In secondary school, I hated the mounting, innumerable
assignments and have difficulties completing them, so I ended up
doing languages homework more since I prefer them, copying maths
and science from friends. Life was all about school, CCA and home,
rinse repeat. God damn 10-year series though.
Upper secondary was one of the best time I had, since you're
with a few hundreds other students preparing for the 'O' and by
then, active in the CCA you're in. Played hard and studied hard,
and it was fun since the school was opened till night for studying.
Really enjoyed the support and company of friends and teachers.
Entered polytechnic, decided on Mechatronics course since I
believed that that's the best option instead of pursuing IT/Games
design [My preference] and Business/Mass Comm [Popular choices
then]. Suddenly, there was this freedom and in my course, I met
people I've never met before in my secondary school and it was
wild, good times. Became a little rebellious, lax in homework and
just having fun around school. Since exams in polytechnic were I
would say, very manageable [Prof sharing tips, reviewing past
papers], we're hanging out in town areas before exams, overnight in
every possible McDonalds studying and what not. I guess I did
alright overall though but then the military called and the
student's life paused.
Now, university was a different thing altogether. Initially, I
was thinking, how hard could this tertiary level education be as
compared to polytechnic and was rudely awakened by my first
semester results. I guess that shock really brought me back to
reality and in a way, it humbled me and I became a little more
studious. While my results have been pretty much average, I began
to understand things I didn't realise before, such as derivations,
how the world works and things around me. It is still a painful
experience and I'll say it's one of my darkest days of feeling
depression, bottled anger and sadness, but it also made me
independant and much more confident. While I enjoyed life in sec.
and poly, it was only in uni did I began to appreciate it.
In a way, I would say, it's not what's written in the textbook
that's important to me, but how I approach the situations, that
have equipped me for things to come after studying. Time
management, preparation and understanding became obvious to me as
crucial elements in life.
But you know, it is still kinda sad, bordering on disgusting
when I see Uni students take MC to avoid certain subjects and I've
always told myself, it's better to try and attempt the situation to
my best abilities than run away from it, cause afterall, I would
not be able to sleep well, more so since it's not my money that
have been used to pay for my education.
