.... "the grad special" this is something i want you to read. this is how people changed my life.

time: the most valuable thing in the world.
heh. ran out of it tonight. grad dinner goes on.. and i'm home. i ran up to the front five minutes before i had to leave, in a frenzy saying only... only the things that popped into my mind right then. i guess in a state of migraneous frustration i didn't get to express myself as well as i would have liked. people i would have liked to mention but did not have time... not to mention i took like 2 pictures. but hey, what can you do? except ......

what i would have said had i had more time
people wonder in life whether or not they have influenced others. encouraged others. changed others in some way. like... err... Mother Theresa? ... well good news, you don't have to be Mother Theresa to do that... in fact, to influence, encourage, or change someone ... all you need to do is... be open to getting to know them. and that means... the world. people touch your life in many many ways. little things impact people and you would never even know.

i grew up with nate yung and jon chin... these guys were part of Praylude (my fellowship now) when i was younger and yeah... we didn't talk so much but i looked up to them and hoped that someday, i'd be in that fellowship and able to make a difference in the church. thankyou for your influence. and then they got to university and they were always there greeting me with a smile and hello... also, jon and i like to discuss with eachother who's "hot or not" LOL... good times... =) let us not forget our childhood =p

speaking of smiles, let's not forget steve wong and his amazing perma-smile... i have never seen steve not smiling. honestly. wow. it is really an encouragement to see someone so joyful and friendly... and furthermore there's freddy ng who brightens up my days because somehow everytime we see eachother we like burst out laughing. and i'll be so down.. but see these people... and their joy will be spread to me.

even though i don't even know these people SUPER well... God has used them to influence and encourage me.

somebody important that i accidentally ommited because of my screwy time thing-- BONNIE. bonnie tam.... wow. she is always there with a smile and hug ... and i can go to her in tears and... she's there. me and bonnie helped out with vbs together in the summer and we have a song-- God You're Good to Me. ask us and we can sing it and do the actions for you =) even during vbs bonnie was such an encouragement to me showing me patience as she lead the kids especially this one who spoke only mandarin and never stopped crying... She taught me the pin yum for the chinese in songs so i could sing the chinese during joint service when we were leading worship... all these aunties and uncles now come up to me and tell me how great my chinese is HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA =P thanks for your care and love. God truly is good to me by putting you in my life.

my "family"...[eunie calls these four her godsisters...for me, these people show me the most amazing love.. the most ... wow. they are like family. blood couldn't make these people show me more love.]

to my "see lai" friend emily law remember when we met and you had bangs.. and we were watching a reaaaaallly boring movie and eating burnt popcorn? hehe.. that was... wow. a long time ago. em has stuck it out with me for so so so long. i used to call her like alllll the time (housemates can testify to that) and talk about all these things. emily is the "sane" person ... she has a cool head about everything.. and is so controlled in her emotions ... after a bit .. i guess cuz of work terms and business we stopped hanging out and talking so much. but these past weeks we've really gotten back on track and wow. i wanna grab all that time back em... Em also teaches our highschool sunday school class. yesyes i'm a sunday school kid =P .. but you kno, she's made it something i really do look forward to ...a place i go to for real spiritual discussion and answers -not the same old bible stories. and em's stuck it out with us "cliquey" girls in the back crossed arms, legs on the desk in front of us gossipping about our latest crushes... she's stuck it out tho no one else wanted to teach with her... or when it was hard to get us to respond. in the same way, em has stuck it out in our friendship through the retarded things i've done to screw over her trust, to screw over many things. and each time i mess it up again she always lets me come back with open arms... she's never left... don't leave now =P (haha so corny) [favourite memory: ... i'd have to say either this past friday, or TIDE =)]

