Letter to Singapore

by Ian Timothy (http://ian.onthereddot.com)

Dear Singapore,

You are the girl I always thought I will forever be with. Yet as I grow older, I see so many things we differ on.

Yet I still love you. I still want to love you.

There are days I wonder if I am making excuses for you. Grappling in the dark to find some reason to hold onto this love.

People who don’t know you mock you.

Others who used to be friends or lovers have left you.

Everyday, someone seems to have some sort of judgment about you.

I want to ignore that. I want to love you on my own terms from my own experiences. But it is hard. No? Hard not to look at you through the prism of others.

Please, you have been good to me. Please remember the others. The others who have given their lives for you. Who have worked to make you what you are now.

Mother always told me – you assess a gal’s character not by how she treats you but how she treats the waiter. See how she treats those she does not love.

It seems you are failing on that count.

Maybe it is the elders in our lives. Their ways while good and have brought us far may be holding us back.

We are all still young. Let’s take charge. Let’s break from the old ways.

My mind yearns to leave you. To explore the world. To find something better.

My heart knows that no matter what, it will always belong to you.

I wonder how much more the heart can take before it will be irreparably broken.