Initial D.

All the past memories with Initial D just came rushing back to me after I watched the movie today.

Spent the morning (and part of the afternoon) working on my term paper and got it completed in 2 hours. Then went out for dinner with some of the NUS people who are on a visit to China. Those are not the highlights of the day. In fact my whole night lit up when I stepped into the cinema to watch Initial D the movie. It was just oh so brilliant. Easily one of the best movie I’ve watched so far.

After the movie all my past memories about Initial D suddenly became very vivid. I remembered when I was in year 1, there was this period when I was really down and demoralised, I found solace in Initial D Arcade Stage. I was basically playing a lot of the game, in an effort to try to forget all the difficult things that I was dealt with. Then the release of Initial D Arcade Stage Version 2 was the period in which I went absolutely crazy with the game. I remember during that period basically my mind was all about Initial D and nothing else. Not my school work, not any girls in school, nothing. It was just Initial D. I would rush to the arcade near my home to spend a few hours there playing the game, chatting with friends about the game, etc etc. Then weekends would be spent around Singapore trying to compete against other players. In the process I made even more friends and I must say it was one of the most enjoyable period of my life.

Since coming Shanghai, things haven’t really been positive for me in a lot of ways. I had lots of ups and downs and I find that actually I can’t really manage a lot of things well. Managing friendships, managing relationships… sometimes it’s just too difficult. I used to be very naive and think that as long as I’m nice to people, people will actually appreciate me. But it has turned out not to be the case. I realised that sometimes people take me for granted, sometimes people just don’t even realise I care for them and really want the best for them. And then there will be some people who are just so blind to everything I feel like giving up. I mean, I’ve always been someone high on self-confidence, but the happenings in Shanghai so far has done nothing except to deal me blow after blow. I mean, I’m mentally strong to an extent, but no matter how mentally strong I am there is always going to be a threshold to whatever I can take. Sometimes I wish people can be true to one another, but when I realise that even the people whom I think I can trust are lying to me, I just wished that I’ve never come Shanghai at all. That’s not to say everyone is lying to me, but at least I know back home in Singapore I do have some friends who can be very honest to me and vice versa. Is it that everyone is putting a mask on or something?

I really miss the period when I was crazy about Initial D. At least I had less worries and troubles. Dealing with people sometimes is just too tiring. I’d rather be dealing with the hairpin curves on the Akina downhill track.