Its amazing how friends can just make the difference each and every day. Whatever they do either makes or breaks you. And this past week I must say that all my friends around me have made my days so memorable. Encouragement and strength can come from the most unlikeliest of sources, be it through praise, advice, affirmation or just plain company.
"You're one of my role models..."
"I know how you feel..."
"Thanks so much Ben..."
"Don't worry lah, you're gonna survive this year..."
"Benlow you are d*** cool lah!"
Even simple words like these make a persons day. Sometimes people don't even need words, you can still be comforted by the silence when you're on a train or bus somewhere on your way home with your friend. To all those people who have made the above comments, as well as those who've been beside me in silent understanding, thank you.
***
S03H
Well, I guess its time to talk about the past few days of school, which I've left out from the previous post.
3rd Jan ~ Day 1
3rd Jan marked the first day of school, and I think it was a pretty much normal school day. The first thing that happened was civics, and the new time table was given to us. 5 minutes have been cut from each period, making the day shorter and much more survivable. With the aircon, the new 7-11 and accessible reading rooms, life in RJC has been more relaxing.
The rest of the day was spent in GP, where we did a compre test... (On the first day some more) After that we went to RI to explore the places that were being renovated, as well as see whether the canteen was open. Looking at the field with the beautiful artificial turf makes me wanna go play soccer there the instant its opened. Lunch was really bad, with Sec1s cheering in their girly voices in the background, and with horrible packaged food, and with food scraps all over the table the environment at the new RI block was pretty bad.
First chess match of the year ended in loss... Which was pretty much expected.
That marked the end of the first day.
4th Jan ~ Day 2
The next day was the beginning of the suffering (just kidding). Homework came streaming in, and if I don't recall wrongly, the homework count for me reached 17 at the peak of all the stuff, don't think other people got as much, cos I'm factoring in my piano homework as well.
The return to PE was pretty harsh, conditioning, running, weight training and lastly a gym visit left my body aching like crazy. With the OGLs still at orientation, I'm not really sure why they were already pushing us that hard. I'd have prefered that they'd let us play soccer.
H3 Bio restarted again as well, and we instantly delved into the topic of Analytical Techiques, which is pretty useful given my current ambition. Derrick Ong lectured well, otherwise I would have fallen asleep from all that aching and tiredness.
Still without a win, total 1 loss and 2 draws in chess.
5th Jan ~ Day 3
The day started off with PE once again... A lot more harsher than the previous day. We worked on stamina as well as leg muscles and abs. Run 4 rounds around the track (2 mins to 2 mins 30s each round), then do lunges and jump up the steps, run another 2 rounds around the track (1 min 45s to 2 min 15s each round), do crunches and sit ups and lots of other stuff, then run 1 round around the track (in less than 1 min 40 secs). That was the entire procedure. After that I felt like I had heartburn.
After some resting an finishing up the rest of the lessons, went home to rest and do some work. Had a couple hours of sleep, and did work till it was time for jamming. Eden-Sol was preparing for the CCA feste that was going to happen the following wednesday, so we jammed for 3 hours.
For the first hour, Edmund came down and we practised Canon Rock, for which I had to play keys. Then Eden-Sol took over and we practised more.
Songs we did:
Canon Rock
I Don't Wanna Be
Hero
Meant To Live
I think we were pretty much pumped up and ready.
8th Jan ~ Day 4
Boring day... Seemed like the same thing over and over again. Slept when lessons were redundant and if I already knew the lecture content. Had the first lab prac of the year and it was pretty simple to do.
My class has a new hobby besides chess. Mahjong... Managed to get a set for the class, and we spent after school playing for awhile... With Zheng, Sam and Kevin. Most of the session was teaching them about how to play, and we spent 45 mins before deciding to leave. To prevent people from seeing us play, we blocked the view with our bags and pretended to play chess. Some people passed by but didn't notice. Good thing...
9th Jan ~ Day 5
Another boring day. But the good thing was that all the 9 OGLs and councillors from orientation were back. It was pretty good to see them, and the first civics lesson we had together Plan and Zheng presented something pretty good about failure and success... The key to succeeding is to draw strength from your experiences and previous failings and use them to your advantage. As well, Plan and Zheng reminded us to be a source of support and encouragement to our fellow classmates.
We started writing messages to each other after that, and I'm proud to say that I've written for everyone! Even those I don't know so well. And its good that I find various good points to say about the person deep from within my heart, and with sincerity as well.
After the school day ended, I went jamming with Eden-Sol once again... The gig was tomorrow!
10th Jan ~ Day 6
Managed to chalk up 3 victories in chinese chess, bringing my tally to 3W, 2D, 1L. Nothing much else to say about lessons that day, except they were once again... Yeah. Boring.
