A friend told me this:

"don't bother with what other people say.... take it into account, and see how you can do it yourself

very often others try to impose the limitations they impose on themselves on others as well... unintentionally"

It doesn't provide me a solution but it does make me feel slightly more hopeful about certain things. Thanks for the encouragement.

Thanks also to ZY and (x) for showing me around the East area today (yesterday in fact) :p It was my first time walking around Geylang. Sleazy as the place was, I enjoyed the experience of seeing a different side of Singapore. The tau huay's pretty good too. :)