It’s Singapore’s 49th birthday today! Being a little red dot with no raw materials or natural resources, it is amazing how a small island can progress till where we are today. Today, I am just going to share with you some of the reasons why I feel proud to be a Singaporean.

1. Rich Hawker Culture
Because of our multicultural background, we get a wide variety of good hawker food. Hawker centres are a unique aspect of Singaporean culture where everyone can experience our local food at an affordable price. I never appreciate it till I started travelling longer and realized how much I missed my chicken rice, carrot cake, bak chor mee etc. Hawker is part of our lives and make us who we are now.

2. Cheers to our World’s Best Airport
I am really proud to have such a clean and pretty airport. Whenever I return home after an overseas trip, I always feel proud to walk to the automated clearance gantries where the machine will say “Welcome home!”

3. Free from Natural Disasters
We are really lucky as we don’t have any natural disasters (forget about the flooding in Orchard Road because that is man-made reasons).

4. Local Talents
I support and appreciate our local talents. Look, we have a pool of very talented Singaporean chefS like Andre Chiang and Willin Low who made an indelible impression on Singapore’s culinary scene. Then we have our Singaporean singers like Stephanie Sun, Lin Jun Jie, Tanya Chua etc who are the stars in the music industry. Our filmmakers can compete with others internationally. Good anot?

5. High Academic Standards
We may be small but I am glad that we get to receive proper education. Our education system is renowned and other countries adopt our Mathematics syllabus which is ranked top in the world.

Of course, there are many other reasons besides the stated one. We have come a long way since independence. I didn’t get the experience the life before independence but I really treasure my Singapore identity, what we achieve today as a nation and the values we hold dear.

Happy 49th birthday, Singapore! I LOVE YOU!