“The longest journey a man could ever embark on in life is the journey from his mind to his heart”. A poetic man of such high position, meeting His Royal Highness (HRH) Prince Alfred of Liechtenstein is such a short, yet very memorable experience. The moment that I was informed that we were to meet someone with such title, I was somehow excited and nervous at the same time since it would be my first time to be in such an event. When we got there, we immediately felt out of place since everyone seemed to be dressed so professionally and everyone seemed to also be in high positions of their own fields. There was wine, a lot of different kinds of cocktail food, and especially me and my friend’s own personal favourite: the Swedish meatballs!

But the food and the professionals were not the highlight of the evening. It was the very meaningful encounter with the prince of Liechtenstein. He was significantly taller and from the way he speaks, you can see that he has a lot of experience with everything that he has gone through. When he talked in the podium, his words were heartfelt and very inspirational as he told us a lot about his past and his perspective of the country of Singapore which actually made me realize and appreciate Singapore more. The moment that we got the chance to take a picture with him, we got to have a small, yet meaningful conversation with him. We introduced ourselves, and as he saw me and my colleague, he touched us by our shoulders, and told us that we are the future. Receiving a comment like that from him is such an honor, and it really made me feel inspired. Someone of such a high position and have achieved so much in life would tell us that we were the future touched our hearts and ignited our minds to keep doing the best we can. Knowing that he has done so much for his society, especially philanthropic activities gave me another person to look up to. That small conversation will be something I will never forget.

~Francis Cabudol BBA2013