CCA feste that day was pretty successful for the school as a whole in my opinion. Went to guitar booths and rock booths to check out the enlistees. Seems like guitar has approx 40 people, which is reasonable. But rock was surprising... A total of 3 pages of sign up form were filled. That means approximately 50-60 people? And to think we have to kick out 40+ people cos we can only take 2 bands.
So Eden-Sol played in LT2 for CCA feste. It didn't go as well as we'd thought, but I thought it was ok. The rest of them were a bit dejected. But my policy is that if its not our fault, theres no point thinking about it. No doubt the sound system and acoustics were poor, resulting in the mistake during the second song.
After that, stayed in school to do piano homework. Checked out 7-11 and bought some cup noodles from there, and then went to the MEP room to hear about the RR's plans for the new year. Taking in 3 bands this year, have to have at least 3 pracs each month, and they have to report the songs they're doing. Auditions are on Monday and Tuesday.
Then, went for piano, where I was so tired... Good thing my dad fetched me home.
11 Jan ~ Day 7
Oh my... What a day. Lessons were... You guessed it, boring. I got all our notes from the rest of the class people, and were encouraged by what some of them wrote, and how some of them know me better than I thought they did. It brought me lots of happiness. But the bad thing is that not everyone wrote messages to me... But I felt really good after that.
The worst thing that happened that day was during GP. After talking about democracy and related stuff for 45 mins, my GP tutor, Mrs Toh suddenly said it was the end of the lesson. We were pretty surprised... And she broke the bad news. She was leaving our class. I think all of us were devastated. Mrs Toh was such a great tutor, and a great motivator and class friend as well.
She sang us a song as her final words. It went like this...
Sunrise Of Your Smile ~ Michael Card
Verse 1
Reject the worldly lie that says,
That life lies always up ahead,
Let power go before control
becomes a crust around your soul,
Escape the hunger to possess,
And soul-diminishing success,
This world is full of narrow lives,
I pray by grace your smile survives.
Chorus-
For I would wander weary miles,
Would welcome ridicule, my child,
To simply see the sunrise of your smile,
To see the light behind your eyes,
The happy thought that makes you fly,
Yes, I would wander weary miles,
To simply see the sunrise of your smile.
Verse 2
Now close your eyes so you can see,
Your own unfinished memories,
Now open them, for time is brief,
And you'll be blest beyond belief,
Now glance above you at the sky,
There's beauty there to blind the eye,
I ask all this then wait awhile,
To see the dawning of your smile.
To see such a motivated and caring teacher go was a big blow. The very essence of this song showed me her heart, and what a beautiful heart she had!
PE was in the sports hall, where we played tag and practised for shuttle run.
Stayed back in school, did a bit of work with Wu Lei in the canteen. Then we met Yong Sheng and headed for OG dinner! My Og, X'PEIA got revived that day haha. Ever since the hols there has been no sign of anyone. But after that things are looking up. We went to J8's Cafe Cartel for dinner. So expensive... total 172 dollars for 10+ people.
Meeting Charlene and Darren was awesome. The ones who were our OGLs told us about life after JC, what they were doing, how they were preparing for entrance into uni and that kind of thing.
12 Jan ~ Day 8
It was a day of new stuff. Tried sitting beside new people (Charissa) instead of the corner slot I usually took on the front row (with Chris). Instead I sat at the right aisle on the last row, where the teacher could easily see me.
I tried the new spaghetti in the canteen. (The one sold by the cooked food stall, stall 3) It wasn't as good as I thought. The last time I tried Qing Yuan's sauce it tasted much better. A total of 7 people from class had the same idea and tried the spaghetti as well. A bit disappointing.
For PE we did some weights in the weight room and ran all around school. From the stadium we ran to the raffles rooms, then to the end of block A. Up the stairs there until the 7th floor, and then down the stairs at block C. Then we ran the way we came back to the stadium steps. Pretty reasonable... Good thing it was raining, then we didn't have to run around the boring track.
After that I went home for some rest. Bathed, lay down on my bed and suddenly, both my legs cramped in the exact same place at the exact same time. I lay in bed in agony until I fell asleep haha.
Woke up at around 5 to do some work and get ready meet the YE people at Marina Bay for steamboat. It was a pretty fun experience cooking stuff. I'm quite a good cook I think. Hopefully no one got a stomach ache. I certainly didn't get one. I think we should do it again! It was great. Gerald drove Mel, Shu, Amanda, Jon and Dan home, so me, Paul, Rach and Val went home by MRT.
It was great talking to Paul, cos he's quite a funny guy, and I could feel his genuine concern and interest in what I experienced quite strongly. Talked about lots of stuff, most noticeably about Mahjong, as well as a bit about the previous year, how it was full of ups and downs and how there were very high highs and very low lows. Rach slept most of the way so didn't disturb her. She needs the rest.
***
So that was my week.
