My Singapore story goes like this:
I came to Singapore during Asian financial crisis in January 1998, after studying and working for 4.5 years in US. My fate brought me to this small red dot island as I received and took the only job offer after sending more than 100 resumes via postal service from US (as at that time no monster.com or jobsdb.com yet). Living in Singapore as young professional in midst of financial crisis was not an easy thing to do. But yet, I experienced and saw how hard the government worked in ensuring Singapore economy to be less impacted. My heart fell in love with Singapore. Not long after, I applied to become Singapore Permanent Residence as I wanted to live and have my career to be established in Singapore. And at same time, I did fall in love with young, amazing woman, and we got married in year 2000. Soon after marriage, we bought HDB, and I decided to start dot-com business for one year but it went bust together during dot-com crash. Again, I saw how the government reacted during the dot-com crisis. Afterwards, I managed to find a career but it required me to migrate to Germany for 2 years stint. I decided to take it. Along the way, my daughter was born in Germany. However, my wife and I always felt missing of something. We missed how we could get good family support and good childcare support in Singapore. We decided to cut our stint to be 6 months shorter so we could get back to Singapore sooner. And in 2004, we were blessed with second child, a son, born and breed in Singapore (which one day will be proudly serving National Service, along with his ACSJ schoolmates). In 2005, I decided to call Singapore a home, where my family could live, my child could grow safely, and our careers could be established. In February 2006, I was granted a citizenship. My children and wife's citizenships were granted in the following years.
My story does not end here. Our family life is in another junction. I’m resigning from my professional job, to start my second business venture with my wife. This business start-up requires us to migrate to Indonesia, the country where my wife and I were born and grew up. Our children would need to take leave of absence too with very heavy heart, as they need to be departed from their school friends. But this time, we know for sure, we have a mission and hope to come back to Singapore in 2 years, to expand the business in Singapore, to help Singapore economy, for our children to continue their education in Singapore – as we always call Singapore ‘our home’. It won’t be easy living in Jakarta where we are used to all the conveniences we have received in Singapore. My daughter was crying during last National Day event in her school – knowing that she would miss it next year with her RGPS friends. My emotion runs high too after hearing PM Lee National Day rally message last night. I will always treasure the memory lane in Singapore, and I am looking forward to be able to contribute more to Singapore. While away from Singapore for next 2 years, I will surely treasure and miss all my Singaporean friends who I have made friendship with for past 14 years.
I believe as a nation, we need to embrace the message of ‘Hope, Heart, and Home’. As for me personally, in starting my business, I will always treasure the lesson I learnt from the government that we should never stop striving for the better – either in difficult or good times – though it means I must take road less taken.
Majulah Singapura!