Nurture

PM Lee just said spoke on behalf of the MOE "In schools, we have caring teachers and a nurturing environment."

Having experienced that, I might add that a few cooks do spoil the broth by being unusually discouraging.

Just recently in an Econs lesson last week, I was in awe when the Econs teacher went "I mark your essays until puke blood! Marked them until 2a.m!" No matter how much dissatisfaction or frustration she feels, that should be the last thing to be said to an already very discouraged class especially when the class has consecutively been claiming the 1st position from the bottom for 2 semesters.

Contrastingly, I have an incredible Lit teacher who is extremely encouraging and motivating. On the individual level, I receive scripts with "Jac, I appreciate the hard work and effort." etc, and on a class level, she constantly reminds us with every assignment that she has marked that she see us making improvements and putting in lots of effort into it. We are reaching there and we have to continue persevering.

In the same school, with all teachers playing the same role of wanting their students to succeed; some live up to the name of being caring teachers, while some unknowingly ruin students' self esteem and pride.

What say you

Of yesterday?

I've been indulging in mindless thoughts, prioritizing and re-prioritizing over and over but they are all merely thoughts left unspoken in my head.

I am craving for such simplicities, but the world has evolved so much that I simply cannot neglect my material welfare among other responsibilities and expectations to live up to. I wonder when will that day come when I realise that all the pursuits are for nothing because I have lose track of the simple things in life.

And I don't wish for that to happen... but I can't help it. All the external pressure and stress placed upon me have got me so succumbed.

The poor have the poor's worries; the rich have the rich's unhappiness; the remaining are left fighting to be above the poor and will eventually still be contained by the rich's power.

If sleeping could solve the world's problems, I'd gladly sleep a lifetime away.

Everybody's the same; we hear only what we want to hear.

These days, who really listens?

Lost in transition

Mixed emotions as I stepped into the house I once had grown so accustomed to playing with my cousins. I was stifled the moment I walked in. Tension built up in the atmosphere as my brother and I waited in the living room. It was a foreign place to us now, despite the physicalities not changing much at all. We have grown much, grown distant from the childhood we once had.

It's 2 more months to my paternal grandma's first death anniversary. The 2 of us bowed in respect to her tablet while my uncle handed to us what she had left behind. And I realised, she had been the constant thought in my mind this past year. Every night, moments as I lay in bed with the day's events flashing through my eyes, just out of the corner of my eye, the image of my grandma, hung by her neck at the windows of her flat, stayed in my mind, for every single night.

I have personally witnessed both my paternal and maternal grandmothers' death. Then, I was merely 4, lost in the chaos as ambulance sirens wailed in the distance, paramedics flooded the place, I was just standing there, watching my maternal grandma lying on the floor with the chair toppled and yet way too young to really understand what really happened.

Both of these last images of what I saw of my grandmothers have left such a deep imprint in my mind. After 14 years, and 1 year, respectively, I can still close my eyes and immerse myself in the replaying of the scene so clearly.

One has left peacefully, while another has left with hearts and family ties broken.

Grappling and still grappling with it, wondering what I will be like in the future, and how much of a grandmother I will be remembered as.

Every subsequent future mid-autumn festival, I will be reminded of the harshness of reality, of her message delivered to us on that very day, of how much the entire extended family has fallen apart; with her death loosely threading the blood lines together. The emptiness I feel is irreplaceable and unforgettable.

But life goes on; and so should everyone else's too.

A pause

Take the time to breathe and notice how we've neglected simple functions... and enjoy the video

Amidst all the buzz in our lives that don't really matter 20, 50, 70 years down the road, these are the significant things in our lives that ought to be remembered and cherished.

Inflation

Then, we wished for a million dollars

And now...

We wanna be billionaires.

Blame inflation.