Victorian
Credits @Guaranteeheartz!
Obstacles are part and parcel of life. We encounter them, get frustrated over them and overcome them, only to emerge as a victorious person. We get a great sense of achievement when we overcome these obstacles but it is like hell when we encounter it. We wreck our brains, trying to overcome it, the pressure and stress is immense. During camps, we are given challenges or problems we have to solve. These camps help us to overcome the obstacles we face daily. However, to me, the challenges we face in camps are nothing compared to what we experience in real life. But there is a problem I always face when I go for camps. My badminton camp during the December holidays wasn’t an exception…
On the morning of the camp, I woke up early in the morning and packed my bag and got ready to go to school. This was my first time camping in school so I had no experience about how the school was like at night. However, I had heard numerous ghost stories from my friend and seniors and all of those stories sent shivers down my spine. The camp was held in school and I wasn’t particularly interested in going as I thought it was going to be something which was boring and a waste of time. However, I still decided to go and dragged my feet to school. My gigantial bag weighed me down throughout my walk to school.
In school, the first thing we had was, as usual, badminton training. To me, it wasn’t the best way to start the camp but what can I do? A friend of mine came to me and said: “The seniors said they were going to make the night walk very scary. Are you scared?”. “No, not scared at all.” I replied confidently. “How can it be? A person like you, so coward, sure freak out.” He joked. Ever since I was young, I had always been afraid of ghost and the dark. However this time, I decided that I would have faith in my God and that he will protect me so I have nothing to fear. Well, that was what i thought but I knew, deep inside me I was deceiving myself...
The camp went on as usual and we played many games and had lots of activities. We had a whale of time until dinner time when we went to the canteen for dinner. As we walked from the Gentlemen’s Room to the canteen, I looked at one of the staircase. It was almost pitch black and I could hardly see the staircase itself. That was when I started to become afraid. However, as soon as we walked into the canteen, we were greeted by the chatting of many other students who were having their dinner there too. It was similar to the canteen you see on a typical school day just that the place wasn't that dense. Apparently, there were many CCAs having their camp at that time too. At this sight, all my fears were washed away and I soon forgot about how dark the school was.
After dinner, we went back to the Gentlemen’s Room to watch a horror movie. The movie was ‘Drag Me To Hell’ and unfortunately, I had already watched that movie so I knew what was going to happen. So we watched it again and after watching it, I became even more afraid of the night walk. I think that that movie wasn’t actually that scary but instead, the use of loud and shocking sounds together with gruesome images was what made it scary. A perfect combination to scare you out of your skin I must say. However, I wasn't that scared even after that movie. The thing that made me freak out was the next movie-‘Phobia 2’. According to my seniors, it was way scarier than ‘Drag Me To Hell’ and I knew that Asian Horror movies were way scarier than American ones. So, I braced myself for the upcoming movie. My eyes were wide open as I watched the movie aghast.
After I watched the movie, I was real fearful of going out of my comfort zone and into the uncertainty of the school. That movie was by far one of the most spine-chilling movies I have ever watched. When I pictured myself going through the same event as the characters in the movie, I immediately had cold feet. In the movie, innocent victims accidentally disturb the spirits and hence were haunted and tormented by them. I was timorous, fearful that that might happen to me.
We were soon summoned out of the room where we were brought to the starting point. Looking at the darkness and how eerie the school was, I was spooked and began to fear the night walk. The images in the horror movies were still etched in my mind and somehow, I couldn't get it off. We then had our ‘safety briefing’ where we were taught how to walk the night walk and what not to do just in case we get injured or ‘disturb’ the spirits. I was daunted since I had to walk the night walk alone and if I saw anything paranormal, I was all on my own. Fear overcame me and I was shivering, I mean literally. Who on Earth would have thought that that could happen to a guy like me. I begged my seniors to let us go in pairs but they refused. They must be real cold-hearted to make sure we go alone so they can see how timid we are. My heart was beating against my ribcage like a hammer and I was shivering non-stop. I prayed for divine intervention that somehow the night walk would be cancelled. I told myself to trust the Lord, however, that did little to ease my fears. I guess my faith wasn't as strong as I thought it was. I was still perturbed and fortunately, my teacher walked past and, after we begged her, allowed us to go in pairs. I was slightly more relieved but still could not calm down. My seniors made ghost-sightings sound so common that it was unlikely to not meet one. After hearing what they said, I could not overcome this phobia of mine.
