Too stubborn?

Went to lab this morning at around 0930. That was kinda late for me as I usually reached there at 0900 or before. Was washing clothes this morning and that explains why.

My senior Xin Hao then casually told me that if I am to continue with my Si cyclobutene analogues, I should not be expecting too much even if I get good computational results as boss might not be very interested in this topic. That was when I recalled him saying something to be over dinner yesterday along this line: "...为你的梦想去奋斗..." and also a couple of weeks ago when he was wondering why I am kinda persist over this project.

Looking back (and forward), am I being too stubborn? Hmm not sure myself also. Maybe coz this is the first project idea that I came out with myself and it is a potential new field (and my favourite as well). Although I met up with quite a lot of problems along the way, I will like to persevere on to see if my idea (intuition) is right.

Following that, I recalled what my junior said: "只要相信，期待就会成真". Ha, hope I am looking forward to something interesting.

Prof. Hor once said, "What is nobel/world class research? It is to create a new field for people to come into." For example, ever since Sharpless developed Click Chemistry in 2002, many people has been using it for all sort of areas that you can think of: polymer, molecular machines, nanotechnology, drug discoveries, supramolecular chemistry etc. I guess given my situation (and ability), creating a new field will not be possible. However, I will at least wanna work in a mechanism that I really like.

Since I can't create a new field, I will at least want to bring Singapore's education to a new height when I return to the teaching service. This will be done through my beliefs and teaching philosophies. One of my dream is to see the Singapore Chemistry Olympiad team getting 4 gold medals (Singapore's best performance was in 1998, with 2 gold and 2 silver).

We are always talking about "dreams" here. But what sets individuals apart is when you START to work towards your dream in a systematic way.