In her new column, this Starstruck! 2011 writer journeys into a new land, occasionally wandering into trouble, and scratches her head over life’s beautiful chaos.

I hopped onto the escalator and – whoosh, thwang, craaash – immediately lost my balance, as the steps seemed to race upwards at the speed of light!

Welcome to Singapore.

Among this batch of scholars, there's a tech junkie, a sportsman, a Scrabble champ, a musician... while the writer (third from left, with Wushu kick) seems to be the semi-blonde who is constantly blur.

I have been in three cities in one week. After completing a month-long internship at Menara Star in Petaling Jaya, I spent a couple of days back home in Penang unpacking, then re-packing.

But all too soon, before I could say, “More char koay teow, please”, it was off to the other land down under to pry open a new chapter in my life.

Previously, I was just another school-going teenager who lived with her family and dreaded washing her never-white school shoes.

But last December, I had to part with all my home comforts in exchange for a bigger adventure – living 400km away from home in the big ole city as a wannabe journalist.

And now, twice as far away, the next big thing on my agenda is to continue my studies under a scholarship in this country free of bubble gum.

I am thankful that the transition from small town to big city to crazy intense metropolis has been somewhat smooth.

But through this process, I have come to a few realisations: Unwashed laundry does not self-destruct. Cheap GPSes will fail you at the worst times. Toilet paper doesn’t magically appear in the bathroom, but has to be purchased and lugged back by someone.

And when you have to go back to a silent, empty room at the end of each day, there is really nothing like home.

I don’t know if this counts as being homesick, but knowing that absolutely everything here – from the people to the geography to the furniture – is strange, foreign and unfamiliar… it’s pretty horrible.

A mere three months ago, the Amanda who was facing what was then her “biggest battle yet” – the SPM – had no idea that the Amanda now would be writing this kind of sappy stuff.

She thought she was doing okay. She was focused on doing okay, and it never crossed her mind that all she had at that moment would someday not be there anymore.

Well, that someday is here. And I have learnt the hard way that you never know what you have until it’s gone. I took my family, my warm bedroom, my dog, home-cooked food, nosy relatives, knowing the little island like the back of my hand … all for granted.

I thought they’d always be there, you know? I mean, it’s not like you’d expect an SPM-er to ponder philosophical questions about how not everything lasts for an eternity.

But deep down, I think all of us know that there will come a point, sooner or later, when we have to leave the nest and its comforts, and learn to fend for ourselves out in the real world (which includes buying your own toilet paper).

Philosophy or no philosophy, that point has arrived – sooner than expected – and I will never get those things back. As the scary signboard outside a nearby school reads, “The only way to go is forward.”

This is a whole new territory I’m tiptoeing into, one step at a time. I know the road ahead will not be easy, but there is reassurance in the thought that I will emerge stronger, and hopefully, better a person.

And hey, I’m pretty sure that Penang char koay teow will have never tasted sooo good.

Still wondering how she became a “scholar”, Amanda NYC, 18, finds physics and fashion equally as fabulous. She lives with her head in the clouds, and believes she can see a better tomorrow from up here.