~The world is filled with Sunshine ~ One that brightens up our lives
Was testing out the journey to new workplace, and decided to reward myself with a nice McD breakfast at Tampines Central.
In the 1 hour that I was sitting inside McD, I noticed that more than 90% of the patrons cleared their own tray before leaving. How awesome is that?
人间有希望!
It could be the crowd. Should today be a weekend where most patrons are families, I highly doubt I will see the the same thing happening.
Let’s make Singapore a more gracious society, shall we?
The title says “Hello!”.
You might have known, I’ve been learning Korean for a few years now.
First started with Basic Korean at Bt Panjang CC. The trainer was a native Korean, but the syllabus was too fast for a beginner (I had zero knowledge on Korean alphabets at that point of time). Although I attended every lesson and did all the homework, with the usual-favouritism on students who are more outspoken, the trainer taught very fast, assuming everyone were as knowledgeable as the girl who could interact with the trainer in Korean.
I gave up attending class after the 8th lesson.
A year later, Fen asked if I was keen to attend Korean class with her. Of course I said yes! So we started classes at Bt Batok CC this time round, under the trainer Jang In Suk (the founder of Jang KC Centre). I love her style, she was patient enough and made sure everyone understood what she taught. There was no favouritism (yay!) and everyone progressed at the same pace. It helped that I had Fen & Pat attending the class together.
Just as there this phase along the line of “nothing goes smoothly as planned”, I had to stop attending classes when I got posted to work in Hong Kong in 2011. By then, I’d already completed Intermediate-2.
A year in HKG, I attempted to self-study but time didn’t really allow me to do that.
When I came back to SIN, I attempted to go back to Bt Batok CC under Mdm Jang, but my busy schedule (on top of laziness) caused me to miss almost 70% of classes. And you might have guessed it right – I had no khakis to attend class with! It’s a waste on money I know.. Didn’t help that I’d registered myself for the Advanced-1 class when I retook Intermediate-2 class. I didn’t go for the Advanced-1 classes in the end, forfeiting the course fees (thankfully it wasn’t that expensive!).
Should I say Lady Luck was shining? Javin (one of my classmates from secondary school) texted me for advice on Korean language schools, saying that he wants to learn Korean too. After many weeks of discussion, we concluded that we will attend class together! Having shortlisted a few language schools, we decided on Sejong Korean Language School which is located at Tanjong Pagar – pretty central considering where we work.
I’ll be learning Korean from Basic-1 again. New school, new environment, new syllabus – it’s easier to start from beginning than to feel lost in class. Helps that I have a new partner to practise with! That should be enough motivation not to skip class now.
I can’t wait for classes to start on 7th May!
Recently, I’ve started to “like” more pages on facebook that talks about random stuff. Some of which are actually quite interesting.
Science of Madness, from its name, talks about anything that is science related. So there was such a post:
A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?”
Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.
She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” She continued, “The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything.”
It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down!
It serves as a good reminder to many of us.
Quoting work as an example – after a long and shitty day at work, you reach home weary and can’t wait to hit the bed. Wake up the next morning and the cycle repeats. Some might dread going to work – possibly due to stress or whatever not. This kind of “burden” as I name it, is something that we can learn to deal with (the pot calling the kettle black, I know..).
The kind of stress we have – not just at the workplace, it can be a “grouch” that we hold against anything in our daily lives – are sometimes the root causes of our unhappiness. The longer we hold them, the more tired / unhappy we become.
Stress, don’t take it too hard on yourself. Learn to deal with it in a positive manner, it will give you pretty (and sometimes unexpected) results.
Grudges, they come and go. There will be too many of them for you to remember every single one of them. Take them as lessons learnt. The experiences gained will be valuable in your decision making should the same thing happen again.
So the trick is – learn to let go.
As I make slight progress towards my 8 year goal, steps have been made in place. Have shortlisted a few courses to take:
When will I be taking them, depends on my availability.. Definitely not this year, with the start of a new job (yes I won’t be an unemployed soon!) and the continuation of the current 4 students’ tuition and the start of Korean classes, I highly doubt I have time for other activities this year.
It had been a good 2 months break, which allowed me to set lifetime goals, making steps to fulfil lifetime dreams, spending more time to understand myself and what I want in life. I’m glad to say I have moved on 🙂
Looking forward to the new phase of life next month!
The subject doesn’t mean I am getting married (and no, I am not planning for it to be an April Fool’s joke too!). It’s just that at this current stage in life, I am looking at other plans on what I want to do with what remains of my life.
The good thing about being self-employed, is that I have tons of me-time. For the first time since I started schooling, this must be the longest break I’ve taken. This gave me the time to sit down and ponder what I want to achieve. While I have yet come to a conclusion of what I really want, it seems like my career path has changed tremendously. 6 years in the private sector, I won’t say it’s long – considering there are people who can be in the same job for more than 10 years. 6 years is enough for me to grow up at a horrifying speed.
I saw how cruel work life can be, by the name of politics. People say the way to outwit them is to join them, but I prefer to suffer silently. That’s how and what I am. Never one to step up and protect myself. I know the disadvantage yet I find it hard to do it.
I also saw how slow money earning is as a salaried worker. Which got me thinking – is this what I really want? I now have lots of ideas. Slowly taking one step at a time , I want to make them come to life! It will take a while, but I do think I can succeed. If I push myself further, I’m confident I can!
Who says resolutions can be made only when a new year comes? My new resolution, is not to be the one who has lost confidence in herself. While I try to find back the passion I used to have for blogging and photography, I might discover more of myself!
Yes that is it! I shall remain as positive as I can!
