A new direction?

This is the start of my exam period, and tmr's my first paper. But I have such a surge of overwhelming emotions that I really want to pen down at this minute.

As most people would have known, I have been pursuing my dream of becoming a doctor since 5 years ago. For so long, I've been so persistent. And last year, if you follow my blog, you would know that I failed my medical interview. Hence I am now in NUS Life Sciences instead, still reading a discipline I love, just that I didn't get to fulfil my dream. Earlier this year, I was contemplating whether I should go for a second round - try applying again to NUS medical school. I was given a GPA not super outstanding but enough to apply for medical school. About a month ago, I sent in my second application. Like the previous try, I held a hope - but this time, I held no expectations. Have had quite a few phone conversations with Jianeng over this and as usual she would give me support in anything I do. I'm really blessed this lifetime with parents, godsiblings and bestfriends who would give me full support in anything I wish to pursue.

Now, I'm waiting for results, and preparing for semester exams at the same time, also have a MOE Teaching Award interview in May. A uni friend in my clique, Cipto, went for it and got it, so happy for him :D. If you are wondering why he has such a funny name, he's Indonesian chinese haha. So it's pronounced as "Chip-Toe" lolx. I was actually not very sure about the MOE Teaching Award - as in... I don't know if I really do want it. People have been telling me to think seriously about it cos a teaching career does demand alot, and I should explore more career opportunities before jumping into a scholarship that will tie me down for a 3-year bond. Moreover, teaching is not dream like medicine is.

Precisely because I wasn't sure, I applied for both medical school and teaching award to give myself more time to think about it. I'm seriously considering a teaching career. I don't know if this will change if i were to be given a place in medical school, as it would be too attractive an offer to turn down. But one thing for sure now - I really like teaching.

I find this really surprising myself. 2 months ago I started to give tuition - home tuition to a girl for H2 Biology, and 2 classes (sec 1 bio/chem as well as sec 2 bio/chem) at a tuition centre situated near Jurong East MRT. For confidentiality I will not reveal any information about individual students but I do wish to write abit about my classes at Jurong.

Sometimes I really wonder whether it's me who's learning more at the classes or my students. When I just started, I had no prior teaching experience. So I went through the syllabus content like bullet-train. I thought the pace was right, because it felt right to me. Never have I put myself in the shoes of my students, and understand that the content IS difficult for them as it once was to me when I was at their level. I just felt that it's easy to me now and I went really fast. During the 3rd week or so a student feedbacked to me in class that I was going too fast. That was when I gathered my first learning point. That I should look at things from my students' point of view.

And then there was a time they asked me to share with them about myself. And I told them something personal. Right after that, two of them shared something personal about themselves too. And this was what one of them said: "Teacher, you be our friend lah, then we can talk about our own things and share it." I was so touched that moment. This next learning point is about sharing -that sharing really does break down many barriers. The other thing I learned is about establishing a friendship on top of a teacher-student relationship. Sometimes it's good not to try portraying yourself superiorly, instead, see them like friends and people on the same level as yourself.

Connecting with people starts from there, for the first step to overcoming differences is to overlook them.

And then just yesterday, I received this email from one of my sec2 students that melted my heart. It was titled: "Special Thanks". I don't know, but I was really touched by the content. I guess it is these simple words of gratitute that keeps a teacher going. Even though it's a tiring journey, a teaching profession really is very much a rewarding journey of self-discovery, where a teacher is both a student and a teacher throughout his/her career.

Hurtful truths of life

This is a story of a child (a grown-up adult whom I know) and her mother who gave her away when she was barely 1 year old. The child never knew about the truth until one day she found her original birth certificate. She later met up with her biological mother. Read the extract of their dialogue below keeping in mind the fact that they have already known the names of each other after the meeting.

Child calls birth mother on her mobile and this is a small extract of the beginning of their phone dialogue.

Child: "Hello, are you xxxxxx (name) ?"
Mother: "Ya, who are you?"
Child: "I am xxxxxx (name)."
Mother: "Huh? Who is xxxxxx?"
Child: "I.... I am your biological daughter. We met that day."
Mother: *pauses for a while* "Oh... you mean last time one lah..."

Last time daughter, now not anymore? You can never imagine how much hurt these words have done to the child.

Trip to the Zoo

I went on a trip to the zoo just two days ago with the life science cohort, a lab session under our Biodiversity module. This module rocks - we got to visit the Zoo free, trek Kent Ridge, explore the Changi Beach shores in great detail. And we got to see live animals like fat worms and hairy spiders in the physiology lab :D

Daryl's bag..oh no...


One of my secretly taken photos =) See the grey shirt guy on the right? He's Jeremy - our TA. He's a lifescience graduate pursuing masters/PhD. Coincidentally he was also from NJC, but that's a couple of years ago...


And the woman in dark blue on the left.. is Dr. Ng Ngan Kee =) main lecturer of this module.


Daryl acting spastic with the zoo tickets

Rhino! I think this is one of the many places in the zoo that.... has a really NICE" smell of Animal Poo. =X Another place is the place where the goats are. (haha reminds me of ken gorgor oops)

Jiafang, Jeremy, Hadi, Kianleong, Keehong...in order from left to right.

This Meerkat was standing in an upright position when I spotted it but it went down again when I was about to snap. :(

Lioness

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" ... why is this lion sleeping in the day :(

Leopard

This photo is a little eerie =/

Jeremy explaining some stuff to us

I wanted to take a photo of the bat hanging next to this bat, but I decided to snap this instead - guess why - cos the bat next to this bat was fanning itself away. Weather too warm in Singapore =l

This is really huge :S

Some green lizard

Giant Tortoise

Haha.. Ah Meng's relative, not sure which one though. But this guy was really spontaneous. He came forward to the glass pane upon seeing the tourists taking out their cameras.

Cute little penguins :D

Naughty pelican.Tried to snatch Aizhi's pen with its beak.

Kangaroo and Wallabie

Zhisheng's favourite White Tiger


Malayan Tapir

Lastly, 15 Great Apes with their clothes on - Hahaha...