Hardship.

Sitting here late at night even though there's school tomorrow, but that's okay. Holidays are coming soon and I can afford to crash because I've slept so much over the past few days. Browsing through Facebook photos of last night's and today's Hari Raya events, and it kinda really just hit me: We go through so much together.

I'm serious. We do.

There's a picture of our batch (Faiz, Kevin, Insan and I) together, and it hit me like a speeding truck hits a careless jaywalker. We've gone through so bloody much, it's scary.

Every single one of us (the Bruneians in our school) knows what it's like to leave home, leave our families behind, be foreigners in a ridiculously tough-sounding school, to have to learn how to deal with each other, work with people, travel alone, get things sorted all by ourselves. We've all gone through all this character-building crap that is, of course, good for us. All seventeen of us. There's no denying that. There's also no denying that we've got each other's backs, no matter what. Those that cry together, laugh together, and I love how much Bruneian spirit we've got in us. It keeps us going, no matter how much it sucks or how much we miss home.

I can't say I don't miss home as much as I did two and a half years ago, but I'll admit that it bothers me to a minimal extent now. Being here and being at home is like a win-win situation. I'm happy with either, and it's this equilibrium that comforts me.

So, yeah, it's the first day of Raya here in Singapore, and I'm glad we had fun. Everyone's looking forward to going home for Raya in two days, but now we have no excuse to be miserable about missing the first day or two.

I've got a tonne of vlog footage to edit, but it's no chore because that way I know all the little moments we had together won't be lost forever.

We'll eventually all graduate and leave this place. Will keep in touch for a while, but we'll inevitably drift apart, and all that closeness we had once will be left in the dust; something that we know was there but yeah, too bad. But then we'll look at these photographs and watch these videos and smile because they're good memories. Memories we want to keep with us as long as we live, and perhaps even beyond that.

All right, I've said enough.

Night.

P.S. One of the most satisfying feelings ever is buying things to bring home that you know for sure will make people happy.

P.P.S. Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, maaf zahir dan batin.