So i’ve made the decision to throw the white letter 🙂
Because I’ve got leave days from 2012 which couldn’t be encashed, it was a short notice period of 10 days!
From CNY day 1 till now, it was time well spent. So much so that no words can describe how exactly I am feeling right now.
With sanity back in check, it’s time to work on the next goal. 😀
By chance.. I wanted to spend some time reading up on blog posts of my social media friends.
Unintentionally, I found the root cause for 2012. DEPRESSION. Thanks to Vic’s blogpost.
Was looking through the symptoms of depression and thought why the symptoms all looked so familiar. A year it was with me, not too late to detect it now.
2013 will be good. Yes it will!
Every start of the year since 2010, I’ve been wanting to do a summary of the year post. Busyness took over the thought of it, unfortunately.
I had a post in 2010, summarising the year 2009. Couldn’t remember why it remained as draft. I should just publish the post, for the content reminded me why I loved social media back then, and how much fun I had. It also reminded me why I loved my job.
So I came up with a determination to do a summary for 2012/2011, despite it being mid-February-2013 now. Better late than never!
2009, in summary, was a year I got introduced to social media as a blogger.
2010, in summary, was a year I had LOTS of fun being a blogger.
2011 was a year I learnt how to play politics, simply because I was a victim and I needed to get out of it. Nevertheless, it was also a year I went on my first plane trip (to Korea!) and also my first business trip (which was my first solo plane trip too!). Also the year where I got posted to HK for work for several months. It was a tough 2nd-half year, with a work-project that had a steep learning curve. But I had fun due to the many firsts. First time experiencing winter, first time being away from home for such a long time.. And it’s also when I had to disappear from the blogging scene ‘coz I was far away from homeland..
2012. A year of ups and downs. The overseas posting worn me out. What came in multiples – politics, arrows. What came in negatives – sleep, enjoyment, passion. The year was very tough at work, with the multiples that came and the negatives that I didn’t have. Whatever passion I had was killed this year – passion towards work, passion towards social media, passion towards blogging, passion towards photography. All killed by the word “work”. No I’m not kidding. It was that bad. 2012 was a year I lost my passion for everything. I became a 行尸走肉 (corpse that walked) – everything I did was done by routine, it was done simply because it had to be done. There was no life injected in what was done.
There were a few takeaways for the year though!
And that pretty much sums up 2012.
Every start of the year since 2010, I’ve been also wanting to do a resolution for the new year post. “Resolutions don’t work for me” won the thought, unfortunately.
This year, however, I decided to set some goals for myself to achieve. Reachable goals.
Will these goals be reached? We shall see my determination!
The next immediate thing that I need to do.. is to start processing those photos that I have taken over the past years and upload them..
A random thought came across my mind when I saw Hock Chuan’s post on Facebook.
HC was my student advisor during my Temasek Poly days, when I was part of the Community Service Club. Me being me, I respect all my teachers ‘coz I’ve always thought that they being seniors in life, will have their reasons for doing what they do to us. Innocent thought it was, for someone who had no real experience in life other than a smooth 16 years of education under the comfort of the parents’ shelter.
Many years down the road, I’ve grown to really respect him as a mentor. For someone who had his fair share of downs – having survived 2 rounds of cancer operations and an unhappy ex-marriage where the other half left when he was first diagnosed with cancer, he has shown us that life is just not about what has happened to us. It is about how we perceived what happened to us.
Which reminds me of this quote that my Sec 1 Science teacher – Miss Tham Suet Ping – wrote in my autograph book:
Happiness isn’t about what happens to us – it’s about how we perceive what happens to us. It’s the knack of finding a positive for every negative, and viewing a setback as a challenge. If we can just stop wishing for what we don’t have, and start enjoying what we do have, our lives can be richer, more filfilled and happier. The time to be happy is NOW ~
HC has demonstrated very well of the quote above. He emerged as a stronger person from the downs. How do I know? From his Facebook posts. 🙂 Lengthy yes, and I am guilty of not reading word for word, but when I had the time to read friends’ posts, his posts are always inspiring. For it’s about him sharing his experiences and reflections about life.
Never once did his posts fail to make me reflect on my own life. Many a times I almost succumb to the challenges I was facing. Then I will be reminded that there are others who could be worse off than me. Also inspired by HC that all challenges come to you for a reason. If you are able to overcome it, you will definitely emerge as a stronger you.
My role model in life, I can never be as positive as him but I will try. 🙂
Footnote: I could have titled this as A Tribute To HC 😀
『我们等你!』is a local production that portrays the lives of students of Brilliante Secondary School – a school that accepts students who have failed PSLE at least twice.
Students who perform badly in schools, students who keep going in/out of reformatory centres are not necessarily bad in nature.
There is this Chinese saying that goes 『人之初、性本善』. Everyone is born with a good nature. It is the environment that we grow up in that molds our character.
Most are forced by circumstances, and have no proper guidance. Quoting from the show – 『我们所碰到的，不是问题学生，而是问题父母』. Some of the kids portrayed in the drama come from single parent families, some with parents with mental disorder etc. I feel heartache for these kids for they can’t choose which family to be born into. Yet in such circumstances, they have to fight for their own survival – sometimes just to catch the attention from adults.
In this civilised country of ours, these are the people who go around being unnoticed. Generally termed as bad kids. Yet all they need is more understanding and patience to guide them back to the proper path or some sorts.
This show, just like any hospital shows, gave me a sudden inspiration to join the teaching profession (again!). But the show has too-simplified the teaching life of the teachers (as feedback by my teacher-friends) that it (unfortunately) gives false impressions to teachers-to-be. Nevertheless, if you have the passion and patience, why not? :p