Life in review

Life in Review (Completed 30 December)

2008's approaching fast, and what better time to do reflections than at the end of the year? I originally wanted to do this post for the year of 2007, but a talk - actually, 2 talks with my long lost friends have made me decide to broaden this scope a little. So here goes.

I'll start with the very first level of education I had - Kindergarten. My kindergarten in the weekdays is basically also my church on Sunday - Chen Li Presbyterian Church. The most prominent educator would definitely have to be Miss Thio, the principal of the Kindergarten during that time.

She never really had any formal lessons with us except for one, which I find to be the most important - Bible study. A short time was set aside every few days for Miss Thio to share with us bible stories, complete with pictures and story books as visual aids for the ones who had attention spans shorter than Chen Teck's.

Her lessons was one that I looked forward to every single time, as she was always such a good storyteller, almost effortlessly engaging us in the story. Miss Thio would definitely be the one I should thank for getting me interested in all the stories of miracles and God's works that we all seem to experience in our everyday lives, yet not able to notice it. She formed the foundation for my faith along with my parents, which got me to practise the simplest yet most important thing - prayer.

I also remember the times when she brought out her puppet (What's its name, Milo or something?), and although she wasn't the leading ventriloquist in the world, what she knew was enough to entertain any child with a simple change in octave.

And not only that. I was chatting with my mother quite recently late into the night, when she suddenly brought up about the issue of me having some stubborn mindsets when I was young. She told me she had talked to Miss Thio about that issue and she did do a few things to try to "remedy" this... potential problem(?). Surprisingly, one of them was the puppet, although I have no idea how that might have worked.

The other teacher that I remember distinctly is my Chinese teacher Lai4 Lao3 Shi1. She wasn't really the average sweet-voiced and gentle teacher, but was stern and not afraid to deal out slightly angry remarks whenever we'd get playful during her lessons. My mother even gave her the nickname of lai4 lao3 hu4 (I hope she doesn't somehow find this blog by accident). Her teaching style was so much different from the rest of the teachers that I got quite alarmed at first, although I always knew that she was only fierce because she wanted us to learn.

Yet when I grew up, whenever she met my mother, she would feel a little sorry and never failed to mention that she was probably the cause of my only achilles heel in my studies at that time, which was Chinese. I do admit that it was due to some of her harshness that I lost interest in that subject even though I felt I took to it quickly early on, but I don't blame her one bit at all.

Nowadays I see her around occasionally in the neighbourhood as she lives nearby, and my mother and I will stop to chat a little. Whenever I see her, I remember the times when we had the lessons and I'd pay extra attention to be careful not to make any mistakes.

Going up a little further, I enter Kong Hwa School without any problem thanks to my sister being a student there already. I was put into Primary 2/3 and there I met the second teacher that was a great help to my education. Mrs Ho was an elderly lady who struck a good balance between being stern and kind.

She, like any other form teacher in primary 1, taught us the basics of all subjects except Chinese, ranging from multiplication to vocabulary. From there my interest in learning seemed to grow, allowing me to claim my one and only 1st in class and model pupil awards at the end of my first primary year.

Kong Hwa was also the school where I met Sièn, a friend who I have known for 8 years already (Damn, just a year shorter than Jun Rong and CK), and used to insist on having his accent typed instead of the normal "e". I always thought of our friendship as something very unexpected, judging by his nationality. He was half french and half chinese. But we did have a common dislike for Chinese lessons then, although we did not have any problem reading or writing it.

I always though of my kind of humour to be very weird, as I change my definition of hilarious depending on whom I happen to be talking to at different times. Yet only around him am I able to just make any joke, and we'd both be breaking out into laughter. We share a common love for CS, and he's the only friend that I have ever bought a gift above $40. If you're reading this, Sièn, you know what it is.

The other dominant part of my life during that age is going to Church. My class was quite large, yet from there, anyone will see that I would have absolutely no problem being in Dunman High - a class of 11, with only 2/3 boys, numbers fluctuating. I spent almost every single one of my Sundays there, save the times when I was sick or overseas, and I still am in the same class as most of the people who I was with all those years ago.

Primary 3 was quite a hard year for me, mainly caused by the decision of GEP. When I first took the test, I really didn't take it seriously by studying, but just did the questions as fast as I liked. Not surprisingly, a majority of my class made it through the second test.

