This American teen came to Singapore when he was eight years old. His family returned to the US last July but JOSHUA WOLFE, now 15 and living in Oklahoma, still longs for Singapore.
Feb 17, 2002
Joshua Wolfe with his Singaporean pals in Holland Village during his stay.
My dear friends,
They say home is where the heart is. And where the heart is, family and friends are.
My family – parents, grandparents and brother – are here in the US. And I’ve made many new friends at school. Life is as good as it can be.
My dad is teaching at the University of Oklahoma; my mum’s a homemaker; and my brother, Daniel, who is five years older, has just joined the Coast Guard.
Everything seems to work out just fine yet my heart is still not quite here.
The first thing I do every morning is message my friends in Singapore. When I come home in the evening, you’ll find me on the computer with you know who.
The other day, I was at the bowling alley with Daniel. We saw this couple and I knew instinctively where they were from.
I went up to them and asked: ‘Are you from Singapore?’
They were shocked, but they replied: ‘Yes’. When I heard that, I started jumping up and down like I’d just won 4-D. Seeing them was like seeing my long-lost relatives.
Besides this couple, I haven’t come into contact with many Singaporeans.
Most of the Asians hereare from China and Taiwan.
Why I want to come back
During my time in Singapore, I had friends from everywhere. I also picked up Mandarin, Malay, Singlish along the way. We usually spoke in Singlish. When we could not decide where to go or what to do, for instance, we would, ‘Oh ah, peh ah, som’ (childhood games, like scissors, paper, stone).
Even now, in Oklahoma, when I’m stressed, I’ll just break out: ‘Wah, lau’ (an exclamation phrase). And when the girls here do something silly, I’ll tell them: ‘Seow char bor’ (crazy woman).
I used to attend the International Community School at Telok Blangah Rise. Before I went to school, I would stop by at the hawker centre opposite the school and grab my kopi-ping (iced coffee with milk). After school, it was roti prata, wan tan mee, mee goreng orchicken rice.
The hawkers all knew me. When I told them that I was leaving, they were all very sad. I gave them so much business, you know!
Why do I consider Singapore my home? I love the community spirit. It’s a place where Indians, Malays, Chinese and Caucasians can hang out as equals. And it’s the place where I grew up.
I’ve mapped out a three-year plan. When I finish high school at 18, I want to go on to university.
But I don’t want to study in the US. I’m going to work and save enough money so that I can come back. And when I come of age, I want to apply for Singapore citizenship.
I want to come home – soon.
Love, Josh
Editor’s note: This article was published on The Electric New Paper in 2002. Only the cache is still available. When one of our members of the Student Association of Singapore at the University of Oklahoma (OU) read this article and learnt that his dad was teaching in OU, we manage to locate Joshua, and we got to meet him at one of our gatherings. He brought us a bag of rabbit sweets (you know, those white ones wrapped in rice-paper), and actually walked all the way from his house to the gathering place. He actually enjoys walking, in true Singapore spirit, and spoke like a local.
