Are we the rats running the race, or is the Race making us into rats?

Chatted with Meiting over MSN over a while and somehow the topic of the rat race in Singapore cropped up when she mentioned about returning to Singapore and staying for good in Aug.

"You are always 2nd class everywhere," she remarked. And although I must say it's true, the enviroment in Singapore is getting so elitist that unless you are of any worth, you are quickly pushed aside, regardless of whether you are a native or no.

Maybe I am being all gloomy and pessimistic, after all, what would I know about being shoved aside by life? I have a pretty stable job, a family who cares for me and a girlfriend who is always by my side. But somehow, something is missing. I told Meiting it was all a trade-off, for stability, you sacrifice freedom of living.

In the case of Singapore, it is the good place to enhance your wealth and all, but it's the place to live. "Live" being spoken in a more philosophical context. Here, we are too caught up with results, money and accomplishments to even stop by and take a breather. The fresh-faced graduates we once were is no longer, replaced by a hardened scowl of a mug, because seriously this is all the defense we have and can muster in the face of societal pragmaticism. We all start off well-meaning, trusting that we have got what it takes to make it - to make a change. But after a while, we get tired and sink back into the accepted comfort zones; unwilling and unable to move anymore.

This is sad but this is also a fact that a majority of us face. Of course, there's always the success stories but unlike what they say, sometimes things isn't as straightforward as you see in shows and dramas. Life is hard and most of us trudge through it until the day we lie on our deathbeds, not sure if we have indeed made a difference.

Heaven bent to take my hand
And lead me through the fire
Be the long awaited answer
to a long and painful fight

Truth be told I've tried my best
but somewhere along the way
I got caught up in all there was to offer
and the cost was so much more than I could bear

Chorus:
Though i've tried, I've fallen..
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
better I should know
So don't come round here
and tell me i told you so....

We all begin with good intent
Love was raw and young
We believed that we could change ourselves
The past could be undone
But we carry on our backs the burden
Time always reveals
The lonely light of morning
the wound that would not heal
it's the bitter taste of losing everything
that i have held so dear.

Chorus

Heaven bent to take my hand
nowhere left to turn
I'm lost to those i thought were friends
to everyone i know
Oh they turned their heads embarassed
pretend that they don't see
but it's one missed step
you'll slip before you know it
and there doesn't seem a way to be redeemed

- Sarah McLachlan, Fallen