Personal Statement

Luckily, Jiaxin just reminded me just now that tomorrow is the day that I must hand up my personal statement. I have the misconception that the personal statement is handed up at 26th of August 2005 but instead, it is handed up on 26th of July 2005. So, I am pondering, ruminating and cogitating now about my contributions to my college. Hmmm, actually not a lot. So now, I have to write down my three strongest qualities or which best describe me.

Civic Mindedness/Social Consciousness
I have participated some community work when I have the free time. One of memorable projects that I have participated is the Service Learning Project. My participation in this project reflects my most strongly held values and I really know myself much better. I was assigned to be the In Charge (IC) of a group known as Spidey with my friend. So, we had the responsibility to look after 8-11 years old kids that were in our group and to liven up the spirit within the group. It was a certainly a tough job although it may seem easy because I must have the stamina. In the first day when the project commenced, I felt that I tend to be paranoid about the kids safety as I was very concerned. I told them to stay put together and if some of them were going to the toilet, I would be following so as to ensure their safety. During lunch, if there were some spare time, the kids were playing soccer in the mini field and I would be watching closely at them so as to ensure their safety. Much energy is spent on running around, chasing after naughty kids during the three days of the project. During free time, I also had to play with them and talked about the things that they liked about. One boy called Nicholas told me that he like playing Role Playing Games such as Red Faction and about controlling an aeroplane to obliterate the enemies. It was fun talking to him as I got to know him better. I also talked to some other kids in my group about their interests and encouraged them to bond together and be united. This is one way of allowing them to communicate more among themselves and to the ICs.

Perseverance and Determination
The days of doing community work were certainly memorable as I had learnt and acquired new knowledge. I also participated in Kampung Senang Charity Performance last year in Kallang Theatre. I had to learnt sign language which I had not learnt before. The teacher called Joyce taught the sign language class very passionately. She had opened the doors into letting me view the beauty of sign language. Although sign language was rather difficult to learn, the passion of Joyce in sign language spurs my interests towards sign language. After the first session, my classmates and I attempted to communicate with each other using sign language. We laughed together as we saw ourselves making hand actions for the first time. I had to learn the sign language in order to perform the charity show. I would spend some time during my December holidays just to familiarise with the newly learnt sign language. Later, I was assigned to the umbrella group. So, the whole sign language group and the umbrella group need to coordinate with the movements to perform. My classmates and I practised every Saturday night for about 2 - 3 hours just to familiarise with the constant changes to the formation. At times, I really frustrated about the constant changes to the formation but high morale of the group and the incessant encouraging words from the coach and Joyce push me further to persevere and to be more tenacious.

Adaptability and Flexibility
A time when I had to be more flexible than usual will be the period when my friends and I were assigned to organise the formations of the March Pass and to recruit manpower and settle the logistics for it. Two months before the Track and Field Meet, my friends and I were cracking our brains to brainstorm the formations of the March Pass. So I started to stay in school longer due to meetings with my friends to discuss about the formations of the March Pass. When the Track and Field is approaching, we stayed in school up till half past 8 in the night for every three days or so. I had to be more flexible and manage my time well during a period of three weeks before the Track and Field Meet. There were many changes to the formations of the March Pass and the logistics. Initially, we propose to use helium filled balloons but later abolished the idea because of the constraints that my friends and I encountered which is cost. So, we change our plan to use flags as adornments to make the March Pass Ceremony more grand.

