Resilience in the Face of Adversity.

Resilience

Originally uploaded by Scintt

Oh hai I’m back!

I shall deviate from posting in my usual dry style for today, due to crap that took place yesterday. I’m in dire need for a place to rant.

All the photos tagged with CTSS, the acronym for Clementi Town Secondary School – my sec school – are uploaded with bittersweet emotions. Sweet because I’m reminded of the happy moments in my school, but bitter because I was chased out by the school’s Operations Manager (OM).

Well, I didn’t sneak into the school just to take photos, ya know? I went back as I was needed to help the Scouts make final preparations for their upcoming NPC, a biannual Scouting competition in Singapore. I decided to bring along my camera since we are moving back to the original location of CTSS and I wanted to capture the rustic feel of the holding site.

When my juniors went for lunch, I stayed behind to take more shots, until the OM demanded me to leave. Since I was pretty much done for the day, I left. Amidst the hurry to leave, I had carelessly left my water bottle behind. I made haste back to the school to retrieve my bottle only to find the OM waiting for me. Of course, a rather polite, albeit rather lengthy, exchange of colourful words and courteous remarks ensued, minus the crumpets and English tea.

Well, to cut things short, he saw me as a threat to the school’s (more like an empty shell of a building, since almost everything had been moved to the original site) security, and accused me of trespassing, since I did not report to the guard. I told him that the guard didn’t even stop me in the first place. In fact, during the past two years of coming back to help the Scouts, the guards never did, which was why I didn’t bother approaching the guard. More astoundingly, there were two weird adult photographers who came before me, but were not stopped by either him or the guards.

In situations like this, any decent human being would stand his ground, right? Since my conscience was clear, I tried to explain my case. He would hear none of it, threatening to inform the police and confiscate my camera. Confiscate my precious D80?! Not when every bone is picked dry from my body; no way! I raised my voice (he claimed that I was shouting and disrespecting his authority) to get my point across, but to no avail.

So I whipped out my mobile phone and thrust it into his face, letting my attitude show and abandoning all sense of civility, whilst yelling at him to use my phone to call the police if he thinks I’m really in the wrong. And yes, I told him I knew my damn rights as a civilian.

Guess what? He said it would be a waste of time for the police! If that isn’t contradiction, I don’t know what is! LOL!

In the end, he let me go. Ha!

I’m glad that I didn’t stay silent and let him impose his wishes on me, still, I’m sad because all my hard work and time spent on coming back to help wasn’t appreciated. School still does blows even if you’re out of it.

The Economics of the School

Our School, being a very pragmatic institute of education, has always been very realistic in setting School Policies and examination questions. This is to ensure the proper grooming of our analytical and reasoning skills, so as to benefit society, and most importantly, the School. Thus, our School has always been very down-to-earth with subjects that require critical thinking skills and logical reasoning, such as Economics.

To prove it, let me, the highly-acclaimed Model Sophomore of the school, show you a generic Case Study question, set by the Pragmatic Teachers of Economics.

Are Students of the School getting more rebellious?

A common grievance among School teachers nowadays is that students are getting more lazy and defiant. Says Mdm. Teacher(Name removed to protect welfare of Teacher), “This is indeed atrocious. Our students are getting from bad to worse day after day! I thought the School has recently reviewed their personality profiles? Why isn’t there anything done to these deadweights to the School yet?”

Indeed, barriers to entry like laziness and defiance has only led to nothing but the adverse impact of School welfare. Not only does these economic barriers prevent information to be internalised into the core of the students, the School is also slowly losing its control over their well-being.

Source: The Economics Gazette of the School

Question 1: How then should the School respond to such an economic crisis?

In light of such an economic crisis of epic proportions, I feel that it is imperative for the School to employ emergency measures to combat this recession, but before I elaborate on the necessary measures that we should undertake, let me first start off my expounding on the theory behind such a crisis.

According to the theory behind the Central Problem of Students, laziness is a key factor to why students fail to complete assignments in time or at all. Although there are other reasons such as examinations to mug for or being unable to comprehend the question, we shall discuss this issue based on the fact that all students are lazy, ceteris paribus, since laziness is the main mental malady of students, according to recent surveys.