Feel that this post is a bit disjointed, but can't be helped. Cos I got a lot to say.
Next post: Camp reflections + other reflections.
"You're one of my role models..."
"I know how you feel..."
"Thanks so much Ben..."
"Don't worry lah, you're gonna survive this year..."
"Benlow you are d*** cool lah!"
Even simple words like these make a persons day. Sometimes people don't even need words, you can still be comforted by the silence when you're on a train or bus somewhere on your way home with your friend. To all those people who have made the above comments, as well as those who've been beside me in silent understanding, thank you.
***
S03H
Well, I guess its time to talk about the past few days of school, which I've left out from the previous post.
3rd Jan ~ Day 1
3rd Jan marked the first day of school, and I think it was a pretty much normal school day. The first thing that happened was civics, and the new time table was given to us. 5 minutes have been cut from each period, making the day shorter and much more survivable. With the aircon, the new 7-11 and accessible reading rooms, life in RJC has been more relaxing.
The rest of the day was spent in GP, where we did a compre test... (On the first day some more) After that we went to RI to explore the places that were being renovated, as well as see whether the canteen was open. Looking at the field with the beautiful artificial turf makes me wanna go play soccer there the instant its opened. Lunch was really bad, with Sec1s cheering in their girly voices in the background, and with horrible packaged food, and with food scraps all over the table the environment at the new RI block was pretty bad.
First chess match of the year ended in loss... Which was pretty much expected.
That marked the end of the first day.
4th Jan ~ Day 2
The next day was the beginning of the suffering (just kidding). Homework came streaming in, and if I don't recall wrongly, the homework count for me reached 17 at the peak of all the stuff, don't think other people got as much, cos I'm factoring in my piano homework as well.
The return to PE was pretty harsh, conditioning, running, weight training and lastly a gym visit left my body aching like crazy. With the OGLs still at orientation, I'm not really sure why they were already pushing us that hard. I'd have prefered that they'd let us play soccer.
H3 Bio restarted again as well, and we instantly delved into the topic of Analytical Techiques, which is pretty useful given my current ambition. Derrick Ong lectured well, otherwise I would have fallen asleep from all that aching and tiredness.
Still without a win, total 1 loss and 2 draws in chess.
5th Jan ~ Day 3
The day started off with PE once again... A lot more harsher than the previous day. We worked on stamina as well as leg muscles and abs. Run 4 rounds around the track (2 mins to 2 mins 30s each round), then do lunges and jump up the steps, run another 2 rounds around the track (1 min 45s to 2 min 15s each round), do crunches and sit ups and lots of other stuff, then run 1 round around the track (in less than 1 min 40 secs). That was the entire procedure. After that I felt like I had heartburn.
After some resting an finishing up the rest of the lessons, went home to rest and do some work. Had a couple hours of sleep, and did work till it was time for jamming. Eden-Sol was preparing for the CCA feste that was going to happen the following wednesday, so we jammed for 3 hours.
For the first hour, Edmund came down and we practised Canon Rock, for which I had to play keys. Then Eden-Sol took over and we practised more.
Songs we did:
Canon Rock
I Don't Wanna Be
Hero
Meant To Live
I think we were pretty much pumped up and ready.
8th Jan ~ Day 4
Boring day... Seemed like the same thing over and over again. Slept when lessons were redundant and if I already knew the lecture content. Had the first lab prac of the year and it was pretty simple to do.
My class has a new hobby besides chess. Mahjong... Managed to get a set for the class, and we spent after school playing for awhile... With Zheng, Sam and Kevin. Most of the session was teaching them about how to play, and we spent 45 mins before deciding to leave. To prevent people from seeing us play, we blocked the view with our bags and pretended to play chess. Some people passed by but didn't notice. Good thing...
9th Jan ~ Day 5
Another boring day. But the good thing was that all the 9 OGLs and councillors from orientation were back. It was pretty good to see them, and the first civics lesson we had together Plan and Zheng presented something pretty good about failure and success... The key to succeeding is to draw strength from your experiences and previous failings and use them to your advantage. As well, Plan and Zheng reminded us to be a source of support and encouragement to our fellow classmates.
We started writing messages to each other after that, and I'm proud to say that I've written for everyone! Even those I don't know so well. And its good that I find various good points to say about the person deep from within my heart, and with sincerity as well.
After the school day ended, I went jamming with Eden-Sol once again... The gig was tomorrow!
10th Jan ~ Day 6
Managed to chalk up 3 victories in chinese chess, bringing my tally to 3W, 2D, 1L. Nothing much else to say about lessons that day, except they were once again... Yeah. Boring.
CCA feste that day was pretty successful for the school as a whole in my opinion. Went to guitar booths and rock booths to check out the enlistees. Seems like guitar has approx 40 people, which is reasonable. But rock was surprising... A total of 3 pages of sign up form were filled. That means approximately 50-60 people? And to think we have to kick out 40+ people cos we can only take 2 bands.