Z Pop Concert

Today is a fun filled day yet and a tiring day and yet a sad day for me. This day is a day when I am experiencing many different emotions. In the afternoon, while I was on my journey to City Hall, I was boarding bus 147 to Victoria Street. In the bus, there were many acts of kindness as the youngsters and the middle aged people give up their seats to the elderly. First, when the bus arrives Upper Serangoon Road, I witnessed a middle aged woman giving up her seat to another old lady carrying a walking stick. That really made me happy. I was feeling happy at that time because it was a rare moment to witness such acts of kindness in a bus. When the bus approached Bendemeer Road, another middle aged woman was giving up her seat to another old lady who was walking unsteadily. The third act of kindness occurs when the bus was reaching Serangoon Central, another middle aged woman was giving up her seat to an old man. Three acts of kindness were displayed and I had seen them all in the bus 147 while I was going to City Hall. :)
Upon arriving City Hall, Diana, her cousin, and I went to the new National Library in Victoria Street. Upon arriving there, I was full of anxiety about tremendous amount of books located there and the wonderful and nice facilities being well installed in the newly opened National Library which opened yesterday. However, upon arriving there, I was astounded by the one rule in the library that we were not allowed to bring bags into the library. Maybe, the security guards were tightening their security as bags might contain bombs. Another thing that I felt strongly was that in lvl 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of the library, there were no books. The books were situated at lvl 7 or above. So, in order to browse those wonderful books in the National Library, we had to use the escalator to go to lvl 7. Besides that, the books in lvl 7-11, the books were not for loan. They were only reference books. Sigh!!! Besides, the topics were very specific for each level. At level 7, the books were all about history of countries and in lvl 8, the books were all about business management. So, the books there were not really suitable for me to read for the moment. Furthermore, when I browsed one of the books there, that book entitled "History of the Middle East" gives a overview about the Middle Eastern countries. It talked about the many different aspects of life in the Middle Eastern countries. It talked about the society, economy, geography and politics in the Middle East. By the way, the things that the books were written were at the villagers level. The contents were very detailed and I think that those books were very suitable for research on the Middle Eastern countries.
After visiting the National Library, we went to Mac to have a rest and to eat. After eating for about fifteen minutes, we went to Suntec City Convention Centre to watch the Z pop concert. The concert was an eye opener as this was the pioneer time that I was going to a concert at such a massive scale with mayn famous singers such as JJ Lim Jun Jie, Tanya, Celest and many more famous singers. Basically, I found out that sitting down on the floor could be quite tiring as my feet were getting numb as I sat on the floor, cross legged, for a few hours. I witnessed the idea of image coming in when the celebrities were dressed up in a certain way that really depicted a certain personality. First impression is really important as in the case of the superstars as they need to be popular with the masses and having a good first impression certainly enhances their popularity. The climax was at 9 pm when JJ Lim Jun Jie finally appeared before us, attracting swarms of crowds, especially ladies and I could tell you that he was really talented. Firstly, he could sing well. Secondly, he could play piano and sing at the same time and thirdly, he could play the piano and his mouth at the same time. The term here "playing his mouth" refers to using one's mouth to create rhytms and beats. For JJ, he used his mouth to produce fast moving beats and rhytms that were indeed good. I loved his beats and rhytms and they made me feel like shaking my body.
After the Z Pop Concert, I went home by taking a bus and so I went to the bus stop just outside Suntec. However, the roads were still closed due to NDP so there were no buses plying on the road. So I walked to another bus stop. Then after standing at the bus stop a few minutes, two tourists were approaching me to ask for directions because they were lost due to bus diversions. But then, actually I was not really sure of the temproary routes that the buses take. So, actually, there were two ways. The first way is to take bus 111 to Stamford Road and take bus 147, 166, to their hotel. However, I didn't really know on how to explain which stop to alight because they were tourists and they were not really familiar with the places in Simgapore. The second way is to take the MRT and then transfer a bus to their hotel. However, the walking part to the MRT was really far from the bus stop where I was standing. So, I feel really sad for being unable to help them.
I have told this incident to Diana and I am grateful to her for consoling me and making me feel more relaxed. I believe that time can heal my wounds and my disturbance.