As students only take into consideration their Marginal Private Benefit(MPB), they fail to take into account the Marginal External Benefit(MEB) to society. Since MPB+MEB=MSB(Marginal Social Benefit), students compromise the School’s(society’s) welfare when they only care for their selfish whims of not doing assignments. They only consume up to MPB=MSC(Marginal Social Cost), and not up to MSB level. Hence, MSB is compromised as there is underconsumption of resources(uncompleted homework). This will create deadweight losses to the School. Allocative efficiency is not achieved, and therefore, the market fails.

Although some students may argue that the School dishes out too much homework, I feel that the School merely does that to increase both consumer and producer welfare. Sadly, not many students are convinced that the School only does it for their Greater Good. These students must undergo rigorous mental reprogramming, so as to enlighten them on School policies – for good. In fact, I feel that the School must increase the potency of its brainwashing directive, as students are becoming more resistant to its influence, which ought to be long-lasting. Hence, I propose that the School makes it mandatory for all students to go through a rigorous desensitisation programme at least once a week during Class Time, and sieving out the extreme cases either to neutralise them mentally, or physically, with the latter reserved for the most extreme of cases, or if we do not have enough funds.

There you have it! A perfect response to a typical Economics question set by our Economists. Everything ought to be for the Greater Good of the School, no?

The Model Sophomore

As promised, I shall provide some insight on the day-to-day duties of a Model Sophomore of the School. But before I touch upon that, let me first explain to you how us Model Sophomores are chosen. Details first, then the big picture – later.

Actually, we are not exactly ‘chosen’ per se. It’s more like we were required to be Model Sophomores. But how do they pick us from that flock of sheep that almost makes up the total population of our school? Simple. Remember that monthly personality quiz that we are required to attempt? Ingenious isn’t it? Of course, if you are an average Student of the School, don’t expect your name to be included in the List of Potential Candidates of Model Sophomores. Firstly, one has to be in Year 2 (as the title suggests) and secondly, one must also have the ideal personality profile. However, this type of isn’t exactly very prevalent in our School. In fact, it is so rare that the school is willing to ignore the fact that you may be a potential threat to the Greater Good. Of course, the usual brain-reprogramming still applies, but this time carried out in an intensity ten times the normal procedure.

Once you are identified as a potential candidate, you are automatically escorted to the Inquisition Room by Discipline Inquisitors. There, you will have to be grilled by the Inquisitorial High Psychologist, whose name happens to be Hannibal Lector (He prefers being called ‘The Mastermind’ and frequently refers to himself in third person). The Mastermind/Inquisitorial High Psychologist/Hannibal Lector would then commence an in-depth probe of your mental faculties by utilising a cocktail of novel and unorthodox methods such as hypnosis, truth drugs, rigorous psychological deprogramming, behavioral modifications and applying a potential difference across different areas of the brain, with the latter reserved only for the strongest of wills. Personally, I resisted all attempts of conversion to a Model Sophomore, until The Mastermind finally got so pissed, he connected a p.d. of 3000 volts across my noggin. However, I survived it, save for a few burns across my forehead. He finally increased it to almost 1.3 million teravolts, but that did not do much too. In fact, the electrical energy rebounded and killed everyone in the room, except for me and him, due to the fact that we both have uber-awesome psychic barriers. I only relented when he threatened to not register me for the ‘A’-levels, but that was before the School allowed me to have complete freedom, agreed to give me an allowance of no more than $50000 per month and a place in the Board of Directors, which is why I am using a public blog hosting site, instead of the one hosted by the School.

Of course, not everything is gonna be a real breeze when you are highlighted to be a Model Sophomore. In reality, the mortality rate of all the handpicked candidates is a whopping 96%! And even if you survive the inquisition, chances are, you’ll probably live out the rest of your traumatised life in some asylum (belonging to our dear Mastermind, for obvious reasons).

And before I forget, do remind me to talk about the duties of a Model Sophomore!

Of vectors and substitution of nucleophiles.

