Elfin Bee's night night thoughts

[image from the thejakartaglobe.com]

I used to be a camel. Correction: ‘I used to live like a camel.’

Not that I really enjoyed lumbering stuff over my back; but I used to think that everything need authencity or proof to show that the work I’ve done is from nowhere else but from me only.. hence I carry many more things than most people would do. And most things in the 90s back then weren’t exactly light. At least, they were not as compact as they are in the 21st century today.. I remember on a great number of occasions, I was carrying large pencil cases, large books, notes and jotters to the college library. I even wear a large down jacket that I bought before I went abroad to England with the sole impression of the UK being a very cold place. And it did turn up to be ridiculously cold on the first night of -5 degrees celcius. But that’s another story with me wearing all five layers to bed and still unable to sleep. The next day rendered me a complete zombie & a week of chaos. But thats another story.

Anyway, I carried a large Reebok backpack whilst dragging a small trolley of  full size folio bags (A0 size to A3 sizes) coupled with selected pack of models for my interviews in London. It was my first interview for postgraduate courses in the UK. It wasn’t exacly smooth sailing for the wonderful fact that I had to carry and run across the London traffic. By the time I hit the college door for interview, I’ve had gathered a good number of stares. The British are very polite and will not drop their jaws out and laugh at you. Some of them actually came up to offer help; and asked ‘Love, can you mange?’ or ‘Are you ok?’ or ‘How on earth did you lumber all the pack to London?!’  I had actually jammed a street of cars when my trolley broke loose and had the fattest folio tumbled right off the wheels. Panic stricken, I trotted right after it to catch my life. As my hand caught the edge of the folio, the lights suddenly went green. Before anything could fly off to me, my hands shot up in the cold winds & right into the sky. In utter desperation before the fleet of cars, I quickly face my palm to them & motioning them not to step on their accelerators. Obviously I did not know my time. Or indeed anybody else’s. All I knew was I wasn’t ready to cross the long stretch of road with almost everything flopped onto the road.

Guess that worked. Gladly and surprisingly they obeyed my gestures before the Great Traffic Lights of Central London. At least they didn’t choose to honk at me and run over me.

And more gladly enough, someone ran up and saved my bags, and my folios. I doubt anywhere in the world then could do that. But they actually had the patience to wait for me to cross the road with everything intact. Imagining an Asian girl from a tiny country ramping on in a strange country, whose physical sizes are least 5 inches taller. Wasn’t exactly fun though it was somewhat scary. I swore in my small head that I would not do that again. No matter how nice the Brits were, I just jammed the entire street of cars. And it wasn’t exactly fun/funny.

On with my journey to my interview. The tutors, who were supposed to be interviewing me, had a shock at the load I was carrying. And I supposed the look on my face might have looked somewhat ‘funn-ier’.

Thankfully, the tutors appeared to have thoroughly enjoyed flipping the tonnes of work I bought in. Asking a lot of questions and tested me out.It was actually a selection of bits that I thought would show design/technical thinking. I haven’t secured any financial aid yet but had planned to go ahead with interviews before returnng to Singapore to ask for money — in a time where economy was at its most rotten with far less enthusiasm in the field of product design.

Before I left the college, one of the professors who interviewed me actually couldn’t keep his long silence. He finally blurted gently with a smile, ‘You looked like a camel..’ I showed an embarassed grin. ‘Carry light!’ he said. He then suggested some ways to make my folio lighter which I did take in the advice. Afterall it was my first interview and no one had told me how to present for the such interviews,apart from advising me how to pick the best work for folios.

I earned a place straightaway on the spot after a 2 day interview with 2 different professors. I didn’t secure any substantial loans back home but I made my subsequent interviews far lighter and easier after the event. That advice actually sharpen my sense to be compact. Not only in my physical load but also in many ways when it comes to lighten life baggages.