Tribute to Yida

Have you truly felt passionate about something that you think this is what you wish to dedicate your life to? I always admire people who have this kind of spirit and determination to pursue what they believe in and possess the 'Ain't no mountains higher' mindset. We all have heard of the good old theory that to acheive our dreams, we have to be proactive and establish certain traits but how many people actually do it? Perhaps 1 out of 10 will do it, but only 1 out of 100 will grit their teeth and stay through the end.

I was tuning in to 100.3FM on my way home yesterday when Lee Wei Song started talking during the commerical break. By the way, Lee Wei Song is the founder of the Lee Wei Song School of music, where Stefanie Sun was discovered and groomed into a superstar.

Anyway, Lee Wei Song was dedicating a tribute to Huang Yida - the next up and coming homegrown singer. He was saying that Yida's road to become a singer had been an arduous one, and that he had been a student with the school when it first started 9 years ago. Throughout this 9 years, his dream of becoming a singer had never wavered and he was determined to do whatever it takes to get there. In fact, he dropped out of secondary school to take the path less taken to follow his passion in singing despite strong parental objections. He even came back to continue his training as an all rounded musician after serving his NS.

As a teenager who embarked on this journey at the tender age of 15, he had to overcome all the odds against him and face all the uncertainties in the future when his peers had already achieved much more by society's standards. After 9 gruelling years, at the age of 24, he finally realised his dream. As his mentor, Lee Wei Song was really happy that Yida finally made it after coming a long way.

Although it is common that the road to stardom is not as glamourous as it seems and there's always lots of obstacles involved, I still want to salute him for his success.

7 years ago, my girl friend and I were sitting outside Ngee Ann City while waiting to start work at Mandarin Hotel. Across us sat a group of guys who later came over to talk to us. Among them, Yida was one of them. Yup, Yida is his real name. At that time, this grungey and dreamy guy with long hair had already exuded a kind of X-factor in terms of personality & looks - a feeling that he was different and possessed the 'I-have-a-dream' kind of look. He left a deep impression on me because of what he said to us at that time. He mentioned he was learning music at this music school and that someday he will become a singer. My friend and I were quite taken aback by his words, but somehow we never really take it seriously because technically speaking, this is not politically correct at that time.

That was my brief encounter with him, although my friend knew him a bit better back then. Well, I have to say that I was quite surprised to see his new album and hear his songs on radio. Those words that he said last time meant much to him and he was not just saying it for fun. Well Yida, if you ever see this, I wanna wish you all the best in your singing career and don't ever give up on your 'never say die' attitude..you can be a very good source of inspiration for others!

Finding one's passion is like a needle in haysack. Yida are just one of the rare souls who has discover 'it' from young and make it the one thing to pursue in life. Most people never really know what they wanna do until much later. Some are forever searching for it, some never found it, some found it but never work on it, while some don't even know this thing call passion.

As for me, I can't say I have found my passion but I'm working hard to find it. The only way is to do the things I'm interested in, or going through trial and error in certain things to find out if this is really what I want. I think if you have not find your passion, it is important to never stop the search for it even though you might think there is none, at least this will give your life a deeper sense of purpose. Then again, perhaps I'm a restless soul who is just not contend to sail through life. I've got one life to live and I wanna live it well.. :)