A few weeks after the second test, my teacher came in with a stack of large envelopes and told us that the results for the test were out, and only 9 in our school qualified, with 9 of them coming from our class. I was pretty confident then of getting through, and thankfully I did. Yet after all the elation, I realised that none of my close friends had passed.

It was then when I realised the true gravity of the situation. The choice I would make was clear - friends or education? I certainly would be leaving behind alot of friends, many of them very close to me, yet many people kept asking me to consider carefully, since only 500 get such a chance.

In the end, I went with the line "If God didn't want me to go for this, why would I have passed?". And there we go. One of the biggest decisions of my life, placed in the safest hands possible. And I'll come to realise how important this choice would play in my life.

And so the fateful day came when I stepped into Tao Nan for my first day there. I still remember joining my class lining up outside the LT, and wearing the nametag. I think I still remember seeing a few classmates like Zoe, but can't be sure. Right after that was the flag raising, as I stood there in the crowd, making like any MTV performer. In other words, mouth along.

Each year seems to be so significant in their own way, with the first year starting off a little weirdly, the middle causing me to almost give up and drag my sorry face back to Kong Hwa as a failure and coward, and everything tying up for the year very nicely.

Primary 5 was full of horror, shock, depression and absolutely without the slightest tinge of happiness. I have myself to blame for that, and do not wish to stop2think about that year.

Primary 6, however, was probably one of the most fun years I've had, next to 2007. The cheer competition, Graduation CD (where did I keep mine?????), PSLE, and a ton of the best friends you could possibly get, and last but not least, the third teacher I would definitely have to thank - Mrs Liu.

Mrs Liu-Loh Wee Cheng (This is just in case she googles her name, and thus might find this blog, like a certain dumb blogger) was the form teacher for my class (6J) in my primary 6 year, teaching us English. She was the kind who would use sarcasm without worrying about any of us (especially Muk) feeling offended, and yet we could just tease her back and know that her sense of humour would understand.

As a teacher, she's also one of the best. Her lessons were all that it needed to be - straightforward, clear, fun and engaging. She would stand for no nonsense when it came to homework or files. Every monday would be filing day, and "If you don't bring your files on Monday, heads will roll." Who could forget.

To tell the truth, our class probably never gave her a single worry at all, and things would go very smoothly. Except for the cheering competition. She was trying to get some of us to join the competition for the Primary 6 level, yet none of us would raise our hands. She seemed quite frustrated, and I could really see that she wanted us to join not because of her responsibility as a teacher, but as a friend she could not stand to see us miss out on such an event.

And she cried.

And names flew onto the paper, mine just making it into the last slot. We practised hard for this event, I must say. During the first audition I could safely say we were the most prepared class up there, and were confident of our placing in the finals. I never prepared myself to win, and I was right, since we only placed 3rd. But I was satisfied with it, as I knew we gave our best, and if we lost because someone else could do better, than I do not see any reason to have any regrets.

The other ongoing competition was the Graduation CD, and I somehow turned out to be the IC with He Hao. He was the IT savvy guy, while I was the "loanshark", hounding people for their personal slides. But hey, I got to pick the songs too. And I was definitely made for DHSSC - The songs were Allstar and You'll Be in My Heart. And there we go, another 3rd placing. Yet all this would definitely be possible if not for Mrs Liu, who secretly added all our P1 passport photos into the slide, and did much of the intro.

Mrs Liu was the teacher that fuelled me to work amazingly hard in that year, and I was surprised at how much that hard work could pay off. I felt very very sad when she had to go the same year as us, as she wasn't a teacher in her career, but just posted to TNS as she was working in the MOE. But still, I am thankfully for just that one year when I needed some form of motivation, and miraculously she was there. And I'm still hoping that one day I'll see her again.

Another teacher who played a major part in TNS would be Chen Lao Shi, who was my chinese teacher for Primary 5 and 6. She was the one who could have mood swings and be atrociously biased towards the girls in our class, which was what I thought in primary 5.

Yet I may have nobody to blame except for myself, with my lacklustre results and poor working attitude. When I started to buck up in Primary 6, she seemed to have a different impression of me altogether, and turned out to be one of the nicest teachers I have ever known. Every time I go back to Tao Nan, she's the only teacher that I definitely will meet for some reason.

So yes, leaving TNS was painful, but necessary. I still have so many memories of the 3 GEP classes, and the large diversity of teachers there who may or may not remember me. But that doesn't really matter does it? After all, I still do remember them.

