a moment spent doing something you enjoyed

Last week, I went home after a tiring afternoon at band practice. Surprisingly, there was a minimal amount of homework consisting of only a few maths sums (no thanks to Miss Tay) and a sketch for DaT. After dinner, I settled down for a well deserved break and picked up my book and started reading.

Ever since I was young, my past-time was always reading, cultivated by my parents. They always encouraged me to read whenever I could and always ensured my sister and I made regular trips to the library.

Among the great variety of titles I came across in my relatively long history of reading, some titles that stood out for me were -- salem falls, flowers for algernon, the kite runner,(recently) harry potter and enid blyton stories (primary school) just to name a few.

The book in question that I was reading was Salem Falls by Jodi Piccoult, predictably bought for me as a Christmas gift by my parents. It was a rather exciting book even though the time jumps throughout the book were rather erratic and confusing :( . The language used was fairly advanced but in my opinion, was the whole point of reading such a book.

Reading it helped to calm me down after a long and tiring day---the story was rather calm and slow but definitely not long winded. The storyline was simple, aided by the unique writing style of relating the past and flawlessly connecting with the present happenings in the story.
All to soon, it was about 11 o'clock and I put aside my book and got ready to turn in. While I was lying awake in bed, my still active mind was absorbed in the facinating novel and I only drifted off into another realm in the knowlege that I would be able to carry on where I left off the next day.

something that happened in school

During the first 2 periods of school on Monday, the school printed out a target setting list for us in lieu of the vice-principal's talk about it during assembly last week. The list was computed from our PSLE scores and came with the school's expectations of us over the year.

The grades we received from the school were shocking and demoralising for most of us. Those of us with mediocre PSLE scores had low expectations with almost nothing exceeding an A2 while those with high-end scores ended up expected to get MSGs of 1.0.

I personally feel that the school should not base their expectations of us using our PSLE scores, particularly after just going through secondary 1. Another cause for worry is if this system were implemented last year, as most of us, given the low expected grades, would not have worked to our fullest potential.

Another awkward question would be how they had calculated or grades for new subjects like history, geography, literature etc. One could argue with the fact that higher end pupils being better in managing their time but I personally feel that much of it depends on the student's area of interest in the new subjects and the teachers who teach them.

One possible scenario the could be rooted from this target setting exercise would be if a student did particularly well in PSLE but slackened in secondary 1. The expected grades of him (eg.MSG 1.0) would be too out of reach, driving too much unnecessary stress and pressure to him. Another possibility would be if a student did not fare as well as he would have expected and performed to his utmost potential in secondary 1, which is not uncommon in students in this category. He would no longer feel the urge and drive to keep on improving and slacken to the low expectations of the school.

Another problem would be the teachers telling the students(if they complain about the expected grades being too high) that the targets were supposed to be meant for the end of the year. To plant such false hope in students as to thinking that they have until the end of the year to reach the expected grades is an extremely risky thing to do. They will be lead into the misconception that they can take their time and that they have the whole year ahead of them, which usually results in burning midnight oil.

I personally feel that students should set their own reasonable, achievable targets and goals for themselves according to their strenghts and weaknesses in their respective subjects. Setting goals for students is a sensible and innovative thing to do but teachers must look into the individual student's areas of interests before attempting to do so.

Lastly, I hope that this incident will not demoralise the students who are disappointed by their expected grades but act as something to propel them towards achieving greater success in their academic lives.

a moment you enjoyed with your family

A moment enjoyed with one's family is a moment to be treasured. It need not be extravagant or fully initiated to be one to remember. It may be merely sitting down and catching up with each other's day-to-day life or on vacation enjoying and taking in the various sights and sounds. Different people have different perspectives on what specifically means to enjoy oneself with their closest of kin.


That was pretty much a brief summary of what was going through my mind when, in my view, was enjoying with my family. We were merely sitting down on my birthday talking and catching up with each other on our daily activities, displaying care and concern to each other without realising it.


This is pretty much the same in school, a home beyond our first, with friends showcasing their different cares and barely taking a moment to reflect the quality of life that they barely take the time to notice it. Clearly, this is nothing more to be expected from the busiest times of our lives in this busy and prosperous society.


Whenever we get too caught up with our daily lives such as schoolwork or overtaxing jobs, its easy to overlook how fortunate we are--a school to study in, a family always there for you, friends to socialise with.


Arguably, true enjoyment with one's family and friends is simple and easy to overlook, while at the same time difficult to reflect on or recount. Noticeably to most of us, most of the times of true, meaningful enjoyment pass by quietly, never returning again, further proof that our daily life with the comforts of home and the people around you is indeed something to treasure.
The time taken to reflect on our past happenings can be enjoyable. The daily arguments with our family and friends are enjoyable. But, the greatest joy in our lives is probably the enjoyment of knowing the the people around you care for you.