So Eden-Sol played in LT2 for CCA feste. It didn't go as well as we'd thought, but I thought it was ok. The rest of them were a bit dejected. But my policy is that if its not our fault, theres no point thinking about it. No doubt the sound system and acoustics were poor, resulting in the mistake during the second song.
After that, stayed in school to do piano homework. Checked out 7-11 and bought some cup noodles from there, and then went to the MEP room to hear about the RR's plans for the new year. Taking in 3 bands this year, have to have at least 3 pracs each month, and they have to report the songs they're doing. Auditions are on Monday and Tuesday.
Then, went for piano, where I was so tired... Good thing my dad fetched me home.
11 Jan ~ Day 7
Oh my... What a day. Lessons were... You guessed it, boring. I got all our notes from the rest of the class people, and were encouraged by what some of them wrote, and how some of them know me better than I thought they did. It brought me lots of happiness. But the bad thing is that not everyone wrote messages to me... But I felt really good after that.
The worst thing that happened that day was during GP. After talking about democracy and related stuff for 45 mins, my GP tutor, Mrs Toh suddenly said it was the end of the lesson. We were pretty surprised... And she broke the bad news. She was leaving our class. I think all of us were devastated. Mrs Toh was such a great tutor, and a great motivator and class friend as well.
She sang us a song as her final words. It went like this...
Sunrise Of Your Smile ~ Michael Card
Verse 1
Reject the worldly lie that says,
That life lies always up ahead,
Let power go before control
becomes a crust around your soul,
Escape the hunger to possess,
And soul-diminishing success,
This world is full of narrow lives,
I pray by grace your smile survives.
Chorus-
For I would wander weary miles,
Would welcome ridicule, my child,
To simply see the sunrise of your smile,
To see the light behind your eyes,
The happy thought that makes you fly,
Yes, I would wander weary miles,
To simply see the sunrise of your smile.
Verse 2
Now close your eyes so you can see,
Your own unfinished memories,
Now open them, for time is brief,
And you'll be blest beyond belief,
Now glance above you at the sky,
There's beauty there to blind the eye,
I ask all this then wait awhile,
To see the dawning of your smile.
To see such a motivated and caring teacher go was a big blow. The very essence of this song showed me her heart, and what a beautiful heart she had!
PE was in the sports hall, where we played tag and practised for shuttle run.
Stayed back in school, did a bit of work with Wu Lei in the canteen. Then we met Yong Sheng and headed for OG dinner! My Og, X'PEIA got revived that day haha. Ever since the hols there has been no sign of anyone. But after that things are looking up. We went to J8's Cafe Cartel for dinner. So expensive... total 172 dollars for 10+ people.
Meeting Charlene and Darren was awesome. The ones who were our OGLs told us about life after JC, what they were doing, how they were preparing for entrance into uni and that kind of thing.
12 Jan ~ Day 8
It was a day of new stuff. Tried sitting beside new people (Charissa) instead of the corner slot I usually took on the front row (with Chris). Instead I sat at the right aisle on the last row, where the teacher could easily see me.
I tried the new spaghetti in the canteen. (The one sold by the cooked food stall, stall 3) It wasn't as good as I thought. The last time I tried Qing Yuan's sauce it tasted much better. A total of 7 people from class had the same idea and tried the spaghetti as well. A bit disappointing.
For PE we did some weights in the weight room and ran all around school. From the stadium we ran to the raffles rooms, then to the end of block A. Up the stairs there until the 7th floor, and then down the stairs at block C. Then we ran the way we came back to the stadium steps. Pretty reasonable... Good thing it was raining, then we didn't have to run around the boring track.
After that I went home for some rest. Bathed, lay down on my bed and suddenly, both my legs cramped in the exact same place at the exact same time. I lay in bed in agony until I fell asleep haha.
Woke up at around 5 to do some work and get ready meet the YE people at Marina Bay for steamboat. It was a pretty fun experience cooking stuff. I'm quite a good cook I think. Hopefully no one got a stomach ache. I certainly didn't get one. I think we should do it again! It was great. Gerald drove Mel, Shu, Amanda, Jon and Dan home, so me, Paul, Rach and Val went home by MRT.
It was great talking to Paul, cos he's quite a funny guy, and I could feel his genuine concern and interest in what I experienced quite strongly. Talked about lots of stuff, most noticeably about Mahjong, as well as a bit about the previous year, how it was full of ups and downs and how there were very high highs and very low lows. Rach slept most of the way so didn't disturb her. She needs the rest.
***
So that was my week.
Feel that this post is a bit disjointed, but can't be helped. Cos I got a lot to say.
Next post: Camp reflections + other reflections.
Comments