REFLECTIONS ON LIFE: NUS President Prof Shih Choon Fong delivering his last Commencement address to the 2008 cohort at the first ceremony.

"It's very good to want something, but you mustn't want something so much that you can't bear to live without it. To go far, be ready to give up what you already have. "It taught me to be passionate, but not obsessed; to be determined, but not define myself by either my successes or my failures. I have learned that non-attachment gives the mental and emotional resilience to get beyond failures and setbacks. You can also enjoy your successes without taking yourself too seriously. I take comfort in knowing that ultimately, my decisions at each of the crossroads (in his life) were not held back by the familiar, the comfortable, or attachment to what I might have accomplished