Evaluating 2013

It’s been a year, what’s up? 

2013 has been a rather eventful year for all of us, South Korea had its first female president, Singapore’s SMRT trains broke down simultaneously, a crucial year for the 1997 kids, including me.
2012 has been nothing but fun, laughter, studying, more studying, more realization for the big O’s for the upcoming year.. and here comes 2013 with a smack in your face.

Contrary from expectations, the 2013 school year started out non-academically. As a student leader of my high school, being part of the Orientation camp for the year 1 kids was nonetheless my job, my role, whatever you call it. Second year being involved and what’s my role? Game master. As great as it sounds, it’s really dry at times. Screaming at 13 year old kids to get their attention and make them play the game you tirelessly worked out. This is definitely not what I wanted, but in life, you do what you get, suck it up.
With a camp like this, missing out from class was something I loathe but unavoidable. Having to catch up on your classmate’s pace is plain horrible and suffocating. (I’m not kidding)

With all that said, reality struck me momentarily when we had to attend various polytechnics and junior colleges open houses. Teachers talked really seriously all the time to make us mug and mug and mug and really, mug all the way. Oh yes, I went to Singapore Polytechnic out of the 5 choices, following my classmates choices.. because I can’t make up my mind. I’m seriously a procrastinator. I probably should have chosen Temasek Polytechnic since it’s in the east where I stay and I wouldn’t have ended up being soooo tired. Forget it, the goodie bag was really attractive anyway. Being a follower, we headed to Ngee Ann polytechnic after which and collected more information booklets (which made my bag so freaking heavy- another wrong decision) and also.. the goodie bags :p

The upcoming level camp was a surprise. Contrary from what the seniors’ went through, we didn’t had to attend some Adam Khoo lesson and get all teary. A 3D2N adventure camp was planned for us.. I didn’t feel to good about this as I have never been a fan of camps. Whatever is it, I attended it with the orangey class.

After the camps, class tests, common tests, mid year examinations and so on hit us continuously. Lessons ended late frequently, everyone was physically and mentally drained out. Even the best class dozes off at times, what can you expect? I did fine, or rather still satisfying for my mid years, but I know there are things to buck up.

June holidays? More like June muggingdays. Supposingly, it was a month where you are supposed to clear up your unclear concepts, strengthen them and do more practice for the big O’s in the upcoming October. But then again, procrastination struck me pretty badly. I wondered what did I really do during the June hols… making Organic Chemistry notes.. doing more math exercises..completing my homework. Attending English tuition as well on every Sundays keeps me in touch with the language, at least. However, I can’t help but have mini conversations with my friend during class time, oh well.

During the supposingly mugging months, I started to like another new kpop group, EXO, which it totally a bad idea, I know. Being a fangirl of Girl’s Generation and SHINee is enough.. now with this 12 member boy group.. totally ruining my own life. But I couldn't help it, really. I think SM really packaged them really well, I even got their first album, oh my god you go girl.

I guess you will really study hard when it’s time to really do so right? This was totally crazy working on my 7 subjects. My Higher Chinese was really horrendous. Getting a B grade was something I would be really thankful of tho. Paper 2 was a total mess… getting a passing mark was really frustrating yet I could do nothing to resuscitate … my Chinese vocabulary bank is really screwed & limited. Humanities was fine for me, managed to get an A, which made me really happy since doing well for humanities was really important since it has to be accounted in the L1R5 score. But you really can’t be satisfied easily as humanities requires you to constantly practice your skills…. and of course, memorisation is unavoidable. I have definitely proofed to myself that I couldn't do physics. I just can’t see the link in things as well I could for Chemistry. That being said, my Chemistry wasn't any better. Getting a single digit for the Free-Response section was never expected and it definitely gave me a shock of my life during the Prelims. As for maths and additional mathematics, I have been dreaming for an A1 for a really long time.. since I worked the hardest for it. It’s not a crime to aim high right?

