The Forerunner Times

"A life journal by Nathan J. Elias, called under God's grace to be His forerunner and restorer for His glory."

The Road That Ends Here will tell you the summary about two months of my life in this Merlion country. It will have six chapters, corresponding to the six terms that I will endure in this one year. The idea about the title comes from a journey to hike a mountain. I imagine that getting my master degree is like enduring a long mountain path. Between the summit and the peak, there will be five stopping points to rest and regain strength (this is Chapter I through Chapter V). After the five stopping points, if I still endure, then I will reach the peak and reach my final destination (Chapter VI). Enjoy these stories and may the tales bring you new strength and encouragement to reach your goal.

Chapter I

The first stopping.

For about two months now I have endured things that never before I encountered in my life. It is hard being a leader for a band with so much difference within. All these times in my life, I have been leaders, yes, but those in my band are usually of the same age of me, or share the same way of thinking, since we came from the same place and we usually share a common goal and vision. And most of the time, they have recognized me and my principles so it is not that hard to lead them to the end. But here, I am assigned with trouble. Four people, two from a different place than I was, and all of them were older. Especially one, was a person who have worked long, called herself a professional, and refused to listen to what I say, doing things with her own ways and ideas, which in the end, broke the team union because only her work is different from the rest, as she do not wish to follow the team standards.

Imagine having a 80-slides presentation where about 10 pages look different because she doesn’t want to use the same font style and colorization that is present on the other 70. This was giving me headaches and now I am glad everything is over. I don’t know how I will fare if I have to put her into my band again in the future, but I hope not. But it was a good lesson for me and my leadership, now I know how hard it is being a leader of a diverse team members. Now I know how hard it must be for my friends to be leaders in the youth and in the choir, with so much different types of people, age, gender and personalities. In the future, if I am to join a large enterprise, these kinds of things would be for me to handle anyway, so it’s good that I can learn to be this kind of leader from now, so it will not be too late.

Other than the leadership issues, the only troublesome thing was the barrage of assignments, leading me to write about 100 pages of essays in one month alone. My final grades for that one class is predicted about 70%, not too good. For the other one, I will be having the exam on this Friday, so we shall see whether I will be able to hit the marks or not.

In the meantime, time to rest, download some mangas and stuff. I have downloaded about 4 GB of manga including Gantz, Blade of the Immortal, Hellsing, Vagabond, Akira, One Piece and Initial D. If you have any good mangas to suggest, do tell me. And if you’re looking for the place to download mangas, check the “Lurk Manga Archive” on the right, they got everything, as long as you have IRC.

Related Links:
The Road That Ends Here, Chapter II (July 2006)
The Road That Ends Here, Chapter III (September 2006)
The Road That Ends Here, Chapter IV (November 2006)