New Shoes

By Adam Koh· Urbanwire
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The dinner conversation shifted from how badly bitten we were by the mosquitoes or “sand flies or whatever they are”, to what we’d order, to former schoolmates.

In between, our buttered prawns, mussels, fried chicken and Coca Cola Light arrived.

Schoolmates. At the mere mention of it, I knew it was time to put the scarcely familiar names to faces I only vaguely remember – just so I could keep up with dinner chitchat. Glenn’s at Subaru; this other guy’s based in San Francisco; and yet another’s blah, blah, blah…

I was lost, so much for staying with the conversation. Instead I was thinking the ability to juxtapose one’s past with his present and even future selves is unnerving.
For 4 years we milled around the same corridor, took the same beating from the prescribed syllabus – some more than others – and at the end of it all, we came out none the same, all of us different, all of us having shoes of our own to fill.

In more ways than one, this issue of UrbanWire isn’t too different from having new shoes to fill. A semester only into its 2nd month promises lots for us to grow into. And in the course of growing, there promises to be toil and tears.

Roxanne Toh’s 38 picks in honour of Singapore’s 38th National Day is one such tale of toil, and perhaps tears. Because the tiny isle most of us call home has much to be proud of in the past 38 years, it is no walk in the park piecing together the top choices. Earning mention at position 30 is the cast of Homerun, Raintree Productions’ latest movie, who crashes our People section. And August’s Style section is suitably splashed in the red and white colours of the month.

Yet the leitmotif is not entirely breast-beatingly patriotic. UrbanWire looks at the Bad Boys of Sports and the new Italian restaurant Spizza, where thin women teeter on insatiable appetites.

Closer to home, an alumnus, Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s recent graduate, Samuel Wong Shengmiao who is “arguably the most accomplished pipa player of his age”, comes into his own with An Impression of the Pipa, a 13-track debut audio book. This follows the recent launch of the 20-year-old’s first book, Impressions of a Pipa Player.

Here at UrbanWire, new pages continue to be created before every month begins. These pages are filled by a group of individuals who have new shoes to grow into. The shoes may be a tad oversized. And the responsibilities may be overwhelming just now. Some will trip and others fall.

In Homerun, which sketches pre-independence Singapore, children are so poor that losing a pair of shoes is a tragedy and spells untold guilt and hardship. So while we quake and grumble at having new shoes to fill, this may also be a good time for us to be thankful… that we even have them.