My love for South Korean’s Girl Group Girls’ Generation was bigger than any other idols. However, when the news revealed that they were having their Girl’s & Peace Tour in Singapore on 12 October 2013, I was immediately dismayed… I wouldn’t be able to attend since its before the start of the o levels. I was totally disappointed man :-( I still remembered how I spent the night of the concert reading my twitter updates & attempting some physics questions… I probably should have attended the concert after all.

oh my god and 21 October eventually arrived. My first O level written paper of the year, English Paper 1 & 2; which was totally crazy. Okay, I wouldn't say it’s been terrible. My editing was done well, attaining 8/10 was satisfactory for me, really. But what was worse was attempting my first ever argumentative essay in my whole high school life and I even added a rebuttal which I have no idea if I had done it correctly.. or not. Thank god I bothered to ask my classmates before the papers started on how to write it.. if not I would have died. In case you are wondering why did I had to choose this essay when teachers told us a hundred times not to TRY doing such important examinations. I mean, I had no choice, really. I obviously won’t do descriptive essays… I was expecting a factual essay.. something which I had practised in class for many times. Even if a factual essay didn’t come up, at least a discursive essay? But no both of it didn’t come out. Oh my gee Cambridge what’s with you. Paper 2 wasn't any better. Since we were doing the new syllabus (1128), we didn’t had any ten year series to prefer (argh!).. Cambridge gave us a specimen paper and guess what? The actual paper was so different from the specimen paper… I can’t comprehend this omg. (I can’t believe I dedicated a paragraph to English lol)

The rest of the papers was fine I supposed. I tried my best to not make any mistakes for Mathematics.. but i still made some :c geez. I think I was brilliant during the Additional Mathematics paper, mind totally blanked out for a moment which made me forget my important formulas.. but managed to calm down in time to recall them. I can’t believe I faced a tough question on my very first page(totally mood ruining), thankfully I tried hard to look for method marks yay! But I guess my A1 dream is gone though hahah. Higher Chinese was in between. Paper 1 was fine for me, at least I really tried my hardest this time ever. But Paper 2 killed me terribly. I was even confused by the comprehension passage sigh. Chemistry was mind boggling. I knew I didn’t do my best and an A was impossible. Don’t even bother talking about Physics, I think I tried my best.. but after sharing answers with the mates… I'm totally terrible. Combined Humanities… I sincerely wished it went well.

After the O’s, break time whoop. Flew to Taiwan 2 days later and I’m really back to be back at my grandmother’s house. Being away for 15 days was fabulous, the feeling of relaxation was great. Happy to hear that there’s a new MRT station near my Grandmother’s house, seems like Taipei is expanding their railway system like Singapore. In between the 15 days, mum made plans for us to visit Seoul this year omg yesssssss so happy.

Seoul trip was great.. but I really didn’t like tours. I didn’t had the ease of my time but I didn’t rly had choice... I should be blessed that I could come anyway. I also had my most embarrassing moment of the year. Taking a photo with a standee of my favourite idol in the middle of the busy streets of MyungDong. Totally crazy and embarrassing. But you only live once right? I still have the photo kept in my photo and I can’t help but laugh at myself whenever I see it. Something that I felt really regretful was the price of the CDs.. I was imagining the price to be much lesser as compared to the CDs sold in Singapore. However, the price was rather similar, which is really disappointing. With the short 5 days trip, I was determined to come on a Korea trip with my friends in the near future, hopefully.

Back in Singapore, I was still enjoying my long holiday. Meet ups with friends was a usual thing and I spent my time reading books, watching dramas, movies,variety shows and whatever that entertains me and also sold my books on carousell and have been able to earn some cash! ☺ Many people started working and I still remembered how the best friend ranted on how everyone waited for this break to hang out but everyone started working, how disappointing. I guess certain things can’t be helped yeah hahah.

Christmas hasn't been the best this year, but I had a great lunch with mum at Poulet. Being my favourite celebrations, I still enjoyed the atmosphere (apart from the weather). 25 December 2013, another day closer to the release of my O level results, which determines my future, which is so terrifying , how powerful numbers are, yuck.

I spent my last few day of 2013 watching the Gayodaejun’s of each South Korean broadcasting company, namely KBS, SBS & MBC. It is an annual affair where you sit in front of your laptop/television/screen and get crazy over your idols performing.( & I’m so sad that I didn’t get to see ot9 TT)

As I reflect on 2013, there were many regrets. I should probably have studied harder for my O’s and pushed myself harder. I was overwhelmed with fear during this period of time at the thought of the results. 4 years ago, 终极三国 killed me. 4 years later, I didn’t change for the better, I was still in touch with kpop when I should be crazily studying. It’s funny how I had the drive to do well for my O’s when I was in Year 1, I guess I totally lost the drive after all…I still haven’t been able to express myself, there’s too much things I keep to myself. At the night when mum was sent to the hospital, I cried so badly when I was alone, prayed endlessly to whoever I could, I was so afraid. But no one knew, not even mum. At the day of the surgery, I took my GCE English Oral Examinations, I wondered how did I manage to pull through it after all.
I pray for 2014 to be a better year for all.

How was your 2013?