u/Tasty_Equivalent_305

I can handle anything in this world.

But what I cannot handle is when there are tears in my mom's eyes.

I want to look at her but her face is hidden away.

Her shadow obscuring the pain in her eyes.

Yet, she continues working, managing the house.

Never once, letting me know why.

It feels like a lush forest but missing its flowers.

Like a world that is whole but missing its essence.

I tell you, the day I see liquid fall on the floor that is not water, I will find those bastards who thought they can make my mum work harder without consideration for her pain.

No country,no god goes before my mum's pain.

Yet, when the day is over, she wipes sweat from her brow but she still hides.

Maybe the government told her that her son is useless.

That is true,mom but there is nothing stopping me from being a good son to you.

I don't care about what the world thinks because there is no such world that can ever replace the love that my mom shows to me.

And if that pearl of my mom breaks, I will steal the world to gift her.

So that maybe the tears dry and the sun comes out from her mouth.

She tells my father they don't have enough money to support my sister.

So the next day,I leave the house.

I loot banks, steal from the government millions of dollars.

Then,when she is not looking, I stash it all in her bank account.

My mum is surprised about who did it but she will never find out.

Because I have to move. On the run.

But finally, my mum is smiling. My sister, looks up to her hugging her with gratitude thinking about how she can fulfill her dreams.

But when my mum wonders about where her son is,

I got startled and wipe my tears,look at her in the eyes before making a run for it,

Disappearing forever.

I can handle anything in this world.

But what I cannot handle is when there are tears in my mom's eyes.

I want to look at her but her face is hidden away.

Her shadow obscuring the pain in her eyes.

Yet, she continues working, managing the house.

Never once, letting me know why.

It feels like a lush forest but missing its flowers.

Like a world that is whole but missing its essence.

I tell you, the day I see liquid fall on the floor that is not water, I will find those bastards who thought they can make my mum work harder without consideration for her pain.

No country,no god goes before my mum's pain.

Yet, when the day is over, she wipes sweat from her brow but she still hides.

Maybe the government told her that her son is useless.

That is true,mom but there is nothing stopping me from being a good son to you.

I don't care about what the world thinks because there is no such world that can ever replace the love that my mom shows to me.

And if that pearl of my mom breaks, I will steal the world to gift her.

So that maybe the tears dry and the sun comes out from her mouth.

She tells my father they don't have enough money to support my sister.

So the next day,I leave the house.

I loot banks, steal from the government millions of dollars.

Then,when she is not looking, I stash it all in her bank account.

My mum is surprised about who did it but she will never find out.

Because I have to move. On the run.

But finally, my mum is smiling. My sister, looks up to her hugging her with gratitude thinking about how she can fulfill her dreams.

But when my mum wonders about where her son is,

I got startled and wipe my tears,look at her in the eyes before making a run for it,

Disappearing forever.

"Why do you think that man is walking so carefree?"

My girlfriend asked me why so I told her,"Because he thinks he has something to show, something that tells himself that he is worth something."

"I bet if I can make him take off his shirt, by beating him in a chess match."

Hi, so I am basically a Singaporean 25M graduating from Nanyang Technological University from applied physics bachelor of science with honors with a cgpa of 3.2/5.0.

I know my gpa is not that high so can I ask what path do you recommend for me to eventually become a space scientist at NASA including any possibility of becoming a US citizen in the process.

My dream is to work on space missions to analyze data collected from satellites to understand more about the galaxies outside ours and exoplanets etc. or even understand black holes or star composition to develop more understanding of the space around us.

It would also be cool if I can go to space or Mars with other astronauts to analyze mars and determine if life can be sustained there for example.

Please let me know what my path should be to achieve this dream, thank you.

Including any possibility of where I can get a masters in astrophysics with my kind of gpa that would help me get a role in NASA.

She tried to give me a hand but I just looked at her with tears in my eyes saying, "It's okay Charmaine, why don't you just end my pain to let me be?" so she sat with me for a few hours in that painful silence till I told her,"Please do not do anything rash because is this how you want me to be remembered 10 years down the line when you have a family, grow old with them then think about all the friends you had."

To which she just burst into tears as well.

But what he didn't realize was that his other person, unable to handle the possibility of death of his friend secretly built the one-person boat for him with whatever he had left, ultimately sacrificing himself for his friend who doesn't even appreciate the effort.

I hope you like it.

It all started as a kid.

I came here with a dream.

Just like everyone else, everyone tells me I belong here.

Because my childhood is here.

But when you ask yourself what I had to go through, even as a child, you would understand that maybe

Just maybe it is a bit of a stretch.

And when you think about everything wrong they did, when all they gave me was a bad label.

And they tell me I have to be patriotic, to serve my country.

Then every memory I have about this place rushes back to me.

The broken spirit, broken mind, broken physical.

And not to mention injustice at its finest like it is something small.

I look back at everything I did for this country already, ignored.

Yet they don't look at what I had done but about what I have to do still.

Not to forget, the lies,the deceit.

I got played well at its finest.

And I was wondering if I still need to be played even more when I listen to them and pretend nothing happened.

Like everything is part of the national interests of the country.

