February 2012

When I was young, I was an average student, went to a neighbourhood school, had average academic results and achieved very little in my 10 years. It was only during my polytechnic years and after did I went overboard with all the academic achievements. Now, even my husband thinks I’m sick when he saw my polytechnic and university results. GAH.

So, every little achievements I accomplished in my primary and secondary schools I held on to them dearly. These are the only four achievements/awards/medals I had when I was a kid and now after being married and lived with another person in the same apartment, I decided to move on with life. It is time to junk these items but I thought I should write a little note on these memories just for the record.

Starting from the left to the right, here are some sneak peaks of my life when I was little.

The first award was given to my chinese dance group who competed at a Singapore Youth Festival Dance Competition in 1997 and attained a gold award. Yes, you can laugh, I was in the Chinese Dance when I was young, like many other little girls in the neighbourhood schools. I was very proud of what I did. We performed at various events, at Sentosa’s Musical Fountain (which no longer exist) and dragged my sister into this while doing all that. I was in the “blue” team dancing like the waves while she was in the “pink” team rolling around like pearls in clams in the underwater world. HAHA. She hated it but I absolutely enjoyed myself!

The second award was for achieving multiple gold awards in my physical fitness tests. I was light, fit and very skinny (23 inch waist and weighing below 40). I did all the jumping, reaching and running well.

The third award was given to recognize the service and contributions I gave being an alumni after I left school. My school thought with my alarmingly perfect score in my polytechnic grades coming from an average student with an average “O” level results can surely motivate some of their students, I gave a speech and shared what motivated me and how I achieved what I achieved.

The last award is the one I cherished most and the one which came the least expected. I was given the 3rd prize for our annual cross country meet. I used to be in the St John’s and often tried to skip cross country by volunteering my service as a “medic”. But in my third year, I didn’t managed to escape and had to run this race. The rules were simple, run with all your might, stay safe when running in the various terrains (uphill, downslope, through forest, jumping across muds, yes, it’s that bad because our school was right beside a track to the nature reserve), and they will then record the 4 fastest girls in the class to get the team results. I was simply in my own world, running with all my might, cursing in the wind and hoping I won’t fall flat and die. It was a relief when I completed the course and wished I could lie flat and not moved there after. When they called out my name to collect the award, I was certain that they got either the name, timing, face, or person wrong. “I” couldn’t be “it” but I got it. Now, when I look back, I can only hide in shame behind my huge ass which refused to even brisk walk. Gosh. How I wish I was feather light like before, floating in the air effortlessly. Damn you fat ass.