And now another step forward to 2006, DHSVoyage. I have said this many times, and I'll say it again. Our class is plain cynical. We were the nightmare of the SCs (Sorry to Jiayi) - we would not dance, we would not play, we would not speak, we would not cheer. You could threaten to keep us in Michael Jackson's Neverland for a year alone with the psycho himself and we still would not have budged.

My CCA was pretty slack too, as my third lang clashed with one of the two trainings per week, so I really didn't know many people in the school that year. To tell the truth, I guess only less than 40 people in the school knew of my existence then.

So Secondary 1 passed pretty uneventfully except for just one event - the dreaded level camp. I still remember that one night when my mind just went blank. Some of you might remember, during item prep I was just sitting there staring at... nothing. I stopped, not 2think, but because I couldn't think. The past few days just wore me out, and even though I'm supposed to be group leader I just lost any willpower to continue.

Oh well, at least we won. Although I'm still hoping somebody can tell me how.

And finally we reach 2007, one of, if not the most exciting year I've ever been through. Things started off with a bang with DHShine, something that I had prepared for throughout the holidays and greatly looked forward to. Also the first time I knew Li-ba (Xingqi, for those who are confused).

I took 1Lectra (See? I still remember their name) and they were pretty much a great class to have for orientation. They may not have won or anything, but I see potential in them. Who knows, they may just follow in my class' footsteps, so keep up with the cynical attitude guys!

The rest of the first half year was dominated by my CCA, Third Lang and schoolwork, which was pretty much hectic and busy. I would've started on CCA right about here, but then I've already done a post on it, so dig through the archives if needed. I'm planning a Third Lang post for sometime later.

Term 2 was also the time when I met yet another teacher that I want to mention here, Miss Yap!

Miss Yap came in to teach our class LA for a term when Ms Kheng was on maternity leave. We were a little surprised we got a "new" teacher, instead of one that's already teaching in our school. She came off as pretty average at first, but slowly we started to loosen up with each passing lesson.

She never neglected teaching us the essentials, but then again her teaching style also allowed for much freedom. Meaning talking and chatting and making the classroom as noisy as possible, and yet most of us could get an A for LA. Her humour very much eased her into our class not just as a teacher, but as a peer and a friend too. We gave respect whenever respect was due, but she didn't mind us making fun of her either.

Miss Yap's the very special kind of teacher who you'd beg to have at your class chalet. But as expected she came not as a teacher but as just another friend who played mahjong, bridge and many other games through the night with us, never once reminding us about the time. Read more at http://strikenspare.blogspot.com/. (Advertisement. I'll collect payment, thanks to Tong Wei for the idea.)

So a very big thank you to Miss Yap for making LA lessons then so looked forward to, and the term being very enjoyable. I think our class was pretty sad that you didn't continue in teaching as your career, but Law isn't anything to be scoffed at either. All the best for you, and don't ever forget Kiska!

The second half of the year slowly got more interesting, with my personally dissappointing Nationals performance, the elation from our B Boys' achievement, and also, for the first time in my life, I started to work really hard for exams.

I wasn't really happy with my GPA, since I was aiming for something higher, yet I knew that I've put in my utmost effort, which is what's more important. So if my maximum capability is really that score, then I am happy that I've done the most that I could.

Another fun thing to do during the holidays was E4 cluster! Which is something that I'd tried to blog about, but failed pretty badly, and ended up leaving the post as a draft. E4 started out not-so-great, as a lot of the people there seemed to be very different from the people I know, so I had some problems adjusting at first. That was also the time when I was still a very quiet person, and that handicapped my contributions.

I made many friends from that sole event, all from different schools, most of them I did not even imagine I would talk to in the first place. It was during that period of time when I noticed that so many of them felt so comfortable to be around strangers, yet I was still reluctantly treading out of my comfort zone to get to know some of them.

That made me think a little of my usual reaction to somebody I should get to know, which is basically nothing. Why do I always have such a hard time speaking up? Have I been too quiet? Should I try to start changing how I react to a stranger? I thought about all these even for quite some time after E4 ended, and slowly decided to change myself. Hopefully for the better I guess.

E4 also allowed my to get to know some people better: Gillian, Tong Wei, Sumei and Charmaine! Many thanks for not isolating me or something, and helping throughout the project!

Orientation also deserves a seperate post which shall be done in the near future.

So all in all, this post covers some of the most significant areas and people in my life that I've met. Sorry to those who think they deserved to be in this post, but aren't. Just be thick-skinned enough to tag, and I'll definitely have it in my post.

That's all for this very very long post. Happy new year!