Memories

I have been living in Singapore for 10 years by now. Eight long years ago, I moved into the house I am currently in.

I was assigned to the second bedroom from the beginning of a long corridor that began in the living room and ended at a door to the master bedroom. I had no desk, just a piano and a 90cm bed. And on the windowsill…nothing. I decided to put my computer there, and I brought a little stool for me to sit on. It was an 11.6 inch, early 2014 MacBook Air, with an i7-4650U, 8gb of RAM, and a 512gb SSD. I still have it. Months later, at the age of around 10 (my memory is very faint), I was gifted a custom PC that I was to build…but I didn’t know how to build one at all. I asked my dad to do it.

I put it on the windowsill, and that’s where my computing journey really started to kick off. It was the windowsill where I did all the virtualization I did to run ancient OSes. It was the windowsill where I had set up my first file servers (SMB, AFP when that was predominant, and even FTP), and my first http server. It was the windowsill where I set up my first linux server, had all the emotional breakdowns I had, and the windowsill where I taught myself simultaneous equations in 5th grade.

Years later.

I am now one of the best programmers¹ in my whole high school. I am now fluent in all the programming languages I’ve dreamt of learning; C, Python, Rust², and exen x86_64 linux assembly; name whatever. I have written real software; many pieces of real software.

And just 30 minutes go, the same Eason who sat at that windowsill for hours exploring the world of computing, going from Eason Tech Reviews to ezntek, visited said room. There is now a new bed inside for my father, who’s out of the country. I sat on the bed, and looked at the windowsill, where there were some books, some other assorted items, a fan and some plants.

And I realized. That was the exact same windowsill from all those years ago. The same windowsill where I did all the exploration I did as an elementary school computer enthusiast. Where I ran my old YouTube channel. I am the same person as the Eason from all those years ago, just grown up a little, with a far more mature mind than the typical 16 year old³. I am clearly changed, I am now ezntek.

But that windowsill will only be accessible to me for the next 2 years. In 2027, I graduate; I leave Singapore. In a mere two years, I will not be able to see the birthplace of my new me ever again. A slab of concrete with so many memories, like how I’d used to put my MacBook underneath my bed to run it as a file server. It will only be a faint memory, seen through just a few pictures taken on my iPhone SE in gold, one that I’ll only tell my kids, because they will never be able to see it, and I’ll never see it again very soon.

Cherish your time, cherish your memories. And the living things that you appreciate will become one too. Just a mere thought that will fade until your eventual demise.

Fortunately, I have an adulthood ahead of me. Unfortunately, I have an adulthood ahead of me. Sometimes I wish I could live as a teenager with free will a little longer, in this house a little longer, because I will miss this silly little apartment, and my silly little windowsill.