Top image: Luba Ertel/Unsplash
If you’ve been paying attention, you’d have realised that my tardy ass forgot to write a December Note from the Editor. In my nightmare, and on the tail of such unforgivable transgression, I half expected pitchforks drawn and folks in tattered Santa suits ala The Purge to run me down the street chanting, “Procrastinator! Lazy! Shameful!”. Still, that didn’t materialise, probably because I’ve recently moved into a new property in the hyper-local neighbourhood of Serangoon North, and these naysayers didn’t get the new address memo I gave the friendly men over at ICA.
Yes, the rumours are true. I’ve become one of those single, unmarried, and wholly undeserving of buying Prime Location Housing BTO flats even after its decade MOP has lapsed. I now belong to the club of ungrateful, unfilial children who decided to move out of their family homes and dare dream of eking out a life that is independent and free. A visiting dog from the unit opposite probably thought the same of me too—I came home one day to a front door wet with rancid dog pee and neighbours vehemently denying their pet pooch’s involvement. Sure, Samantha. Sure.
So, new year, new home, new Rice perhaps? Yes and no—to the latter, I mean. Yes, because we are bringing on board a whole new slate of regional content from our Thailand sister site and incorporating it into RiceMedia.co. We believe you’ll enjoy reading those articles, too. Elsewhere, we’re getting our feet wet in the bold and unexplored world of Green Energy and Electric Vehicles and exploring the social and moral implications of its nationwide adoption, slated to pick up pace this year.
Our Socio-Political desk is also getting some much-needed tender loving care with a more incisive, constructive, and critical slate of articles that I hope will serve as good local examples of political pieces that are loaded yet still balanced and objective. It’s been an uphill battle, this task. Every socio-political article we publish has evolved into unending demands to be more bi-partisan, less left-leaning, less right-leaning. I’ve come to realise that when it comes to this topic, we cannot possibly please every reader, so the best we can do is to be exceedingly and acutely objective.
Rice Media’s raison d’être, however, remains the same. We strive to be an online publication that enlightens and, in so doing, shed light on the human condition and everything it entails. We’re still committed to uncovering stories that often go untold and deserve more attention for the profound and lasting social impact it can have on the community. It can get increasingly laborious finding these stories, so any help we can get from you, our readers, would go such a long way. If you know of a story that desperately needs to be told or a group that deserves more recognition for their work, drop us an email at community@ricemedia.co.
I’ve yet to pen down my personal resolutions for 2022, but that’s only because I have gone through a good portion of my adult life not making wishful resolutions at the beginning of the year. You never know where life may take you, and I do think that while useful, resolutions can tend to be slightly limiting. I feel that we are capable of more than what we aspire to and that resolutions work if you leave breathing room for better.
What I do believe in is having a mantra as a philosophical guide to living out 2022. In 2018, mine was “Say yes to everything”. For 2019, it was “Put yourself first”. The year after was “Build a healthy relationship with money”. Last year was “Don’t kill yourself with work”.
For 2022, my mantra is to get out and step away from my very well-established comfort zones, a big deal for someone like me who thrives on strict processes and protocols that are often unwavering and unrelenting. So this year, I will go out of my way to put myself in uncomfortable situations. I will unlearn old habits and embrace the unexpected. And when life gives me lemons, I will make a whole lemonade franchise of it. I will finally take up that pottery class, go on blind dates, and hopefully end the year with more “Shit, I can’t believe I did that” and less “Shit, I should have done that when I had the chance”.
Come at me 2022. Bring it.
