Category: PeoplePage 1 of 17
“When you personally see how hard it is for displaced refugees to find their footing and survive, what more to earn a living, you tend to appreciate your life more. You instantly feel a need to help in whatever way you can.”
Humans of Sentosa | “That’s the great thing about iFly Singapore. It’s for anyone who wants to do anything extreme yet safe. And if you were planning to skydive, this is a good training ground. If you can fly in a 16-feet wind tunnel surrounded by glass walls, the sky is nothing.”
Maha Lakshmi: Bullied as a Kid for Having Curly Hair, Beauty Queen Learns to Love and Accept Herself
“I despised my hair when I was a kid because I was bullied excessively for having curly hair. In primary school, kids would throw staple bullets and pour eraser shavings into my hair. At that age when you’re so young and just want to be accepted, it was so hard to fit in.”
“I would always get judgemental stares from my male counterparts. I’ve even experienced ‘mansplaining’ by boys who were convinced that I wasn’t as good as them. They’d make snide comments like, ‘You sure you know this? You don’t look like you understand.’”
People of Legends | “In 2015, a family member whom I was close to committed suicide. It’s taken me a few years to talk about this without crying. With time, I’ve been able to speak about it to a couple of close friends, but beyond that, I don’t really bring it up in conversation.”
“Every year on her birthday, I make sure that my daughter says a prayer for her biological mother. For most, birthdays are about others holding celebrations and buying you gifts; but, birthdays are actually not about you. They’re about your mum, the one who gave you life.”
Humans of Sentosa | “When I come to work, it doesn’t feel like your typical office environment. You don’t see walls; you’re not deskbound. This place is a tourist attraction, and you meet different people every day. I brought my mum here once, and she was amazed by this place.”
“Over the last year, that sense of emptiness and loneliness was so strong. I didn’t know how to deal with it, so I went on a journey of trying to figure it out.”
“I decided to sketch strangers as a hobby because I wanted to see their reaction when I gave the drawing to them. With paid work, the client already knows what to expect, and I more or less know how they might react. There’s no element of surprise. But with strangers?”
“The biggest thing I’ve learnt on this journey is that self-care is crucial, especially in parenting. As the saying goes, ‘You can’t pour from an empty cup.’ Anything can happen with the kids, but when I become dysregulated with my emotions, that’s when things go down the drain…”
“When I got into medical school, I did a lot of soul-searching and concluded that art is something I want to do long-term. It would be nice if I was able to practise as a doctor, but also have the balls to call myself an artist. That was the ultimate aspiration; the ultimate goal.”
Humans of Sentosa | “When you cook with passion, you make money. If you cook only for the money, you’re not going to make it because the food comes from the kitchen and will be reflected in the food. If there is love inside, it’s gonna be on the plate.”
People of Legends | ““I was that fat kid for most of my childhood. I just remember liking to eat a lot in school. You cannot find many photos of me from back then because I tried to avoid taking pictures as much as possible…
“What I really like doing, especially through ‘Textures’, is to develop the relationship between parent and child through reading. Nighttime reading is something I personally enjoyed and miss doing with my son, although we don’t do it anymore because he’s already grown up.”
“When you meet someone for the first time, you always get asked what you do for work. You might reply saying you’re a consultant or an accountant, and by doing so, you automatically put yourself in a box. That’s just very limiting to me, and it took me a while to break out of it…”
Humans of Sentosa | “We’re not going to lie to you. It will be really scary; but, it will be very safe. We will check and make sure everything is safe for you to jump.”
“I started experiencing anxiety and depression when I was 10-years-old. Being the only Malay girl in Chinese Dance, I was bullied a lot in school. Although I was accepted by my friends and teachers in the CCA, I was ostracised by people of my own race.”
“You know, there’s this stereotype that Malays are lazy. So, when I get selected by key figures in the dance industry to represent Singapore at international competitions, I am very proud to show that Singaporeans can make it. It makes me prouder to be Malay as well.”
“I started volunteering in the gender advocacy scene at 16 because of my single mother. Growing up, I witnessed her financial and mental health struggles as she became both the sole breadwinner and homemaker almost overnight.”
People of Legends | Legend’s new kid on the block talks about how her visit to Perth inspired a new outlook on life.
