Oh! Hello, New Year! What do you bring? 2021, to me, has come and gone in a flash, marked in large part by the gradual easing of social and economic measures as the world transits towards endemic living. In the past year, we have gotten to see our peers, teachers, and colleagues in person again. Events and celebrations are now back on the calendar. Some of us have even navigated travel with the reopening of borders. No doubt we’ve had our share of going back and forth on our modified lives, but most of all, we feel safe living in a country with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
Our suspended COVID-19 reality reminds me very much of a quote from Haruki Murakami’s famous novel Kafka on the Shore: “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
Let’s take a pause and pat ourselves on the back. We survived all the online learning, work from home, mask-on activities, and adapting to the constant restriction revisions. We probably read the news much more than before—a good habit to upkeep. Such positive thinking does not come naturally to some or, in fact, most people. It takes a conscious effort to maintain an optimistic outlook in our everyday interactions and situations. It is our human nature to ruminate more about our negative experiences than the positive ones, just like how we recall criticism better than praise.
In this issue of the Scholarship Guide magazine, we hope to shift the innate negativity bias to focus on positivity. Let’s start by looking at the many things you did right in a job interview (How To Tell If A Job Interview Went Well), explore how you can develop a different brain and social script for a stressful event (Making It Through Stressful Times Happier), and you don’t have to be alone in all this if you can find the right mentor to guide you in every step of the way (Finding Your Mentor).
We also hope you can take this time to practise self-actualisation and get to know yourself better. We have curated a list of articles to help you realise your dominant learning style and the core type of intelligence you harness most often in your daily life, identifying possible career domains you are likely to excel in. And in between these pages, you will find a curious theory of a bus station in faraway Helsinki that may inspire you to discover your unique vision one day.
Finally, we are eager to share the long-awaited trend findings from the Scholarship Guide Survey 2021 Edition. Find out more about how students are parking their study-abroad plans and opting for local education, with Singapore’s newer universities gaining popularity. Look up the latest chart rankings for top courses and scholarship providers. Learn more about how students are opting for a shorter scholarship bond period or no bond at all.
As a thought leader in the scholarship services industry and curator of unbiased education-related content, we are committed to supporting students in their higher education pursuits. As such, Scholarship Guide is privileged to be ranked alongside schools, teachers, and career counsellors as one of the leading sources of scholarship information for students. On behalf of our team, I thank you for your vote and your steadfast support that has contributed to our continued growth. I wish everyone good health and success in their future ventures.