After a while, we finally began the night walk and me and my partner were the second to go. Well, I bravely accepted that fact and began the night walk. Apparently, we missed the first station but it wasn't our fault since it wasn't that obvious. The next station was the toilet. Of all the places in the school, the place which I was most terrified of were the enclosed rooms which included the toilets. In some horror movies, the victim gets trapped in the toilet and is tormented by the ghost and no one outside knows about it and the victim has no where to run. So, I was very fearful of toilets. At first, I didn’t dare to go in but my partner told me that we would enter together. Somehow, his encouragement seem to have given me courage and confidence magically. So, mustering all my courage, I entered. Although it was quite dark and spooky, we were still able to clear that station. And despite the seniors scaring us in one way or the other I was no longer that afraid.
We then cleared station after station after station. I gained confidence with every station I cleared and after the fifth station, I could confidently walk and was no longer afraid. Even at places where others remarked as ‘very scary’, I was somehow undaunted. We soon completed the night walk and could go to sleep.
I think that although I have not yet conquered this fear of mine, I feel that I am one step closer to conquering it. The key, I think, to overcoming this problem is to just have confidence in myself and have faith in the Lord. Obstacles like these come once in a while and at first we might find tackling it real difficult but once we try our best to solve the problem, we will be able to do it. It is all about the mentality. However, we will feel a great sense of achievement when we overcome the problem. Also, we will be much more confident when we face the same problem again as we know that we are experienced in that area. So, whenever we have a problem, I think that we should not run away from it but instead bravely tackle it.
Credits:
http://yeuamnhac.net/cool/Pics/Afraid.jpg
http://www.noobpreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/overcoming-fear2.jpg
I remember that day… I woke up in the morning as usual. To me, it was just an ordinary and typical day. I dragged my feet to the toilet with my eyes half open. I seriously hate waking up early in the morning. Why can’t schools start later? Like 8 or maybe 9? It’s the school’s fault that I have heavy eye-bags. Well, despite having woken up early in the morning for 6 years, I still couldn’t get used to waking up early in the morning. It still haunts me every morning. But I still had to face the fact that I had to go to school early. I went to school as usual and on the bus, while I was text messaging my friend, I realized the date on my phone- Jan 6, Wed. This date somehow rings a bell, but even after wrecking my brains, I still couldn’t think what that date was or meant.
At school, everything was usual and I went for my lessons. Somehow, everyone was staring at me when I walked into class. Perplexed, I turned back and look around to see if they were looking at me or something beside or around me. However, there wasn’t unusual around me. “Was there something on my face or my uniform?” I thought. I didn’t see anything wrong with me so I didn’t care about them. I walked to my friends, who were talking among themselves, and tried to engage I their conversation. However, as soon as I walked to them, they immediately broke up and dispersed. Weird. “What’s wrong with everyone?”, “Did someone gossiped about me or something?” These questions burned in my head. Lessons continued as usual but the way everyone treated me wasn’t so usual. The attitude they were treating me was real wrong. The only question was why.
For the rest of my time in school, I was so preoccupied with thinking why they were treating me this way that I could hardly concentrate in class. When school finally ended, I packed my bag and as usual, took my own sweet time to pack my bag. From my past experiences, I knew that there were surely people who stayed back for a while to chat or do their homework. But somehow, everyone left hastily and before I knew it, everyone was out of the class. I was once again left out and ostracized.
Just as I was about to leave, I felt something crept behind me. I turned around and before I knew it, a packet of flour hit my face. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” everyone said unanimously. Momentarily stunned, I stood rooted to the ground. A blinding flash hit me and I was immediately brought back to reality. “Hah. Got a picture of you in that retarded face. Now this is priceless!” my friend said, staring at the picture. Covered in flour, everybody came and wished me happy birthday as well as give me presents. We started playing with the flour by throwing it at each other. We soon found each other covered in flour and were laughing heartily at each other. However, the classroom was also in a mess and we began the task of cleaning up the classroom which, although difficult, we were still able to have lots of fun cleaning. But I still couldn’t accept the fact that I actually forgot my birthday.