I look to god and he is shaking his head.

And so I look back at them and tell them,

Thanks but I will serve my birth place instead.

(Planning to turn this into a song)

When you think that there is no one in your life who actually cares about you,you are always wrong. Because once in a while, there is always someone who arrives in your life like an angel there to protect you. But it never happens incidentally. The person knows you before and by an act of god, they appear exactly when you need them like it is fate.

So this story is about someone who with fate, knew me and came into my life. She never expected anything in return. She doesn't even tell me she loves me. But she is always there to fight for me even when I don't even know her. Even when you just think it is just another stranger. If you think about it for a while, you ask yourself what wondrous love it is. One that isn't deserved but yet arrives for no reason.

I always wonder why me? A person who isn't intelligent. Who is socially awkward. There are so many others who can be a better,more ideal person than me.And sure enough, some of them like her back.But she ignores all of them for someone like me.

Sometimes I just don't understand until I finally do. It is true love that is drawn by someone who she just likes. Maybe love has no reason to be there. It is just there. It doesn't matter what kind of a person they are. Love moves everyone. And when it does, you just feel like you are the luckiest person alive.

Why am I shadowbanned?

(This story talks about a brilliant hacker who joins the US intelligence to protect against underworld hackers.)

(Disclaimer, the characters I used for this story are real names but they don't intend to be representative of whatever I mention in this story.)

It was a normal day like any other. I strudded to my office at Tanjong Pagar dreading a new day of training. It was a Financial advisor company. Do I like it? The answer is no but I do enjoy finance and mingling with people so I thought why not try it.

"Good morning." Gabriel said from the back of the office. I just smiled and took my seat.

There were only 4 people in training. Two were girls and the other 2 were guys excluding me. To be honest, I had no idea who they are because I only joined the company a month ago.

The manager training us,Zion, took his place at the front.

" Hi, so today, we will be briefly touching on ILPs."

He began by showing us concepts like the benefit of investing, dollar cost averaging etc.

"So there are two functions to a ILP. One is protection based and the other is..."

No sooner had Zion said that statement, there was a knock on the electronically locked office door. Thinking it was just an employee that isn't an urgent matter, Zion just continued. But the next knock wasn't brief. The glass door simply shattered at a huge blow and 4 black clothed men wearing black spectacles stepped into the office.

We all just stared in shock until one of them spoke up, "You just like to make us wait for you instead of opening the door when we politely knocked,don't you?"

Zion was the first to break the silence.

"I'm sorry,who are you guys?"

The man then turned to stare at Zion.

He took out his wallet and showed it to his face.

"We are from the FBI."

"I'm sorry,do you have an arrest warrant for someone? Cause regardless of who you are,you have no permission to enter a private space like this. Do you have an arrest warrant?"

The man just brought his other hand up and pointed a gun at Zion's head.

"No,but I have a gun. Why don't you act like a good boy for me and take a seat like everyone else?"

Zion just zipped his mouth and sat down next to Gabriel.

"According to my records,one of you here is in deep trouble today. They had done something to threaten the national security of this nation. "

He took a dramatic pause then, continued.

"And this action isn't something accidental. It is a planned attack on the server containing secret government records of the USA. So we had to travel all the way here just to meet this special guest of ours."

"I am looking for a guy named Mouthik?"

The room grew cold and I just buried my head in my hands. Everyone just stared at me like they just saw something shocking.

The man turned to me, and asked,"Are you Mouthik?"

I just nodded.

"Great! " He said sarcastically.

"Take nothing with you and follow us."

Another man stepped to this man's ear and whispered something.

The first man just acknowledged then spoke,"Okay just to make sure I have someone from this company accompanying him, I request Mouthik to choose a person with him."

I just looked around in confusion,then pointed to the girl behind me named Cheryl.

The second I did that, Thoufique from the back began to giggle.

"Okay something funny with who he chose?" The man asked. Thoufique just zipped his mouth.

Cheryl just stared at me with disbelief.

The man gestured to the other men and they grabbed both our arms to usher us out of the office.

End of part 1.

Respect is what makes a girl attractive because it shows you care. It is what will set you apart.

If the girl treats a guy like any other stranger would,what would set her apart? Why should a guy invest his time and effort in you? He will just move on.

Comment down your thoughts on this.

In the past, when the internet was still developing, general people trust the government and let the experts implement policies based on their expertise.

But these days, the public feel like they have a say in everything even if they don't understand it. They still want their opinions to be considered based on emotional or irrational reasons.

Things like cancel culture where people choose to 'cancel' a person if they deem that he/she is not good according to THEIR viewpoint.

I mean it is just such a toxic crowd. The main reason there is no progress in this world is especially because it is just so difficult for experts to do anything without public confidence often for reasons that are petty and irrational compared to in the past, when people would just trust the government completely.

I think that in order for the world to change, we need to alter the definition of democracy. Because these days, people take advantage of this term to think they can do anything.

This is just messed up cause I don't know why I like her.

I just try to convince myself that it is love but in reality it feels like something else.

I mean what am I supposed to say,

"Hey I don't actually like you,I just want to fuck you. " Cause basically, that's what this feels like.