who is the only asian girl i know with NATURALLY curly hair? ... NITA! anita kwan my "classmate" from laurier for ...so many years that i've pretended to be a laurier student hahaha... anita was always there for me whether i asked her to be or not. she somehow lives with people i call alot of the time.. one term it was em, one term is was clara... and well she always would answer the phone with the most cheerful voice and ask me how i was doing... something i appreciated very much...but then i got to know anita... and WOW. i appreciate her more than ever now. nita is such a strong and patient person. she will push aside her problems that are so much more significant than mine and sit with me and listen to me say the same things again. always reassuring, always loving, never growing weary of me ( or at least she hides it well). she will dig through her stuff and find me crap to put on my face because i have disgusting hives and force me to go to the walk in clinic with her even though i don't want to because she cares. and she'll she will remind me over and over about how much God loves me, prepared someone for me, cares about me, and about how much she cares about me. she's always a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen, and a hug to fall into. thankyou... [favourite memory: hehhehehehe writing things in the snow with our feet... IVAN + ANITA = LOVE 4EVA!! kekekeke... wish i got a picture =P]

euming chong is a name commonly heard... someone so many ppl know ... someone so many random guys "accidentaly" knock on the wrong door to see HAHAHA =) ... everyone wants to know eumie every guy wants to date her =)... and i have had the priveledge to get to know her.. and to have her know me. my skewed perceptions of her didn't prevent her from offering her presence in a time of frustration for me... she obviously didn't know she was getting herself into a whole daily phone call thing where her mom can now probably memorize my number and can automatically pick up the phone and be like "sorry euming's not home" haha.. but last year as i was struggling so much with temptations, euming was always there to listen. always there with advice. even though she makes fun of me that i like a new guy every day and she had never actually met me in person, eumie was there. and when she came back to loo, it was profound to see that this friendship i had developed over the phone was not superficial and fake but that she actually truly cared about me and she took the time in her busy busy schedule and even though she is vellllyy "high in demand".. she stil made such an effort to chill with me, help me with school, act like a big sister, encouraging me and challenging me to take charge of my own growth in God. i still have so much to learn but gosh eumie's inspired me so much.. thankyou for letting me know my life matters, that i matter. oh and spiderman =) gotta come back and teach me how to speak mandarin =P ... [favourite memory: after that strawberry daquiri at ur place and i made some noise and you were mocking me... that was pretty funny =) ... etiher that or chinese new year nite]
eumie and anita also started a cell grp for grade 11 girls... it's been.. wow. i speak for all 5 of us in saying that this has truly changed our lives and our friendships. and the fact that we can com etogether and talk about our spiritual lives to eachother... has made SUCH a difference. thankyou for showing me what i had all along.

Gee...Why? because gladys yam is cool that's why =) i automatically liked gladys the first time we hung out. for some reason, even though we didn't know eachother hardly, gladys kept asking me if i wanted to get together-- so we went out to williams one night and i remmeber her saying "i hope i never treat you like you're less or differently because you are younger. i respect you as a person and age shouldn't make a difference in that" and i was like WOW-- gosh this is the perfect person. why is everyone not like this? gladys has kept this promise. she has been over the past year, one of the *best* friends i have. making a point of actually getting together with me regularily to hang out she demonstrated from the start that she *really* cared about me... cuz as i discovered tonight, time is the most lacking and precious thing we have. and boy, even though she is insane in her schedule O_o... she always makes time for me. whether it's hanging out at whatever place, or sitting at her apartment drawing on sticky notes, or daily phone calls, or walking out in the freezing cold to st. cin's just to hear me whine about how crazy rugby practice was. i can call her sobbing, laughing, etc at allll times during the day and i mean all including at like 4 - 5 am and she'll be there for me. she knows more abotu me than anyone else in the whole world. she goes insane with me, counsels me, listens to me, shares with me about her life, and just wow. i couldn't be more blessed. and as hard as i try not to, or at least not to admit it.. i look up to her. i admire the way she carries herself, her funness, and her hardworkingness (even though we're gonna live in a cardboard box anyways haha), her culturedness, and her patience, her BALANCE =) if i would like to adopt any attitudes-- one of my top choices would be yours. thankyou for everything. don't leave without knowing that you mean the world to me.

so ... i think that's pretty much it... the point of it all is... these people showed me BIG love from God... and this love inspires me to love more and to grow and to become someone who can show more people love. and it is my hope that as you leave, you will not be leaving my life, but entering into someone else's who you can touch even more than you did mine. and that's a hell of a lot =P