"Don't want leh?"

Thankless Job.

It may not be September 1st, but that never stops anyone from celebrating the well remembered Teachers' Day. Note the apostrophe after the letter "s" guys, that's the way it's meant to be spelled. Yes, after a quick 12 months, teacher's day is back all over again, cards, costumes and all.

I'd never really looked forward to Teachers' Day, nor have I ever thought of it as something memorable, but then again all that wasn't meant for a student in the first place. So once again, I had thought that it was simply a matter of enduring the performances and activities before finally being able to leave, just like last year.

But no. Not this year. After being a Student Councillor, life never looks the same anymore. Beyond the pointless games, the horrible singers, the technical-problem-plagued perfomances always lie something that we should all learn, something that we all overlook. Well maybe not for the horrible singers (Yes, the band who played Move Along today. I'm looking at you. I used to like that song.)

From the morning the whole thing was pretty hectic, what with not being sure when to pass the gifts to the chairpersons and all, but stole some time to return to my classroom and finally see Xue Xun for the first time in weeks.

The concert was... what you can expect of a concert for a secondary school, I guess.

But there was something that struck me quite abruptly right before the concert started. I had the job of "security guard" at the entrance of the hall, and was asking if some of the teachers could "kindly move to the other entrance when they enter so that this one wouldn't be too congested". Mr Noel Yap, who was nearby, jokingly mentioned the words "Don't want leh?", and gave that trademark smile he had.

Yes, he was joking, but that comment had given me quite a revelation. Normally, those three words would only be uttered by uncooperative students who never saw the reason to listen to instructions. Instructions of the teachers. After all, who likes to be told what to do? Yet now I was the "teacher" giving the "students" instructions, and if the "students" put their feet down and refused to move, what am I, the "teacher", ever going to do?

Teaching, such a thankless job.

We all know of teachers that influenced us greatly in our lives. I've already mentioned a few in my New Year Eve post last year, and do have many more that I can include in my next. But all of them, good or bad, humanities or science, language or maths, have been the potters moulding our lives and our futures in school, whether we like it or not. Some prefer to completely take our shape and mould it the way they see fit, while others think that we only need a little bit of shaping to bring out our potentially. In any case, they are all aiming to see us end up as a highly valued product.

Thank you, teachers.

Good Day

Good Day.

I woke up early in my hotel room, waited for my alarm to go. (Excuse the corny lyrics reference. If you don't get it, google my title.) But to my shock and horror, contrary to the song, I wasn't in any fancy 5-star hotel room, with a half eaten room-service dinner on my ivory table next to my fluffy, king-sized bed with enough pillows to suffocate myself. And there wasn't an alarm either. I jumped out of bed, and checked the time - 7:50. Boy, am I going to be late.

So I quickly rushed out and made my way to Harbourfront. I was too tuned into my phone's music that I almost didn't notice Yu/Yi Siang/Xiang waiting for latecomers at the gantry. They leaped into my path - It's kind of hard to not see that. So I was pointed in the right direction, and got my less-than-healthy breakfast of instant noodles.

After that, we set off for the Southern Ridges, and supposedly had to look out for certain things to take pictures of. Somehow along the way, we started to have too much fun parkouring/watching Yixiang and Yusiang parkouring/photo taking that we forgot about that activity.

I remember the part where we had to walk along a wall next to the road through a long winding path. It was fun, although not really exciting in any manner. It's just the thought of doing something that you normally don't do, waving at the people who're driving by - It's just something so special, so memorable, so... blogworthy. If there's such a word.

Sometime in the middle of the walk I started to notice how Super Mario-like what we were doing was, with only the choice of going forward and backward, and that you can only go backward for a short distance since the "wall" of the game always moves up whenever you move forward in the game. In this case, that "wall" would be the people behind you. And then there were the gaps in the wall we had to jump over. I played the Super Mario song, just to complete the mood.

So sadly, the walk had to end just like any game that we play (Unless, of course, the game happens to be Tetris, which I happen to hate with a passion), since we'd reached the end of the wall. Then came Super Mario Level 2 Nature Rumble, where we had to walk on a sligthly narrower ledge next to the road, with plants blocking your path occasionally. It wasn't as interesting, as the novelty was wearing off.

After some time, we finally reached Henderson Waves, our first major destination. There was a frenzy for some time of cam-whoring at the curved walls, where we all kept running up to grab the top ledge and hang on to it. No prizes for which 2 parkour fanatics came up with the idea.

A few nice pictures and lots of water later, we finally left the Henderson Waves to move on.

We also had Gillian's imaginary tea-party at a small pavillion we found, and went on to the Terrace Gardens (Or The-race Gardens, as the 2 siangs loved to call it). There was also a deceptively long 1km walk to Hort Gardens above the treetops. The sight was beautiful, short of breathtaking only by the sight of the ubran buildings peaking above the trees.

Hort Parks was fun in its own way. It was something like a cross between a real park and an air-conditioned exhibition. It was more relaxing, feeding fishes, relaxing in the mock house built with the theme of nature in mind, and taking a short breather.

The day ended with a lunch at the rooftops of Vivocity. All of a sudden, I realised that the very last time that I see the Exco still as the Exco was the same place I saw the Exco first - the Street Chase pit stop.

The "think" in stopping2think kicked in, and when that happens, you've got to stop for awhile. To be honest, I had hoped for a lot more people to come for this outing. It wasn't just an outing, it was the last chance that our council for the past 12 months would have to go out, terrorise the public, and be proud of the fact that we're doing it together, all while we're still officially year 2/3/4s.

But I've been learning (maybe a little too much) lately that Murphy was onto something with his famed law. I guess its pretty much impossible to not meet with dissapointment and possibly failure. It's a lesson that hurts, just like how you learn when to stop eating your Pringles with a pint of Ben Jerry's Cheesecake Brownie when you rush to the toilet for the 12th time.

To end it off, I have to, have to, have to really thank all those who went. It was memorable in its way, just like any other SC event. Maybe even more so. I've found out for myself that no SC event happens without any meaning. They give us our lessons, our friendships, our memories. Memories that I'll bring with me on to Tuesday, December, 2010 and beyond.

I had a good day indeed.