I spent a futile day in the National Library today, trying to read up on ways to launch a sailplane in order to complete my Aerospace assignment. Its been a long time since I've been to the library, and I'd forgotten how much I love that place.

Walking around the towering shelves, each chockful with books on various topics I have never heard of, nor will probably ever hear of, the vastness of it all is quite overwhelming. I remember that as a child, I had endeavoured to read every book in the library, because every new book I picked up was like a step into the unknown, a journey into the dark. Of course, it didn't seem so impossible back then, because it was only the Adelaide town library, two storeys high, and not much bigger than a grocery store. But take a walk around the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, and just browse through the titles of the books at eye level. Its enough to make you feel completely dwarfed, and you realise how small you are and how little you know in this great great universe. Just browsing through the aeronautics section, I felt no more than 4cm tall as I was greeted with books on the history of flight, the dynamics of flight, the mechanics of flight, the future of flight, and I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. But on the other hand, it's startling to realise that though we each know so little, we have somehow managed to fill up all the bookshelves in the library.
Man is small, but together, we make up the world.

Also, I was brought back in time a little bit, as I sat doing my research on the 11th floor. I remembered when I was there a couple of years ago with Andrew, Frank, Jeremy and Yun, madly trying to salvage our grades in time for the promotional exams. They didn't allow studying in there, and hence, no outside textbooks and notes were allowed in. I remember we got round that quickly by stuffing our notes into the boys' pants (around the ankles, you dirty-minded fools). That was probably one of the most productive periods of my life thus far, and we went there every day after school. As I sat there today, I listened to the quietness around me and felt a mild sense of deja vu. I could almost see us at the table again, buried in our jackets, trying to make sense of energy orbitals, the Maclaurin series and circular motion.

But it all seems so hazy now, the days that have gone by.

scribbled
9:57 PM