1 Year after year, I find myself not being able to just deliver from the script. I think I have to deliver from the heart. It's only appropriate that I do so after watching what all of you have presented on stage. And I'll do so again this year.
2 This is one of the easiest and hardest to do speeches at the very same time. It is the easiest because as you experience through the past hour-plus or so, there are so many things and thoughts and feelings that flashes through my mind. So many things that are flashing through my own experiences, my personal encounters, from what you are sharing of your fragments from your life. I hear some of your ambitions, some of the pain that we have gone through in our lives and some of the things that we have experienced in our lives, whether we want it or not. So that is the easiest part because so many things come to your mind and there is no lack of fodder for this speech.
3 But it is immediately also the hardest speech because at the same time, what do you talk about? Everything is important. Every thought, every feeling is important. And even as we speak, we know on this stage, we know in these 14 lives, there are so many things that one needs to unpack.
4 There is so much pain that we have gone through. As I was going through the admin programme, I had the privilege of going through some of the materials that you all had shared beforehand.
5 Allow me to just re-share because I found this to be very meaningful. I read this in the write-up that was given to me. You have recited this earlier and I thought I would just do this again, if you don't mind me. "Dear Dad, it has been 14 years since you went out to buy milk, never came back. 14 years since I sat by the door, waiting, hoping. After a while, I stopped waiting, but I never really stopped wondering. I am not mad anymore. Maybe I should be, but I'm tired of being angry. I just wish you had been there, Dad, to show me the way, to teach me how to be a man. Because without you, I had to figure it all out on my own. And in most days, I am still lost. But here is what I have decided. One day, I will be a better father than you ever were. I will stay, even when it's hard, and I won't let my kids feel the way I did like something was missing, like they had to make sense of life alone. I wish I could tell this to your face. Maybe I will someday. Until then, I am trying to be better, trying to be more than what you left behind. Your son, Ethan."
6 Now on so many levels, this resonates with me. I was actually reading this half an hour before this programme started in my car, and I was quietly weeping some tears before I came up to this performance. I told myself to try not to be too emotional as we go through the programme today. But it is hard. Embrace these emotions. Embrace these emotions that we experience as part of our life. But I really love the fact that Ethan, at the end of it all, you signal your willpower to move on. I am numb now. I want to still see you. But I will move on. I will try to be better.
7 I hope that you will be able to find that hope playing out in your life, coming to your reality. I have to share also that I'm a father of a young child. Every time when I go home and I get to see him it will be the times when he's already sleeping. So the guilt of not spending enough time with him is real.
8 Coming from the parent's point of view, we are also learning to be parents. I have been a dad for four years because my son is four years old. Every day I question myself, am I doing things right? Am I doing things good enough? All of us have our own insecurities.
9 But I really love the fact that all of you have ambitions. All of you have things that you want to do. For some of us, it could be as simple as coming home and just being able to communicate with my family as a family should. And the dream that some of us want to have, that is to go on holidays, just like any other families, is a good ambition to have and I wish all 14 of you, will at some point in time, in your lifetimes, be able to complete that dream time and again, to be on a holiday with your families, just as a family should. Some of you have great talents. You sing extremely well. I wish to be able to share a same stage with you one of these days.
10 And I will just say this because Yvonne extended the olive branch. Yvonne said, if any of you is keen to be coming back to Esplanade in other capacities, you know, as an intern, as whatever, you know, you are more than happy to do so.
11 So now I extend the same offer to you. I am not sure I can offer you, but I think I am extremely moved by what you all have shared today. And I just want to say, get in touch, even if it means just catching up over a coffee. So, of course, who knows, we might be able to connect you to your dreams to be a cabin crew, a singer for sure, or footballer. I run 'Unleash the Roar!', by the way, which is a national programme to uplift Singapore football.
12 I know hearts are still healing and Din, I understand it is not easy. Hearts are healing and I know that some are disappointed but know that there are many people in your life who care about you, who loves you. I hope that you will be able to be in a better place than where you are feeling right now. Beyond the celebration, beyond the excitement about a show well done, coming back down to reality is about getting on with life. What do we do with our lives moving forward?
13 I am sure all of you have a good idea of what it means. I wish nothing but the very best for all of you. So on that note, I really want to thank our very good partners Yvonne, Esplanade and also Oniatta. Thank you so much to you and your team for doing this for the past many years. I think they deserve nothing but a very big round of applause.