{"id":5174,"date":"2024-03-19T00:54:23","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T00:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-alumn-nus.pantheonsite.io\/alumnus\/?p=5174"},"modified":"2025-07-28T15:46:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T07:46:01","slug":"guided-autobiography-iii-reflections-self-exploratory-journey-and-purposeful-way-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2024\/03\/19\/guided-autobiography-iii-reflections-self-exploratory-journey-and-purposeful-way-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Guided Autobiography III: Reflections, Self-Exploratory Journey and Purposeful Way Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"5174\" class=\"elementor elementor-5174\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-1ed5cc8 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"1ed5cc8\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-57a641e\" data-id=\"57a641e\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-44c5499 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"44c5499\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Over the span of ten weeks from mid-January to end March 2024, a group of ten alumni gathered weekly in a classroom at NUS College (NUSC).<br \/><br \/>Guided by Professor Philip Holden and co-facilitator Bianca Tham (Arts and Social Sciences + USP \u201917), we embarked on a self-exploratory journey through the Guided Autobiography (GAB) class. GAB is a practice that helps participants reflect on and re-story their lives in a supportive environment. Each week, participants delved into themed writing exercises by drawing upon memories or past experiences, and subsequently sharing their stories with the group.<br \/><br \/>Started in 2022, this was the third run of the GAB class organised by NUSC, which is open to alumni participants from NUSC, the University Scholars Programme (USP), and Yale-NUS.<br \/><br \/>Initially drawn to GAB with the intention to reflect, process my past and gain perspective into my life, I found myself enriched beyond measure by the ten-week class. Themes such as \u201cmajor branching points in life\u201d, \u201cfamily\u201d, \u201clife\u2019s work\u201d, \u201chealth and well-being\u201d, \u201cgender identity\u201d, \u201cnavigating differences\u201d and \u201cdeath and dying\u201d, led me to explore a different window in my past each passing week. The reading aloud of stories was unexpectedly therapeutic and cathartic. Listening to the stories shared by the group also provided me a window into their life, fostering a deeper appreciation of the diverse journeys of others. Often, the class was filled with joy and laughter, sometimes grief and tears, but mostly it was a strong and trusted circle of support, affirmation, appreciation and connectedness.<br \/><br \/>I am grateful to NUSC and the Alumni Relations team for organising the class, and most of all, to Prof Holden and Bianca for volunteering their time; skillfully and thoughtfully bringing the group of alumni together; enabling us to review our life; rediscover our strengths; reaffirm our values and chart a purposeful way forward. Indeed, GAB was a transformative journey for us, in the full alumni spirit of continuous learning and growth, no less!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the span of ten weeks from mid-January to end March 2024, a group of ten alumni gathered weekly in a classroom at NUS College (NUSC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-happenings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5174"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5179,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5174\/revisions\/5179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}