was quite sad and I admit to shedding a few tears. Those warm, giddy and comfortable feeling can only occur when reunited with old friends who understand everything about the jokes I made.

As an immigrant myself in Australia, I too know the longing one continues to feel for one’s homeland, culture, and familiar surroundings even decades after making a new home someplace else, the pain of relocation is still fresh. Coming to Australia has blown my own mind wide open and I am so privileged every single day to be able to work with people from every corner of the globe. It is indeed a multi-racial nation rather than just Malay, Chinese and Indian as what my home country claimed to be. What seems to matter is that we have found new friends in this strange new land. We are able to see past cultural and societal differences and just play together and learn from each other. Somehow, we allow differences in culture, wealth, power, and religion to obscure the fact that we are all human beings. All these contradict to the practice in my home country where being an aborigine (bumiputera) outweighs everything.


Relocation gives me the chance to experience the bigger world. I shall gain new perspective, I will learn that the world is different than what I expected. There is room to expand my horizon and these experiences shape me to a better self. I salute myself with the immense sacrifices that I have encountered in this relocation process and with the precocity that comes with life-altering decision to move across the globe with immense grace and strength. I should be commended on my ingenuity and resourcefulness.


1 comment:

Eric said...

Good luck and all the best:)