AUG 21 — A confession; I am now a full-fledged fangirl. The first clue may have been my already gushing contribution last week.

In the past seven days, this has only grown.

I admit I was one of the thousands of people who dutifully lined up and craned my neck for a chance to glimpse at our newest and most charming of national heroes — Joseph Isaac Schooling — as he zipped across the island on an open-top bus waving tirelessly to all the Singaporeans aching to bask in his reflected golden glory.

And the snatches of conversation I overheard, a young woman gleefully whispering to a girlfriend on how she was "gaga for Schooling!” — it was all so very unlike us.

It was passion.

Outside of Lee Kuan Yew’s death a year ago, no other single event in my 32 years of living on this island has been so unifying.

The flags, the cheers, the S$1 million (RM2.98 million) cheque, the water salute as his plane landed — on home soil — make abundantly clear how long Singapore has waited and how much Singapore has wanted a truly world-class star.

Now anything and everything this rather handsome and polite-seeming 21-year-old does grips the nation. We can’t get enough, it seems (I too am busily reading, watching and talking Schooling) — from his latest social media updates to an interview with the hawker who runs his favourite chai tow kway stall — we want to know everything about the first-ever gold medal winner our country has produced.

Okay maybe it is getting to be a little too much even for the most die-hard among us but you have to wonder why has it struck such a chord? Why this victory? Were we all such secret Olympics fans? The comments on all these articles are filled with praise and adoration. Amazing for a name that was hardly bandied about a week earlier.

Speaking candidly, I had no concrete idea who this man was till the Olympics heats when he beat world legend and swimming god amongst men, Michael Phelps. Some commentators would discount my devotion now — saying it doesn’t count if it came after the win.

Am I simply a bandwagon jumper?

I’d say no. I tell you the love is real. And the love is love for my country more than one man and I can explain why this victory means so much to me and so many other Singaporeans because the answer lies in the words delivered by another somewhat adored, often photographed individual who influences Singapore in many ways: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Singapore’s Olympic gold medallist swimmer Joseph Schooling poses for photos during a victory parade on an open top bus in Singapore August 18, 2016. — Reuters pic

In the lead-up his National Day Rally today, PM Lee posted a preview on his Facebook page where he asks: what sort of country will we and our children live in as we prepare ourselves for the future?

I was watching his National Day message the other day (this was broadcast in the pre-Schooling era) and there too the PM was trying to motivate the nation for another year’s crack at development and progress.

He said: "There, you can see and experience the Singapore that we are building together in the next 50 years — the beautiful Punggol Waterway, the new HDB homes, and the young families strolling or exercising along the park connector.”

The PM even used Punggol as the backdrop for this National Day message and while I respect the commitment to simplicity by focussing on projects like Punggol rather than megalomaniac schemes — putting men on the moon or monolithic structures for the sake of it, I believe this is the reason why days later a nation would latch onto our one win with such fervent excitement: we needed a spark.

Joseph Schooling is living breathing proof this is so. In 50 seconds he showed us this can be a place of world beating fist pumping glory! The words — Come And Take It — are emblazoned on a tattoo on the young man’s shoulder and that is the appeal of the Joseph Schooling story.

This is why we’re all going so crazy!

An ordinary Singapore boy dedicated to his dream and supported mostly by his devoted family who veered off the conventional track to send him on the path to excellence on the world stage.

He’s what many more Singaporeans could be and what our nation truly wants to be — if we would only come take it.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.