I felt so touched by what they did and the extent they went to. I feel that although family members are important, friends are also invaluable. They go to school with you and understand the problems and stresses you have with your work or things like that better than your family members since they go through the problems together with you. Also, countless joyful experiences are spent with them. Even when we grow up and look back at our school life, the jokes we make in school still never fail to amuse us. So, I feel that we should treasure every moment we have with our friend since our time together might be limited. Lets enjoy every time we have together.
Credits:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/image-files/birthday-cake.jpg
Family members. They are the people that watch you grow from a tiny infant to a mature grown man. They share your joys and your sorrows and will be by your side through thick and thin. We get into fights once in awhile but reconcile soon after, only to find that we are closer to each other. Well, one of the happiest times I had in my life was, of course, with my family members. Till this day, everything that happened that day still remains etched in my mind.
During the long December vacation, my parents decided to bring my whole family overseas.After a whole mundane year of studying and working, we finally have a break! And what’s more, its not in Singapore but in Hong Kong! The feeling of travelling in an airplane never fails to excite me, as I find it a blessing to travel overseas. But the main part isn’t the plane ride but instead is the holiday itself. I was looking forward to the time we could disembark from the plane.
Picture of the city of Hong Kong
After a few hours on the plane, we finally reached Hong Kong! I was so excited I felt like running out of the plane. I could immediately see the difference between Singapore and Hong Kong in terms of the people and not forgetting, the weather. We went to check in to our hotel. As we were ravenous, we went to look for a shop where we can have our lunch. The streets of Hong Kong were lined with numerous eateries and had a variety of different kinds of local cuisine, ranging from porridges to goose meat. With so much to choose from, we were simply spoilt for choice. My father said that the smaller the shop was, the better the food. Not sure if that was true but it could be possible looking at the people in the small eateries. We went into an eatery and when we went in, it was packed with people. Well, that didn’t deter us from eating there(although it did dampen my mood a little...). After waiting for awhile, we finally found a place to sit. Oh finally. I ordered a delectable bowl of wan ton noodles and soon found myself wolfing it down in big gulps. We shared our food so that that way, we would be able to taste and experience more of Hong Kong’s food. As we ate, we joked around and laughed heartily.
We then went to a shopping centre nearby and bought some clothes and other stuff like bags and also some local products. We then stumbled upon a flyer which we were immediately engrossed in reading it. It was about a restaurant called the ‘Modern Toilet Restaurant’. According to the flyer, it stated that this restaurant was like a toilet in which the seats were toilet bowls, cups were urinals and plates were bathtubs. It looked quite interesting so we decided to go and take a look.
We took a train there and when we saw the restaurant, I could discern lots of decorations of toilet appliances such as mirrors bathtubs etc. It was quite amusing and my sister was busy taking pictures of the decorations. We were very amused by what the restaurant offered. Thankfully, the place wasn’t crowded and we were able to take lots of pictures without any disturbance. We ordered different kinds of ice cream and they were served very uniquely. They were all very interesting and amusing. I mean where on Earth can you fin a restaurant like this?
The Modern Toilet Restaurant!
It is one of a kind! However, it is not just these that make the restaurant so appealing. The food there(well at least the ice creams since those was the only things I tried) was also very tasty and sweet. Way better than I expected since I thought it would just be some weird looking restaurant which looks good on the outside but not on the inside. We all had a good laugh and soon went off. Now looking back, I really regretted not taking more pictures. Who knows when I will see a restaurant as unique as this:
This unique ice-cream is very rare in Singapore!
We continued shopping and bought lots of things- shoes, bags, name it and i tell you we bought it. We then went for dinner and after that, went back to our hotel and although exhausted, I was very happy. What made this day one of my most memorable days is the fact that I was able to spend the whole day with my family. As we were overseas, we did not have to worry about our studies or work or anything else. There was only one purpose of this holiday- enjoy. We were all able to release the pressure and stress built up throughout the year. Also, we are free to do almost free to do whatever we want and our work and homework isn’t our priority. This helps us to unwind and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and just enjoy the time we have together. My family is awesome.
On the 11th of January 2010, it marks the day of the release of the O levels results. In 2 years’ time, I’ll be the one taking my O levels (that’s if I fail to get into the IP programme). O levels is known as the Ordinary levels, whereby graduating students will take this national exam which determines which Junior College or Polytechnic they will go to. I felt a little worried for some of my seniors, but also at the same time, excited to know how the batch of 2009 students fared. As Victoria School is a prestigious school and hence has a reputation to live up to. Based on what I know, this batch of students worked very hard to try and surpass the batch of 2008 and 2007. It sure isn’t an easy task but I knew they and the teachers put inn tremendous effort to try and accomplish this goal.
