Dissonance

CLIMBING, OR MY LACK THEREOF

After much reflection, I realised that I was at my happiest in the final year of university. No, the reason was not getting FYP out of the way, nor getting over two traumatic failed relationships. The reason was because I finally fulfilled my dream of living the life of a pro-athlete. I overloaded on academic modules in the earlier semesters with the view of enjoying a lighter load in my final semester, timing it to coincide with the bouldering competition season. The earlier semesters were hell, but as a result I was granted the time to put climbing at the top of my priority list. Priceless.

Banal

One of my favourite columns in The Sunday Times is the Me and My Money feature. The articles typically involve rags-to-riches stories, inspiring ordinary people with 'if-I-can-do-it-so-can-you' anecdotes. These are stories of hard work, financial prudence, fiscal discipline, steely determination and shrewd business sense, revealing much about the myriad of strategies successful people have adopted to rise to the top or escape from the rat race.

But recent features have become increasingly mundane, even to the point of being plain senseless. Are the journalists running out of people to interview? Take this weekend's (18 Nov 2012) feature for example.