Tragedy struck today as a nation mourned over the loss of precious life. Violence struck at the heart of the nation where people gathered. Panic shrouded the streets, chaos reigned. 

To the parents, he was a son that always returned. His final steps marched towards a goal. Maybe he had a dream. But at the end of the day, his compass always pointed home. 

To the friends, she was a friend that was always present. Her laughter and love brought joy to those around her. Her presence was always welcomed. She was the light in the lives of many others. 

But at the end of today, he will never return home again, and the light in her will only shine in memories. 

Today, tragedy struck. 

Death toll: 42

Location: Iraq

Sometimes, life sucks. 

I don’t mean that in the sense that everything in your life seems like it’s about to disintegrate into oblivion. Sometimes, all it takes is just one missing puzzle piece to ruin the entire picture. 

Losing a puzzle piece is one of the most infuriating things that could happen. I suppose that the more piece count the puzzle, the smaller the distortion a missing piece can make. So in the grand scheme of a 1000 piece puzzle, one little piece may not seem to have as drastic of an impact. At the end of the day however, it is still an incomplete picture. 

What about a 100 piece puzzle? A 10 piece puzzle? Hey, some people only have 10 pieces in their lives. Can you imagine the incompleteness of a picture if one out of the ten pieces was missing? Sure would suck to be that guy. 

Alas, what can you do? Staring at the emptiness where the lost piece should have been can be overwhelming. You never really notice how every other piece is in place. All your attention seems to gravitate towards the blank space that now seems disproportionally large. It is daunting, but it is lost. 

So I probably ran into two of the most annoying flying situations on my 15.5 hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong: 

1. The person in front doesn’t seem to take note of the fact that the steepness of her reclining her chair actually affects the person sitting behind her. 

2. Having a baby on board is bad enough. Try having two babies in a 4 seat radius that seem to take turns crying. 

Thank goodness for the noise canceling headphones and Nyquil.

Time is a tricky thing. The more you need it the less you have. The less you need it the more you have. 

Life in school is punctuated by exams and due dates. For the more socially active there are the occasional pauses of parties, outings, dinners, gatherings, and various events. 

I wonder how many times this year I’ve already said “I can’t believe it’s already….” I see certain dates coming up but never realize the imminence of it. Shame.

Time management is an art. Not a easy one to grasp either. The fact that I’m even writing now instead of studying for my mid-term is proof that I haven’t quite mastered this art. 

Short blurbs of a hurried and scattered mind. A snapshot. 

“Coming home” seems to carry a lot more weight when your home is 27 hours away from where you usually live. Weight of homecoming = distance x time away from home? I think that’s about the right formula. 

This is the view from our balcony. The building in the center of the picture is the newly built hospital for the generally more privileged in the city of Shenzhen. Unfortunately this building is directly blocking our view of the ocean. So instead of having a great view, we now get to see sick people and going in and out of this building. Not that I’m complaining about the construction of a new hospital, just would’ve been nicer had the hospital been built anywhere but here. 

On a separate note, I believe the is the only day of sunshine that I saw in Shenzhen since I’ve been back. Whether hasn’t exactly been very welcoming.

The view when we sat down from lunch:

The view 10 minutes later…

No better time to say “there’s a storm coming”. I always imagined this is what an alien invasion would look like: one side of the sky would be bright and the other side would be dark as the night. 

Anyways, it’s good to be home again. It’s refreshing not being bombard with things to do and people to see. There’s no better place for introspection. Oh and of course, how could I forget, the food. The taste of China is delicious as ever.