Polaris

here are times when you appreciate change. On a Sunday night, for example, when the party’s run out of mixers and the only place with lights times. Times when change feels like walking down a bad neighbourhood with a pocket full of coins. Something’s bound to go wrong—it’s just a matter of when. When Singapore eased restrictions after last year’s lockdown, we celebrated our progress towards a new normal. The following months would help us realise that progress can, in fact, be reversed. Quite easily too, in this case. Each relapse—whether it was suffered at the hands of a socialite, a preacher, or a karaoke singer—proved to be more sobering than the last. We’d still pack the pubs whenever they opened, but the atmosphere no longer spelt out hope. It felt merely like a respite. Even now, there’s no guarantee that are coming. In fact, such a guarantee might not even exist. There are countless forces beyond our control and they could turn coat on any given day. All we do, to stay grounded in this ever-changing world, is hold on to something which stays the same. A dream, a relationship, or a star, perhaps. A star that shines only in the north, whether it’s in the clear skies of the Sahara or beyond the thunderclouds we call our own.