Looking Back (2014)

2014

2014 was a milestone to me and one that gave me a chance to get back on my feet. To be honest, I was down because I didn't do well in my National Exams in the previous year (2013). Some of you might know that I had failed my Combined Science national exam and probably just borderline pass my Express Mathematics national exam. Needless to say, there wasn't much choice for me to choose for my post-secondary education, known as tertiary education. During that time, I cried, blamed and scolded myself, thinking I was probably worthless. I let my parents down, and it certainly didn't help that my cousin, who is the same age as me, did slightly better than me in his national exams. I had reflected and thought hard about my route for tertiary education. I was interested in pursuing a Diploma in Early Childhood Education, I made my 12 choices, only thing left was to submit the choices. However, my parents changed my list of choices, and that diploma was not in any of the 12 choices. I felt anger, I was fuming with anger, to think that they disregard my choices. So, that list of choices, amended by my parents, was submitted. Guess what? I was accepted into this diploma in Mass Communications, in a polytechnic nearby my place. Mind you, this diploma in Mass Communications was never my choice, I didn't want to be in journalism nor did I want to be in the media industry.

Time soon flew by and I was preparing for my enrolment in the Diploma in Mass Communications. I had attended three camps in total prior to the start of my life as a Mass Communications student. First was the Centre for Enterprise and Communications (CEC) camp, where I met friends from other Diplomas in CEC, and that's where I met my first best friend (also first friend in Polytechnic), let's call her Ru here. Ru has been there for me since the start of the camp, and we always go anywhere together during the camp. Cutest thing? Our height difference *laughs* She might be short, but this girl has a big heart.

In April 2014, I have officially started my years as a Mass Communications student. I was in a classroom, comprising of 21 other girls and a mere 2 guys. It took me a while to warm up to the people, and I realised just how two-faced some people can be in the classroom, it up to the facilitators until I want to puke. As for me, I just wanted to do well as a student to get through three years of studying. During one of the modules, called Cognitive Process and Problem Solving (if I remembered correctly), I met an annoying but also a kind and gentle girl, let's call her Mai here. At first, I was constantly 'bullied' by her (i.e. teased by her and all, not physical violence or hurtful words), and I didn't like it. But I realised, deep down, she was kinda like me, awkward, kind of anti-social, and jsut want a group of close friends. She and I soon became good friends, and sometimes, we go home together (since she only lived one bus stop away). She's one who I always confided about all my problems, my thoughts, and she always have the right words to comfort me. I was thankful for that.

I have friends in the classroom just opposite mine, and I would occasionally drop by their class to visit and take lunch with them. I knew this guy, let's call him A here, though now I call him Piggy, he is by far the most annoying but yet will always stick by me no matter what happens. We met each other through CEC camp, since we were grouped in the same group after all. He introduced me to two other friends, who we shall call Yo and Chris here. These three were smart, funny, annoying, all combined into one. We watched each other played games (usually Yo, Chris and I just watch A play Outlast). They were who I have considered to be great friends.

Semester 1 of Year 1 soon came to an end. I was more than happy to leave the class behind, but then again, I made valuable friends from that class too. For example, Mai. I can only hope she and I will be in the same class again. Semester 2 soon started and I was thrown into a new class. New class, familiar faces. There were some people whom I recognised from my previous class, though I never really did get to know them. Semester 2 was the most fun class I had in my three years of studying. This was the class where I met most of my friends today, such as Nico, Cla, CC, Marc, Yong, Dhiv, and many more. I will always remember how during lunch time on every Tuesday class, we will take-away our lunch from the canteens and head back to class, only to watch horror movies and eat lunch at the same time. There was stress during this semester too, but overall, I could feel myself enjoying and even not caring about the stress, cause all my friends were here in this class.

It was also this time where I had seriously considered my Co-Curricular Activity (CCA). Initially, I joined the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) CCA. But, sadly, my own schedules got into the way and I couldn't commit to the activities in NYAA. As such, I made a decision to withdraw myself from that CCA. In the end, I ended up choosing two CCAs: Serving Learning Club (SLC) and Culinary. Though, to be honest, I was never active in Culinary.

My time in Service Learning Club all started when I joined as a sub-committee member for this EIPIC Family Day 8 Project. This will be continued in my Looking Back (2015) post. Stay tuned..