crossroads

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT'S CHINESE PERIOD AND SOME PEOPLE ARE IN CLASS LISTENING TO LAOSHI. HAHAHAAAAAAAAAA. ANYWAY, MY GROUP COMPLETED DRAFT TWO FOR PWWWWWWW! YAAY I LOVE. OKAY ZAI JIAAAAAAAAAAN! OH READ BELOW OKAY. IT'S SERIOUS. DONT LAUGH. AND TAKE IT VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY SERIOUSLY. STUDY FOR PROMOS!
<3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">ZILING!

hello class.

i'm here to give you guys an account of what happened last year during my promos.

basically, many people would want to know the reason behind me not making it past the border and to be in j2 now. firstly, i guess i wasn't motivated enough to want to get up and do work, and i didn't know what i wanted to do with my life too. i did h2 physics, math & econs, with h1 geography. my knowledge of the subject was so poor that my grades weren't even in the high range of U's. think about less than 20s and the highest being a mark from sub-pass. it was that bad.

i'd like to bring up a point mentioned by bro paul last year. he repeated it quite a number of times throughout the year. he stated that jc is very different from secondary school in a way that back in o levels, you could start mugging like two months before the exams and make it through with a relatively high grade (the lower 10's). however, it's not the case for college. last year, i just didn't believe him and left all my studying to the last minute. that was when i realised i had tonnes of paperwork to catch up with and just looking at the amount i had to do made me tired and bored already. it was too high an inertia to start with.

speaking of inertia, many of you guys i believe suffer from the same problem. it's always hard to get off your ass and start working, but when you finally find the momentum, things are so much easier and you're much happier given your reduced workload. but there's not much point in me talking about inertia now cos it's less than a month to the exams, you guys should be working already. if the timespan is not enough to frighten you guys to get on your feet, i'm not sure what kind of motivation would work for you.

by end of this year, you guys should have an idea of what you want to do with your life (not a ROUGH idea). it's your driving power. it leads you to do what you have to in order to reach that mark. by saying "what you want to do with your life", i mean in the terms of your career and your long-term goals. in the near-future, your degree will be your determinant on the career path you choose and there's no turning back. so i hope that your ambitions are not short-lived like mine.

the news of having to do another year did hit me quite badly upon receiving it, since i have never thought about it my entire life in education. i always thought i'd get through somehow, just like my sec2 streaming, where i was pushed up. i guess sometimes it's no point facing self-denial and running away from reality, but instead to grab hold of what you have control of and steer it in the direction you want it to go. when you fall, pick yourself up, dust yourselves clean and continue pressing on. a quote i remembered quite clearly in sec 4 was "the price of victory is high but so are the rewards". do think about this. there's no way your hard work disappears into thin air.

to summarise it all, i'm not here to tell you guys that repeating is bad. i really feel that i have got off on a better note and begun my real course now. the extra year did help alot. i won't be able to imagine what would happen if i'm in j2 at this point of time now. i wouldn't be able to do my A levels at all, and that situation is much worse than doing an extra year. so, if any of you think you need more time when you get your results, consider your paths VERY CAREFULLY, make sure it is really what YOU want and not what others want. it's your life and no one else is supposed to manage it for you. if you can make it to jc2, good for you. applaud yourself for being able to meet the demands of jc life. not being able to make it through does NOT mean you've failed, but rather you're just not ready for A levels yet. don't take it too hard, it's not as bad as you think. but i say again, from now on, do your best and at maximum effort. make full use of your capability, and trust me, you won't be let down at all.

i hope i've made some sense in what i've said, it's more of advice rather than what will happen so don't take it to heart. it's just my account of what i've gone through and i thought i'd share it with you guys. if any of you need anything else regarding this issue, feel free to ask me. i won't be offended.

anyway, best of luck for the rest of your studies in this final month. may God be with you.