Class mood dull

For the past few days without Ben, there is fewer laughter in class from the Vanessa and Joanne gang. Yeah!!! The whole calss mood is a bit dull. Since Monday, life without Ben is like coffee without sugar. There is no sweetness and laughter in the class. Throughout the days in school, I am appalled to hear people asking me questions why I am so happy and why I am always smiling. Perhaps, I am practising the things that are advocated in the book about winning friends and influencing people. I don't know whether to behave in this way because this way of behaving is obviously very childish. However, many people including Miss Ong which is my secondary school p.e. teacher say that I look very young, like a 15 year old boy rather than a 17 year old. So, this is one of the image I present to others, as a boy rather than a man. Therefore, by right, I should act like a boy. Yesterday was a very memorable day. I have successful teased Katie and Ronnie. Doro comments that wordscan really sting other people. In the process, it brought laughter to the whole gang. I can finally sort of revitalise the mood before Ben was hospitialised in the gang to make them happy. However, that lasted for a very short time but within my heart, I felt a great sense of satisfaction. I felt that I had done something "great". Besides, yesterday's chess competition was a great success. The whole of group of the chess organisers had put down the heavy burden on them. Phew!!! For the recent few days, Alvin and I are passionately talking about games, about Trash. This game Trash is not a bad game. In fact, it is quite a cool game an trash are basically building blocks in the game. How I wish that in reality, this concept applies. Then, trash can be used as a resource rather than being treated as a waste. So everyone, please help whatever you can to save the environment.

Trip to East Coast Park to revise

For these few days, I am on a studying mood since all my teachers are pressurising us to study now to be prepared for A levels. Yesterday, I went to the Mac in Serangoon for revision with my friends. I had managed to finish my HCJC Prelims Paper and my Maths Mock paper. Woah!! After spending so much time doing these papers with many errors here and there, I finally completed the paper. In the night, I revised some of the topics studied in JC1 but in the end, I went to my dreamland.
For today, it is a sunday and my family was supposed to visit my grandma at her house. However, my grandpa called early in the morning just to inform us that my dad didn't need to visit my grandma as she was ill and it was raining. So, I was cooped in my home for the whole morning. In the afternoon, I went to East Coast Park to study and revise my JC1 topics. I was taking bus 76 all the way to Marine Parade and maybe because the bus driver was blur, the bus was going at a wrong route and upon realising it, he made one whole round at Geylang Road and Sims Avenue. Luckily, I managed to reach my destination. The wind was blowing continuously while I was looking intently at the physics textbooks. I finally revised ideal gases, superposition, waves. I still have a lot of topics to go.

Ben landed in hospital.

I just received this bad news today that Ben had injured himself and had been hospitialised. I felt a tinge oif sadness and worry within me. Actually, the whole class is very worried about me. At first, many of us are shocked upon hearing this dreadful news happening to our close friend. Ya, so today almost the whole class went to the hospital to visit Ben. When I looked at his face, he seemed to look touched and grateful that the whole class was visiting him. At the same time, he seemed to be in intense pain but he just tried to endure the pain in his fractured right leg. This is the first major accident that has struck one of my close friends. It sure impacts me greatly and makes me view life as very precious. I suddenly have this imagination of myself having an accident and landing myself on the hospital bed, my mum and dad will be very worried and my classmates will too be worried. I tend to be pessimistic but nevertheless, I wish to pay a tribute to all my organs in my body that thanks for being dilgent and hardworking workers. The whole body functions because none of the organs have stopped their operations. It may seem ridiculous but in fact, we are actually the brain and the rest of the organs are just our friends. These friends are really the best because they work for you without pay and they work incessantly from day to night and from night to day. These are the many things that I have learnt.

I have encountered a problem regarding more on my friend. One of my friends which I shall not state the name is the cause of the dilemma within me. Firstly, in the morning today, he asked me whether I wanted to attend physical education classes with him because since another of my friend had landed himslef in the hospital and other classmates including me didn't need to attend pe, for today, he was the only one that needed to attend pe lessons. So, he just wanted a person to accompany him to attend pe lessons. So he asked me whether I wanted to go with him to pe lessons later. I was quite fickle minded but I had clearly indicated a no in my answer. So in the end, he went home without attending pe lessons. The issue here is whether I have made a right decision just now. I have decided not to ask my friends because they have bias views against him and thus they will pass negative remarks about him. So, I had decided to tell this incident to my parents. My parents listened intently to me narrating the incident and about the probelm encountered. What they replied was almost what I had expected. They replied that my decision was correct, and besides, I should be more firm in making decisions. And they said that if I encounter a friend that liked to stick to others, I better stay away from him. These are answers from them. They are still whirling in my thoughts while I am thinking whether my decision is correct, fair and just to myself and to him.

