Sharing Nugget #10

#10: Friendship is not judged by time spent, but by the influence the friend had in our lives.

Today, I received sad news. Emily, a Social Science girl, who was in my orientation group, received a phone call in one of our seminars telling her she has been accepted by NUS Law. Of course, like most students will, she accepted.

That concluded her brief time spent in SMU.

Here is the msn conversation I had with her tonight:

Me: You accepted NUS Law liao?

Emily: yah…

Me: good luck to you my fren. we are sad that u left us! but all the best.

Emily: yes me too… i dun really want to leave you all

Me: we understand la. dun worry... study hard k? i sad for SMU that we lost a bright mind to NUS!

Emily: thanks… been really touched by the smu and sess spirit… will always be an smu citizen at heart

Me: awww..... so nice... haha... all the best fren.

Emily: thanks… and i really mean it…

Her words made my heart skip a beat.

“Will always be an SMU Citizen at heart”. Wow. I did not expect that our efforts in building a proud SMU culture and identity will have such an impact.

I am truly touched by it. I will use this as a motivation to continue leading the SCD team to work with the SMU student community to foster the culture and identity of SMU Citizenship. Our SMU branding is at stake, and I will fight to maintain the integrity of our SMU brand and value of our degrees.

For the past 2 days, I have had great privilege to officially declare almost the entire freshmen cohort – SMU Citizens. I hope this small part I have played will be a baby step towards the birth of a deep SMU culture and identity. I hope I have left my mark in SMU history by declaring the first of many more batches of SMU citizens to come.

Thank you SMU, for giving me this great honor. And thank you Emily, for touching our lives in that brief but heart-felt time. You have taught me that friendship is not judged by time spent, but by the influence the friend had in our lives.