At this point, I’ve been back from Singapore for just over a month now. After taking that monster set of flights back, which not surprisingly weren’t as bad coming back as they were the first time, I stopped off at New York. It was kind of spur of the moment, but I decided just before leaving Singapore that I wasn’t quite ready to go back home so I arranged to spend a little over a week traveling between New York City and Boston before returning by bus. I’m glad I did because in a way I felt I could compare the best that the U.S. has to offer with the best that Southeast Asia has to offer so that any comparisons I make could be fair. Also, I had never been to either city so I figured what better time than now.
Even though New York City is somewhat comparable to Singapore in population and size, they felt completely different in all other respects. Experiencing the hustle and bustle of New York made me realize that despite the population of Singapore, it felt very tranquil the majority of the time and I never felt cramped. New York was very exciting to experience and I’m glad I went, but I’m not sure if I could spend a good deal of my life living there.
On the other hand, Boston resonated well with me in similar ways to Singapore. One of the things I appreciated about Boston and that I realize now was lacking in Singapore is the feeling of a richly connected history. Boston is all about things like The Freedom Trail and The Commons, while due to Singapore’s short history (only independent for 50 years), most of what we see is very modern. While it’s not like Singapore could help itself in that regard, it’s just one of the notable differences I found.
Also for the first time, I realized what “it feels good to be home” feels like. By going to school so close to where I live, I never had the chance to be separated for that long, and sometimes even just the knowledge that I was a hop, skip, and a jump away made me still feel at home. But at Singapore, the reality hit me that I was very far from home and it made me appreciate the return that much more.
Without a doubt a part of me misses aspects of Singapore, but honestly I felt like the 8 week period that the internship took place was just the right amount. I learned very much and I think I am now ready to start to apply those things to my life back in America.
My stay at home will be short-lived, as I am Houston-bound for the fall—so no more school for me for another semester! I start my first co-op rotation with NASA in a little over a week so here’s hoping that I built up enough of a tolerance to hot, humid weather in Singapore for me to survive down there in the coming months. But even if that’s not the case, I think Singapore has prepared me more than enough for what it feels like to leave home and start fresh. And for that I am thankful.
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