It was a relatively boring day in School today (as with most other days). For a start, my friend (yeah, the one who has to report to School twenty minutes earlier than usual due to late-coming) told me that the teacher who was in-charge of detention was a very Chinese-oriented teacher, and so he did not understand the ’subtle’ innuendos used in his letter. If it was the Discipline Master/Inquisitorial High Executioner of The Academia, the outcome would be a polar opposite of what happened today, save for the fact that the teacher-who’s-in-charge-of-detention actually found the letter rather well-written.

Maths class was a drag, because trying to comprehend 3D vectors on a 2D paper is synonymous to trying to come to terms with the existence of atoms in our known universe, as it is so difficult to visualise things that are hard to visualise. Are you able to comprehend the fact that there are permanent dipole-permanent dipole interactions(otherwise known as hydrogen bonding) of van der Waal’s forces of electrostatic attraction between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms of water molecules? And that it is this ’simple’ property of the simple covalent molecules of water, which is the reason why water exist as a liquid in room temperature and pressure, since these intermolecular forces of attraction are easily overcome? You don’t? Yeah, my sentiments exactly. Why can’t we just have a simpler reason of why water must be a liquid in normal circumstances? Like, if it exists as a solid in our daily lives, we would probably all choke and die when we drink it? Wait, did I just go off-course? Ah, nevermind, because I wanted to talk about the inanities of chemistry but I didn’t know how to start without angering the oxygen molecules in the air (the last time I pissed them off, they ionised themselves and electrocuted me).

Class time was rather interesting in a way, as we got to take a personality profile quiz. This is mandatory for all students of the School because they need to identify the people who are likely to stage a rebellion against the Greater Good of our School. But since I am the Model Sophomore of the Year for setting a good example of how to uphold our values, I was naturally excused from the inquisition. Of course, if one were identified as a potential threat to the Greater Good of the School, immediate psychological neutralisation of the potential anti-social would commence, in the form of confinement in the ‘Audio-Visual Room’ and subjecting the potential threat to constant brain-reprogramming and brainwashing by making the victim watch the Promotional Video of the Academia, Principal’s Principles Video and various other propaganda materials for all day for a month, with leeway given to daily necessities, such as writing reflections about the videos one has watched. This has, of course, completely removed the possibility of any errant students.

And yes, this is a typical day in our School. In the next post, to prevent the notion of me boring you, I will talk about my duties as Model Sophomore.

The Letter of Apology

Now, my friend used to be picked on by our rather efficient Discipline Committee because he is often late for school. Not that he wakes up late or whatsoever, but it’s just merely that the government-built public hovel he resides in is only an hour and a half’s travel away from our highly-acclaimed institute of academia. What’s more, the buses’ timings are usually highly irregular, and to make matters worse, the bus service slows almost to a standstill when the traffic is heavy. Therefore, it’s only natural for our remarkably apt Discipline Committee to mete out detentions to him. But wait! There’s more! Because of our highly-efficient Discipline Committee, who never fails to put the School’s Welfare before us students’, they decided that my friend must report twenty minutes before the official reporting time, so as to ‘correct his bad habit of arriving late to school’. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’m not being critical of the School’s Discipline Committee or management. I’m just commenting about their noteworthy modus operandi. After all, it is for the Greater Good of the School that they mould us into individuals of Great Character, no?

That is, of course, primarily why a suitable Letter of Apology is obligatory. The Letter will not only inform the higher-ups of the delinquent’s eagerness to change for the Greater Good of the School, but also to inculcate the morally upright values of humility into the offender. Alas, it was to the School’s horror that my friend had written a contemptuous and insincere Letter of Apology to our highly-regarded Discipline Committee. Now, our School isn’t the kind of academia to take such tomfoolery lightly. As such, they decided that it was only fitting to dish out another detention to my friend (at the usual 6 to 8pm time slot, of course), leaving him flabbergasted and reeling from the horrific revelation. After getting a grip of himself, he approached me to request for my help in writing another Letter of Apology, due to the fact that I was Model Sophomore of the School for upholding our hallowed values. Since I was Model Sophomore of our dear Institute of Higher Learning, it was only appropriate for me to educate and help those who compromise the Greater Good of our School to turn from their dastardly ways. Thus, it was only for the Greater Good of our School that I help him with the Letter of Apology:

Dear Chief Inquisitor of the Discipline Commitee,

SINCERE AND REMORSEFUL OFFICIAL LETTER OF APOLOGY (In block letters and bolded for the Greater Good of your eyes)

I am a mere, transient mortal from the class of whatsoever and I hath realised the utter magnitude of my deplorable transgressions, which hath indeed piled to the seraphic heavens above. I hath wronged thyself, and most importantly, I hath wronged Thou. Alas, the ways of Thou are unfathomable, and far supercedes my lowly mortal comprehension. For Thou Art an immaculate and righteous being of great eminence and virtue, and therefore, I implore of you, in all my mortal imperfections and secular nature, to show Thy boundless grace and infinite mercy on your subject, who is nothing but mere dust in your virtuous presence. Although I hath desecrated holy grounds and molested Thy holy ways, I still prostrate myself in your sight, grasping fervently to those thinning strands of hope that Thou might pardon my iniquities.

So please, Your Venerable Eminence, I beseech of Thou not to rain down divine retribution upon the wretched being of thyself, for who can stand in Thou great fires of devastating wrath? I know not how to placate Thou, and is reduced to merely cowering and groveling before Thou reverent figure. Let me prove to Thou by humbly allowing myself to be a subject of Thy Eminence. I hath realised my misdemeanors and shortcomings, and will strive towards the Greater Good of the Academia. For it is only for the benefit of the Academia that we exist.

And I promise you, I will never, ever, be late for school, ever again!

Yours ever so sincerely,

The Offender

And there you have it! A well-written, sincere and remorseful Letter of Apology. That should benefit the welfare of the School. After all, it is Discipline that keeps us from going down the wrong roads in life!

Who are you and what are your goals in life?

Remember this cliche but famous composition topic in your primary school years?

Remember how we, as simple and carefree children, oblivious to the ways of this secular world, took great pride in answering this topic within any qualms about what people may think of us?

Remember how we used to share with our peers about our innate desires and dreams?

Now fast forward to your teenage or even adult years and add in all the facades, rehearsed lines and materialism. Ask yourself these two simple, but deep questions again. Who are you? What are your goals in life? Much harder, eh? What do you find standing in your way? Is it your facade? Or is it what society perceives about you?

And when we’re so caught up with life, our inner self is being reluctantly snuffed out, just for the mere sake of temporal, superficial, materialistic wants. We neglect who we really and in a futile bid to shield our true selves from the merciless and harsh judgment of society, we put on a mask, carved out with such adept skill and full of clever, but subtle lies just to deem ourselves acceptable in the face of society. We conform to people’s standards on who we should be and how we should live our life like, and by doing so, we begin to forget who we really are. We relentlessly chase after the wind, and attempt to capture it without avail. We compare ourselves other seemingly more successful people in life, and repeatedly question ourselves about our failure to match up to them. We set unrealistic goals based on the material perspectives of society, and waste our lives trying to realise them, only to realise that we’ve been trying to reach and unreachable asymptote that is ‘our’ goals.

And after we realise all of this, it is usually far too late, and that facade that has been with us for all this while on planet Earth has grown so thick and sunk so deep into our faces that we forgot who we really are. It is so easy to assimilate into society, and neglate your inner being.

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is to you.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

So before that dreaded time comes, ask yourself these two questions again.

Who are you? What are your goals in life?

 

And no, please don’t ask me those two questions. *Shies away like a hypocrite*

Yeah, it’s me again.

And here I am, reborn in the new incarnation of my blog.

Why did I return to indulge myself in the arcane practice of online journaling after a hiatus of a few months? Well, I do not know for sure. Human instinct to be heard? Perhaps. Innate desire within all of us to have a say in this fast-moving and cynical world? Maybe. Or it could be the fact that I, as a simple-minded, superficial teenager, just wants to make a fool of myself online. I mean, what could be more foolproof than blogging about day-today happenings or your emotional self in the typical Singaporean teenager cutesy manner? I’m not saying that it’s mundane, but it’s just not my style. What’s that? Set my blog apart from the norm? Nah. I’m not that capable.

Anywayz, first post! Yaaaaaaaynesss!