What is going on?
Things have been cresting like the peak of a wave for, and sinking into a bottomless pit for others this year.
THE CRESTS
HCl's EAB presentation has been cancelled and he's back into holiday mood once more.
THE PITS
Demon's getting pissed off by the education system in NUS. Most of the final year students are getting stressful over their FYP. One of them is on the verge of breakdown.
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T was in the pc cluster, doing her FYP with solidworks as usual, when I stepped in. I took an unoccupied terminal beside her.
"How long will you be staying in school today?" she popped the 1st question.
"Will be staying rather late." I replied. "What about you?"
"Same here. I need to show my supervisor these by today." she pointed to the pile of engineering drawings lying on the table. T has been trying to come up with the design fo a jig for the past few weeks. Her supervisor set today as the deadline.
I logged into the terminal in front of me and started working on my interim report. In between, T asked me a few questions regarding the use of solidworks, and I gave her some pointers. After a while, she printed the last of her drawings and left the cluster to look for her supervisor.
T came back a little while later with the drawings still in her hand. There were some words and markings on it in red. Her supervisor had gone through the drawings and pointed out a few mistakes in them.
"I'm tired of doing FYP. I feel like quitting school." she said suddenly as she edited the drawings.
I was taken aback slightly by her words. "You have only 1 more sem to go. Quitting now would be most inadvisable."
A few more minutes of editing later, T printed out her edited drawings and went off to look for her supervisor again. This time, she didn't return as soon as before. And when she did, she just sat down on her chair and started surfing the net. She noticed that I was looking at her.
"Are your drawings ok now?"
"Yup." Opened the GEM webpage and started scrolling rapidly. Too rapidly for someone who is reading.
"Where are the drawings?"
"I sent them to workshop 2 for fabrication. The technicians said that they don't have the material now and I'll have to wait till Chinese New Year to get them." She took out a piece of tissue from her bag and started to dab her eyes with it.
"Yes." Wipes her eyes again.
"The interim would be over..." It finally dawned on me that she was wiping tears. Tears of despair. I had blurted out the wrong words too quickly, and could only stop myself and look away in embarrassment. Her tears made the worries that had built up over the past few days vanish from my mind completely. I was so lost for words that I could only stare at my monitor.
It was a long and awkard moment for me. T logged into Friendster. "Hey look, K added me. She always look so happy in the photos."
I could tell she was trying to divert the topic. I could also tell that she was fighting back her tears bravely, but barely.
"Yes, she can smile at the camera no matter what mood she's in."
I tried to follow her line of conversation but we soon fell back into the awkard silence again. Tried as I might, I just couldn't find the right words to say. I stared on dumbly as T surfed page after page aimlessly, occasionally rubbing her eyes with the tissue in her hand, until her phone rang. She managed to sound very normal, without a single choke while speaking.
"...alright, I'll go down." she picked up her belongings and turned to me, "I got to go. Bye"
"Are you alright?" I finally managed to ask.
She nodded, "I'm ok." And then she left the cluster.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I know she's far from ok, but I just don't know what to do about it.
Sigh.....
THE CRESTS
HCl's EAB presentation has been cancelled and he's back into holiday mood once more.
THE PITS
Demon's getting pissed off by the education system in NUS. Most of the final year students are getting stressful over their FYP. One of them is on the verge of breakdown.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
T was in the pc cluster, doing her FYP with solidworks as usual, when I stepped in. I took an unoccupied terminal beside her.
"How long will you be staying in school today?" she popped the 1st question.
"Will be staying rather late." I replied. "What about you?"
"Same here. I need to show my supervisor these by today." she pointed to the pile of engineering drawings lying on the table. T has been trying to come up with the design fo a jig for the past few weeks. Her supervisor set today as the deadline.
I logged into the terminal in front of me and started working on my interim report. In between, T asked me a few questions regarding the use of solidworks, and I gave her some pointers. After a while, she printed the last of her drawings and left the cluster to look for her supervisor.
T came back a little while later with the drawings still in her hand. There were some words and markings on it in red. Her supervisor had gone through the drawings and pointed out a few mistakes in them.
"I'm tired of doing FYP. I feel like quitting school." she said suddenly as she edited the drawings.
I was taken aback slightly by her words. "You have only 1 more sem to go. Quitting now would be most inadvisable."
A few more minutes of editing later, T printed out her edited drawings and went off to look for her supervisor again. This time, she didn't return as soon as before. And when she did, she just sat down on her chair and started surfing the net. She noticed that I was looking at her.
"Are your drawings ok now?"
"Yup." Opened the GEM webpage and started scrolling rapidly. Too rapidly for someone who is reading.
"Where are the drawings?"
"I sent them to workshop 2 for fabrication. The technicians said that they don't have the material now and I'll have to wait till Chinese New Year to get them." She took out a piece of tissue from her bag and started to dab her eyes with it.
"Yes." Wipes her eyes again.
"The interim would be over..." It finally dawned on me that she was wiping tears. Tears of despair. I had blurted out the wrong words too quickly, and could only stop myself and look away in embarrassment. Her tears made the worries that had built up over the past few days vanish from my mind completely. I was so lost for words that I could only stare at my monitor.
It was a long and awkard moment for me. T logged into Friendster. "Hey look, K added me. She always look so happy in the photos."
I could tell she was trying to divert the topic. I could also tell that she was fighting back her tears bravely, but barely.
"Yes, she can smile at the camera no matter what mood she's in."
I tried to follow her line of conversation but we soon fell back into the awkard silence again. Tried as I might, I just couldn't find the right words to say. I stared on dumbly as T surfed page after page aimlessly, occasionally rubbing her eyes with the tissue in her hand, until her phone rang. She managed to sound very normal, without a single choke while speaking.
"...alright, I'll go down." she picked up her belongings and turned to me, "I got to go. Bye"
"Are you alright?" I finally managed to ask.
She nodded, "I'm ok." And then she left the cluster.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I know she's far from ok, but I just don't know what to do about it.
Sigh.....
posted by Tengkia | 10:47 pm
|
Level of response: 1
Level of response: 1
i would not noe what to do if i were u too...
but i believe u have done your part as a fren not to probe about that matter and continue along her line of conversation.
this made mi feel guilty for my holiday mood liaoz.. good luck to all of u striving hard for fyp.. jia you!!!
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