Becoming a better person

Today is my 104th day in Melbourne since February 10, 2012. Undoubtly, life here is uncomparable with that in Singapore, in terms of school, law, transport, day to day activities, security, as so forth. I have met With many ups and downs during my months of stay, the worst is probably sometime in late March, in which I have never ever felt so lonely in my life, as though my social life turned into a downwards spiral. I felt as though no friends could be trusted, no friends would be loyal. Of course everything has a positive side. That period of time, I realised the importance of being independent. I learnt to do things myself, from going to school alone (not feeling depressed just because no one is with you), to handling bank account issues. I believe I am an independent person now, and of course, my social life has picked up since. Living in Palmerston is like living in a little village of foundation studies students. Everyone knows each other, everyone is friends with each other. Except for two or three people here, everyone else is musically inclined. People who are at least amateur on multiple instruments, as well as people who are grade 8 in the one they specialise in. Thus, musical influence is inevitable. During the first few days of stay (when school was less busy), there would be jamming sessions almost every night. Others would be singing if not playing. They were enjoyable social gatherings. I was impressed by the musical talents in everyone. Influence from Singapore told me that I want to be better than these people. Hence, I found myself ringing up my parents, nagging them to bring my guitar here the next time they came. A few weeks later, I found myself picking up the guitar again, a better player than I had ever been. Everyone is at least 17 years of age in Palmerston. Late teenagers we are, checking out the opposite sex, falling into false relationships, boys would go buff themselves up in gyms, those above 18 going clubbing and small drinks (though quite seldom). Girls (like myself) would gather their closest girl friends and gossip about everyone. It's a new phase of life I had never experienced before. At the start, everything felt a little surreal, like if someone goes clubbing, I would think of that person as "rebellious" or something like that, just because I never had a friend who clubs before. Though soon after, I realised that all these "unusual" habits are just bits and pieces of growing up. Being teenagers, 99.9999% of people wants to look good, feel good. In Palmerston, roughly 80% of the boys goes gyming regularly or are hyper active in sports. Since there are no such thing as 'CCAs' in Australia, I soon found even the girls opted to gym as their form of keeping fit. I'm not saying that they do ridiculous amounts of weight tracings with those disgustingly slimy dumbells, they just do basic cardio exercises. Just 3 days ago, I signed up for my own gym membership. Talk about fitness influence apart from music! I'm becoming an all rounder now! You may beg to differ, I don't care. There are character improvements as well. Boys are becoming more gentlemanly. Most people in Palmerston loves to share. We learnt to cater to the needs of others too, learning to make sacrifices for the sake of others. Native Australians are generally polite and friendly, which definitely influenced overseas people like me. For example, in Singapore, when you bump into someone, you would say sorry. However, though that person may not hold into heart, he or she would just walk away or something. In Australia, he or she would reply 'it's ok dear', or 'no worries'or something like that. Living in Australia not only changed my attitude towards family and friends but also to the public.