Don't know why, but I woke up this morning and just lay around in bed, and suddenly just happened to think about how things in Uni seem to have turned out so different from how I thought they'd be.

I wanted to be a Psychology major, but I'm now a Sociology major instead, with an English Studies minor (although that's still quite debatable at the moment).

I wanted to get into a career involving criminology, but here I am, this semester, having just taken a module (Sociology of Deviance) which has all but convinced me what a lot of bollocks criminology can be, being about 75% dependent on defining criminals by biological characteristics or life experiences.

And I wonder anew at just how subversive disciplines in the liberal arts are and could be, if we were just given more credit, especially in places like Singapore.

My Literature lecturer put it to us last semester that people downplay the importance of liberal arts disciplines because they don't want to see the injustices and contradictions and inconsistencies of our society cut open and bared for their eyes to see; it's easier to just believe that the world isn't perfect and get on with life, telling yourself that there isn't really anything that you can do about it.

And Lloyd, my tutor for Deviance this semester, posed this question in one of the tutorials:

"On the news, when you see those people ask experts for their professional opinion on things like natural disasters and stuff... When it comes to social problems, have you ever seen them ask a sociologist's opinion?.. For that matter, have you ever seen a sociologist being asked for his opinion on anything?"

And Dr Gana indirectly gave us the answer in a later lecture:

"The sociology of crime and deviance engages social structure, unlike the individualistic approach that psychiatrists and psychologists take; when you look at the individual for the cause of the problem, you effectively depoliticise the problem."

The problems that we find in society are just too large, too broad. The problems are embedded in society itself. To some extent, sometimes the problems are our society. But what can we do about that? Surely even sociologists realise that reforming an entire society is no joke, and is not something that can easily be done.

For example, we say that capitalist society is essentially criminogenic. We can't do anything about that; are you going to suggest that we dismantle capitalist society altogether?

So this is the fate of liberal arts students, then: we are equipped with the tools of our trade, which, when they will make the greatest difference, we cannot use; we are given the words to say, which people will either not listen to, or will listen to, but in the latter case, their own hands will be bound, anyway.


And to get back to what I started with originally, it's both funny and somewhat expected, how life never really works out as you plan it. I wonder how many people there are in this world who've had their lives play out exactly as they've planned it. Then again, there could be a lot of them, especially the people who live in more isolated societies.

I never thought that I'd get this involved in Uni life, never thought that archery would ever be something like second nature, never thought that my life could be so full, and I certainly never thought that I'd have someone to share it with.

So even when we're socialised to the ideal of constantly striving for more, I shall indulge my deviancy and say that I'm quite happy with my life as it is.

Listening to Rebecca's "In My Dreams", on the CD that Ivan compiled for me for our three-month anniversary; it probably might not surprise some of you reading this, but what else would the self-proclaimed Techno Prince give his Techno Princess but a compilation of love-themed techno songs? :)

Thank you, dear, and happy slightly-belated anniversary. :)





And in the softest of stage whispers... I never thought I'd find someone like you.