Inspired by Joachim (it happens more often than I care to admit)…

All evoke emotion and ambition – senses so strong that they might very well outweigh my abilities. This isn’t false modesty – little else is worse than falling short of expectations.

Not just Sting, but electrify – a marriage of music…

COME AGAIN: SWEET LOVE DOTH NOW INVITE
John Dowland

Come again
Sweet love doth now invite
Thy graces that refrain
To do me due delight
To see, to hear, to touch, to kiss, to die
With thee again in sweetest sympathy

Come again
That I may cease to mourn
Through thy unkind disdain
For now left and forlorn
I sit, I sigh, I weep, I faint, I die
In deadly pain and endless misery

All the day
The sun that lends me shine
By frowns do cause me pine
And feeds me with delay
Her smiles, my springs, that makes my joy to grow
Her frowns the winters of my woe

All the night
My sleeps are full of dreams
My eyes are full of streams
My heart takes no delight
To see the fruits and joys that some do find
And mark the storms are me assign’d

Out alas
My faith is ever true
Yet will she never rue
Nor yield me any grace
Her eyes of fire, her heart of flint is made
Whom tears, nor truth may once invade

Gentle love
Draw forth thy wounding dart
Thou canst not pierce her heart
For I that to approve
By sighs and tears more hot than are thy shafts
Did tempt while she for triumph laughs

Am I suppose to experience fear? It throws off the equilibrium I have carefully arranged, not to mention everything I have held close to my heart.

I may be single, but being a girl stereotypically means I am a romantic, no matter the circumstance.

I want Jon Favreau’s job; better yet, I want to be Jon Favreau:

1. Who wouldn’t?
2. He gets to create alongside Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and other great names – all delicious and brilliant in their own right.
3. To have Obama speak the words he writes… Come on!
4. He plays around with the written word of our time – I like that.
5. Starbucks gives him wings…

How befitting and equally rousing – a day after MLK Day, Inauguration Day also signified a turning point in American history. And it’s about time.

“Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyaly and patriotism – these things are old; these things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded, then, is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility; a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather, seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.”

Just when I started to regret putting Barack Obama on such a high pedestal and thinking that he’s akin to a rockstar, for fear of being disappointed, he reminded me why he won the Election in the first place – he is downright inspiring. Forget the fact that his African-American heritage symbolised a shift in racial politics, which warrants enough celebrated pride - among other qualities he embodies within his je na sais quoi, Obama’s honesty and rapport with even the most common of folk will mark history in a profound and prolific way.

Having travelled to the United States and witnessing the capacity and spirit of the American people, coupled with the fact that they are behind a President like never before, I truly believe that this will be an epoch of promises kept.

Words of wisdom either challenge me to never fall victim to worldly adversity, or they encourage me to live life with unadulterated audacity.

On The View yesterday, Keith Olbermann provided a brief moment of thought-provoking insight into journalistic objectivity, which I hitherto had not considered.

“I don’t think by eight o’clock at night, people don’t know what has happened during the day. A lot of us, in doing the news or news programming, go to bed every night thinking, ‘And please, when I wake up, let it be 1973 again – [viewers] are really relying on us for the information.’ By the time I get to the office, the people watching me know more about the news than I do.”

It goes without saying that there is good journalism and bad journalism. I’ve always thought that journalistic objectivity falls under the former, so it’s a rude shock to realise how much news reporting has evolved and the ways in which journalists have to give the extra something. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and while having one isn’t wrong, nobody likes to be challenged – I cannot imagine deliberately subjecting myself to attack, especially in such a public space. I’m not particularly pig-headed and I welcome criticism, but to reconcile partiality with journalism when I’ve tried not to impose my standpoints on anyone… I’m going to be a fish out of water, literally floundering and struggling to breathe.

Just when I thought I could breeze through my career on the sole premise of broadcasting the news and letting people decide on which side they want to be… Now, I’m presented with this tedious job description of having to form and promulgate my thoughts on current issues.

“That out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope; and where we are met with cynicism and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: ‘Yes, We Can.’”

You’d better believe it.

Even the prospect of graduating wasn’t enough to keep me from watching the US Election – 2,500 words separated me from completing my three-year rudimentary university education, but this was a chance to witness history in the making. And, my goodness… The results did not disappoint.

I took two days to contemplate the exact words I wanted to put into this particular entry, but now, at this moment when I have to transform my feelings into words, no amount of careful articulation will be able to express the euphoria I felt – and am still feeling – when Barack Obama won. He won. He won. HE WON! Even tonight, when I can safely focus my thoughts on things other than my assignments, it is almost impossible to write anything that would do this momentous occasion justice. But who needs words when smiles and tears seem to convey a more accurate depiction of this complexity of emotions?

They say it’s always darkest before the dawn. Perhaps the one good thing that came out of the comedy of George W. Bush’s eight years is this point in time, where Obama is given this tremendous opportunity to right past wrongs. Here’s to four years of hope and change!