I should be squirming with delight that Elaine my youngest daughter graduated from NUS on Monday, but it was not to be. To be sure, I felt proud that she graduated with first class honours and received a Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy scholarship to do her Master’s. This had to be the Lord’s doing. But I also felt relieved that my eldest brother’s generosity and my investment in her education has come to fruition, and a full-stop!

On Monday morning, when her name was called and she strode across the stage, I pressed the video button of my Sony Ericsson Xperia phone camera. Later, while endless names of other graduates were called, when I reviewed the video, there was the beginning clip when she began her walk, and the end clip when she ended her walk, and nothing in between when she shook hands and received her diploma with a smile. I thought, This is such a bad deal. While busy recording I lost the priceless feel of the glorious and crucial moment. While hoping to record a precious past, I lost the crucial present moment. Instead I got nothing but the peripheral. Thank God this is just a video: some people live out their whole life like that!

Believe me there were some moments of self-incrimination, though not enough to take the shine away from my satisfaction. It seemed like such a long wait, but finally in the same year, my second son, Matthew, has graduated, well sort of, and so has my daughter, well sort of.