My mom’s health is doing fine but she has already decided what kind of funeral she would like to have (she’s cool that way ).
She envisions her funeral as a celebration of her life– her favorite things, her dreams, her experiences, her wishes for others.
Here’s the plan she’s come up with so far:
1) [...]

Two of my American friends who recently graduated from Duke, Courtney and Ying-Ying, somewhat randomly decided to visit Singapore. Over the past few days, the three of us have gone on a mini-tour of the island.
My friends have been making some comments that make me, as a Singaporean, glow with pride.
“Wow, there are so many [...]

Singapore celebrated its 45th National Day three days ago. I love this picture of the National Day fireworks, courtesy of onextrapixel.
Being away from home for the past three years has made me appreciate Singapore and home much more. I’d go so far as to say that studying in the US has made me more patriotic!
Through [...]

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk to 50 Anglo-Chinese Junior College students about scholarships and studying in the US.
As I was preparing the presentation slides, I thought about the opportunities I’ve been afforded by the Duke/US experience so far. I’ve gone skydiving, paragliding, hang gliding, horseback riding, skeet and trap shooting, bungee jumping, hot [...]

I’m back in Singapore– it’s good to be home
As I mentioned in my previous post, working with the high school students has been very rewarding, but it hasn’t always been easy.
The experience of the past two months has been a lot of good with some not-so-good thrown in. One of my teammates summed [...]

Over the past five weeks I’ve been part of a team of Duke students that’s been running a college-prep program for Navajo high school students.
As part of the program, we’ve been doing standardized test preparation, teaching college life skills, going on college visits and working on college applications.
The response from our students, however, hasn’t been [...]

Yesterday, I gave a presentation on goal-setting to our students. Goal-setting is something I started practicing three years ago, and it has helped me gain a lot of clarity in determining what is truly important to me and in knowing exactly what kind of person I want to be.
You’ll have to become a bigger person in [...]

A week ago, I wrote about how Navajos view every day as sacred.
I just read an essay by an English professor who has lived on the Reservation for the past 10 years, and I think it describes well how Navajos see everything– and not just every day– as sacred and spiritual.
…In Navajo, though, no single [...]

Every day is considered sacred in Navajo culture. Because each day is holy, we ought to carry with us a spirit of reverence and gratitude. There is no compartmentalizing life– all of life is spiritual and sacred.
As a Christian, I’m more aware of how “holy” or “unholy” my actions and intentions are on Sundays. I [...]

“We judge others according to their actions, but we judge ourselves according to our intentions.” – Unknown

We Duke students here in the Navajo Nation know that we’re blessed. We have electricity and running water in our homes (many people here rely on very unreliable solar energy and have to haul water from miles away), and [...]