Immediately after school, as soon as we were dismissed, I dashed to the gallery so as to be able to witness the class of 2009 receive their results. However as soon as I got there, I found out that the place was packed and I could hardly get a good view of the hall. But I was still contented to be able to be just present there. I soon manage to get to the front and got a better look of the hall. So the batch of 2009 students came streaming into the hall. Anticipation was written all over their face and judging from their expressions, I could discern who was confident and who was not.
Mr Low then gave an inspirational speech which made me want to work harder. I felt more motivated to do well and be able to do my school proud. After several moments, they commenced with the distribution of the results. The top students were announced and the results were about the same as the past few years. However, it was how the entire cohort faired which was more important.
From the gallery, I could see students who were elated but also, at the same time, could see some which were very depressed and disheartened. I surmised that those people did not do well and were hence very dejected. Although I was sure that all of them put in tremendous effort to do better then the batches from the past few years, but they still couldn’t do it.
Well, looking at those who were collecting their results, I was sure I wanted to e able to shout “YAY!” when I receive my results. I sure don’t want to be one of those who didn’t do well. I can’t and don’t want to imagine myself like one of those students. So, I shall work hard and do my best and study hard such that I will be able to do well and make me, my family and my school proud.
Credits:
http://simplechemconcepts.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/GCE%20O%20Level%20Cert%20001.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2616/3889563816_7ab6ec9648.jpg
Spending time alone can be quite mundane and make you feel lonely at times. However, it is also a time to think, to relax, to unwind, to rev us up and also to rejuvenate ourselves. It makes us better both mentally and physically allow us to reflect on the mistakes we made and hence allows us to improve continuously. Well, that was what happened today. To put it simply, I spent time alone.
I plodded back home from school lugging my bag which to me weighed a ton. I justcouldn't understand why teachers always had us bring bookos which we don't even use. It simply is like carrying weights around! My shoulders were aching and I was drenched in sweat. The Sun was like a fireball, cooking anything that dared to take a step out. I flung my bag onto the ground and I instantly felt like as if I finally got rid of a weight that weighed me down for the last few hours. After taking a bath I immediately started on my homework. I emptied my bag, books after books after books came streaming out. I started counting the number of assignments I had. 1…2…3…4…5…6… My homework was endless! The fact that I did not complete my work the day before now came back to haunt me. I really regret not doing them the past few days. I opened the book and tried to complete the first question. However, no matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t think straight. I kept thinking about the incident that happened in school today. I did real badly for my test and it could cause me to get low grades. I just couldn’t shake it off my mind. And now, I couldn’t even do a simple math question right. I felt like a loser who couldn't get a simple question right. I stared at the book in frustration. Pissed, I threw the book on the floor and stormed out of my room. I decided to stroll in the park to try to calm myself down.
I sauntered in the park and enjoyed the euphoria and serene environment. Taking in deep breaths make me feel so refreshed. The fresh air makes me feel like I am born all over again. The high level of oxygen is what makes me feel better I guess. I thought about how life wasn't going as well as I expected it to be. With disappointments after disappointments, let downs after let downs, it seriously isn’t fun. My parents, friends and teachers all have high expectations from me, telling them I can’t do it isn’t an option. Everything seems to be going so fast and out of control! How I wish it could all just stop and let me think and evaluate the situation. My options were clear. Work hard and get good grades, or slack and get poor grades. But I mean why work so hard now? I am JUST 14… this thought was etched in my mind. As I strolled round the park, something struck me. It then dawned on me that I am not JUST 14 years old; I am ALREADY 14 years old. Working hard is an option; it is only a matter of whether I am willing to. I kept repeating to myself that I had to work hard. With this in mind, I went back home. Putting behind all the unpleasant things that happened, I looked forward and strived to get good grades.
Well, walking alone in the park isn’t my favorite thing to do, but one thing is for sure- I enjoy it. I mean where else can you be able to relax and where all your fears and problems seem to magically wash away. It allows me to think properly and make the right decisions. Walking alone isn’t the same as walking with different girlfriends every week. It makes one enjoy life better. Well, overall its enjoyable and you should try it too!
Credits:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2063/2248257114_49c4cb7450.jpg