This is an email from my dear Singapore Management University Student's Association (SMUSA) President. She's my personal friend too. Love her for the encouragements that she sends out to the whole school every now and then.


Pay It Forward concept...something that I feel strongly about too, and yes, it might be idealistic, but I have seen it happen. I know that it can happen.


Cheer up everyone! Doing a good deed doesn't take much time, and reaps a reward that is invaluable. :)


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Dear friends,

I hope studying has been fruitful for all of you. The next 2 weeks are definitely not gonna be easy, but hey, we’re SMU students aren’t we! I just wanted to share with all of you a particular concept which I had come across a few years back. I have once again, become fascinated by it.

Pay it forward.

A person would start by doing something for someone who would not be able to do for it him or herself. This person who has received the blessing, would then bless 3 other people. It is the notion of paying a favour forward, instead of the usual backwards. This would continue and continue (theoretically). Of course, the basis of this concept is founded upon the belief that the person on the receiving end of the blessing would pay it forward. Some might say that is utopian, I call it faith.

Unfortunately, it’s true that at times, we might not be able to see the result of our labour. Altruism is dead, some might claim. But we should never underestimate how far reaching the effects of our actions can be. It could make a person smile, it could determine a person’s decision in the future, or it might change a person’s course. It might change yours too. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”


On school

We get discouraged when we invest so much effort into something, but we don’t reap the rewards we thought would follow. We blame our circumstances, we blame the people around us, we blame anything we can. Perhaps, all of us could take a step back, reposition ourselves and start doing something differently for once. We never know what might follow thereafter. But don’t push yourself too hard, sometimes the most urgent thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.