Exam results

Exams are over and this week, I will be knowing my exam results. School went on as usual. During this period of time, I continued to play a little bit just to relax myself for the A levels. I have to admit that for this mid year exam, I did not put in much efforts. It was just that I put in some hours for practice. By the way, I have already known the results of my 3 subjects. I scored 76 marks for maths, 67 marks for my chem and 77 marks for my physics. So, I have only gp left. Sigh!! I think that I will do very badly for the paper.
For the past few days, let me recall what I am been doing. I have been playing Disciples 2 undead campaign and one good news is that I have already completed my undead campiagn. Woot!! I was very happy. Now, one of my goals is to complete the legions of the damned campaign which my brother has not completed. But for now, I play Heroes III as I certainly miss the fun turn based strategy gaming.
For this week, I will be teaching my students this Thursday. I have not completed my lecture notes on mole concept. I am starting to worry now. Besides, I have not finished with maths tutorial about continuous random variables. Sigh!!! My work is piling like a mountain but luckily I have done my gp homework about the failure of the Cancun summit. I took about 2 hours to complete the whole thing. What a waste of my time but nevertheless, I have learnt some things from this incident although I am not very familiar with it.

Exams over

Although it may seem a little bit too late to pen down my thoughts about the fact that my mid year exams are now over as it has ended last Thursday, I will still write down my feelings about it. First feeling or emotion that I have is the sense of intense relief as I won't have to study for a period of time. I can spend my time on other areas such as recovering my health and cough and playing games and to pursue my passion. Coincidentally, these few days are holidays and they act as long breaks for me to recover my helath.
Last Thursday, I had my tuition with my students. This time, I was more confident than the previous lesson probably because of the fact that I was more prepared and I had known them better during my first lesson. I had finished the topic about the particulate nature oif matter. I intend to give them a lesson on ionic and covalent compounds but later, I revised with them about mole concept since they had mini tests about mole concepts tomorrow. I hoped that they would have studied or revised a little about the test and recalled what I have said.
During these few days, I had watched movies and played some LAN games. On Saturday, I played LAN games with my friends which is Dota Allstars. It is a quite a new game and it has attracted a lot of people who are fans of Warcraft III. It really tests on one's speed and accuracy and also strategy. Based on my performance on last Saturday, I had one conclusion and that is I scored 0 points for all three categories. Congratulations for me scoring the lowest point overall. I think that games are tools that enhance our minds, to be quick and flexible and most importantly to think. However, constant patronising the Cybercafe certainly costs me a bomb. My expenses really shot up and hence I have decided not to go today.
Besides, on that day, I also went with my friends to watch a movie entitled "War of the Worlds". Initially, the story really allured me to watch it. It really criticised about man being complacent because of the fact that they think that they are the best race on Earth until one day, when aliens attempted to invade the Earth. These aliens also are very intelligent according to the movies. They have buried high technology robots long ago deep below the Earth and on one day, when there are dark and grey clouds hovering the big sky. People thought that they were just normal and ordinary clouds signifying that rain was coming. Actually, when thunder stuck, one could hear large sound seemingly the sound of electricity rather than the sound of thunder. One special point about the clouds was that the lightning always struck at one place. This is the first step to mankind's destruction as aliens travelled via the lightning to the robots deep underground. After that, there was an immense earthquake and the robots just came out from underground and started shooting the innocents. Many people died as shown in the movie while numerous buildings were damaged. Tom Cruise played the role of a father and he had been entrusted the responsibility to take care of his son and daughter. The first part was quite good as the movie mentioned about the father not having a good relationship with his son and his daughter would have asthma attack if she was frightened. For the middle part of the movie, it showed how the escape of the these three persons. The story was really realistic and good. The feelings displayed by the actors and actresses seem to be so real that a disaster has happened on a very large scale. The three of them were fleeing for their lives. In the movie, it had also shown the fact that man is selfish. However, for the last part, it had ended quite abuptly and I think that something is missing. For full details, watch the movie "War of the World".