digressing digressing... back on topic! i met kah ming from 4A at the bus stop. it's been so long since i saw him, i totally forgot that he lives within walking distance of my house. we chatted a bit, him talking about how stressful poly life is but it's balanced out by his cca (skating sia, how come jc dont have any cool ccas like that?), and me talking about how jc students are going into the final stretch of PW OP. there were some awkward silences though, i wish some of the others like bryan or melvin were there. im just not very good with social skills, cant keep up a conversation for nuts... it also shows how far the 4A ppl have drifted apart since back in those days. hope the gathering becomes finalised soon!
so anw, we had to go to school cos the principal was giving something like a debrief to us students about the promos and our general performance throughout the year. was kind of put off by her attitude, which i felt was a tad on the elitist and insensitive side. she said stuff like "this kind of promotion criteria is an insult to your intelligence, and yet some of you didnt manage to meet it". and all this time, i was thinking about some of the people i know who have been caught in precisely that kind of unfortunate situation, wondering how it must have felt. of course, NJC is supposed to be a good school i guess, and good schools all have some sort of a reputation to uphold, but should this be done at the extent of ridiculing those who simply need a bit more time to adjust?
i am suddenly reminded of this news story i once read in the papers: a bunch of students just finished their N levels and were about to start on their O levels, when the principal suddenly tells some of them that they are not good enough and should simply drop the idea of taking O levels. even if she might have the qualifications to be a principal, did she really have the right to take it upon herself to judge those students and say it to their face that they're too dumb?
which brings me to what happened next during my day: some people had to meet the dean cos they either didnt meet or marginally met the promotion criteria. turns out that all those students had to drop from 4 H2s to 3 H2s and 1 H1. she didnt even allow for a probational period for those who really wanted to keep their 4 H2s. it's so sickening watching friends and fellow students being systematically pigeonholed into categories of "smart" and "not smart". havent they heard of late bloomers?! or maybe im just being too sentimental and emotional about the whole thing. after all, i could be said to be a biased opinion for all this, since i once nearly became a victim of this kind of elitist grouping. when i was a baby, my family thought that i may be autistic. even my family's general practitioner suggested that they took me to a child psychologist (but they didnt in the end. who knows, i might be studying in a special school now if they did). it became so bad that i got expelled from nursery. that's right, i got EXPELLED. from NURSERY. like, who the hell gets expelled from nursery? and the teacher went on and on about how my parents should send me to a special school asap (i think she meant more like "anywhere but here"), but in the end i got transferred to another nursery. so, i've always been kind of sensitive around stuff like condemning people due to lack of smarts, or denying late bloomers the chance to fully develop their talents.
bryan gave me a birthday present today :). it's a voodoo mini with a birthday card. i've received many birthday presents in previous years that made me go "oh wow it's a [insert generic material possesion here]! what i've always wanted!", but this one pwns all of that. i always thought that "it's the thought that counts" referred to being happy that the giver actually remembered that it was your birthday and bothered to do something for you, but today i realised that it means so much more than simply that. it means that the gift is a sign that you have affected someone, that you have changed his/her life so much that he/she now considers it a personal duty, and even a pleasure, to be able to do something to repay you for all the time spent together. it's a confirmation that in your fleeting lifetime, you have managed to make someone unrelated to you go out of his/her way to make your own life that little bit better. and that, i learned today, is what really counts.
Here's to eleven years and counting.
well, i just finished the last slice of birthday cake right before starting this post. i guess in a way it also represents my current situation. the "birthday aura" will die down pretty quick, and soon life will go back to normal. here's a big "thank you!" to everyone who gave their well-wishes, whether it was personally, through sms, facebook or msn. special thanks to the guys who treated me to carls junior lunch (thanks btw (: ), and of course a huge THANK YOU!!!!!! to bryan for the wonderful present and for being a great friend.
i've decided not to embed a metal song today. im feeling more of a serene mood today, so the song should also be more calming. this song was the one used by josias' group (josias, lionel, edmund, gabriel, rayson) when making the NE video. it's a song by the Beatles, called In My Life. enjoy:
but how could i resist not putting in a good song? so here's a link to PTH's concert dvd, Gallop Meets the Earth. there's online mp3 streaming for their entire dvd (and if u live in the canada/USA area, u could order it online too, though i doubt u guys are from there). there's such a huge difference between the album and concert versions, so u guys should seriously check it out.
