Jiayou May

So school has started. It's now end of week 2 sem 1 of my year 2 university life.
Work has been really hectic because CA2 for my primary sch students are coming and prelims for my sec 4 students are around the corner as well.

So these two weeks I was just literally hovering around school and work everyday. (Right up from 8am class to 10pm end of work)

And I got to sleep for only around 4 hours everyday ...

Just two weeks of school felt like 2 months have passed :'(

3 months sem break coming to an end

2.43a.m.
Raining now. Intermittent lightning and thunders.
Alone at my home just like usual but super have the feel to blog at this moment.
Maybe because... today marks the 1st year 8 month of sweetheart's death anniversary.

My last blog entry was on 18 April 2016... And today is already the 21st July 2016. So it has been more than 3 months since I last blogged.

So many things have happened during this span of 3 months and I don't know which to start writing about. And if I really were to sit down and write about my thoughts on all of what have happened... I think I can sit here all day and all night to do so... Haha!

Basically the more major events are:

• Krabi trip with sec sch friends
• Organised birthday bash + housewarming at my house & it was a success =DDD
• Erina's wedding + Tuesday suppers with Erina, Sihui and Qihang (some others sometimes)
• Trisha's baby bash
• Pretended to be the "mother" of my little sister and went for parent-meeting session
• Gathered and brought my ex-students for a trip at Sentosa to have fun! =DDD
• NUS union camp 2016
• Joined NUS volunteering team (in charge of helping out orphanage in Cambodia this coming December)- bonding days, lesson planning meet-up(s), etc
• Admitted to hospital for being allergic to alcohol(?)
• Started teaching back some of my ex-students (Sophie, Kayvier etc) + started teaching Amaths for the first time (Junpeng!)
• Registered for Class 2A practical lessons and passed practical lesson 1. Left with 2 more pracs to pass before I can go for TP! :)
• Bought a ukelele and started ukelele lessons every monday (:
• Started going to gym regularly again but California Fitness suddenly closed down >:( (I paid 2k cash upfront for my 2 years membership omg. I'm still left with 1 year membership!!!!!!)
• Got to know several new biker friends =DDDD and I really like how brother they are hahah
• Met up with primary sch friends to catch up on our lives (Alson, Carmen, Yeeting)
• Met up with Joseph before he flies off for overseas working stint
• Met up with JC girls to catch up (Cassandra and Xinting)
• Started using snapchat every day and it seems to have become a part of my life now
• Tuitions, tuitions, tuitions

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Some reflections on how I have spent these 3 months:

I'm glad that I have really utilised my sem break to do all the things I planned out to do =DD

Ukelele has always been something I want to learn.. and I finally kick-started this learning process! I still have a lot to improve though... and I will try my best to make out more time to become better at it :))

Here are some snippets of snapchat videos I saved!










I've also made many friends throughout this period. =D Whether or not they would become mere acquaintances or not.. I guess that's fine as long as we have enjoyed one another's companion during those times we spent together :))
Also went out of my comfort zone to join events that involve group settings such as union camp, volunteering team for cambodia trip etc...and I think I am starting to get better in group settings. Slowly...but surely.. I have faith in this :')




















I'm so so so so so happy to gather some of my ex-students to bring them to Sentosa!!!!!! They are still as cheeky as ever. Haha =DD

I remembered organising this blind-folding game at the beach whereby the catcher has to be blind-folded and use a stick-like item to catch the rest of the people. A boundary is set by 4 slippers at 4 corners.


This is Nicole hitting the air and I snapchatted this down :P

When it was my turn to be the catcher, my ex-students were so naughty and they ganged up to play a trick on me. I remembered trying my best to keep running around but I couldn't catch anyone, not even 1 person when the boundary was so small!!! When I took out my blindfold, I found out they went to take the 4 slippers and expanded the boundary until SO big!!!! No wonder I cannot catch them! Lol! Roar!!!










 Still remembered those days when I first started teaching all of them.. I was taller than all of them! Now I am the shortest one already T_________T
Really love and miss all of my ex-students so much. Am always wishing they are doing good in their respective schools and growing up well :')


I know that when school starts and I have to juggle with school and work, it would be very difficult to catch up with many of my dear friends even if I want to so I made sure I meet up with them in my sem break and I did it! Teehee =DDDD


Dinner with primary school friends

Catch up with Joseph



VOGUE~


Baby tyriel's first month baby bash~ XD


Secondary school friends~


As it is my sem break and I have more free time, I took up additional tuition sessions with some of my ex-students again for the time being since their parents requested.

One of them is Kayvier!
Here is a short video of his cute response when I tried to give him clue for the answer. hahah.



To sum up my sem break... I feel this sem break is a really happening & fulfilling one for me. ^^
Thank you to all my old friends, close friends, new friends, students, ex-students, family members, whoever you are who made semester break such a meaningful one ((:


And it is approximately two more weeks to the start of a whole new semester of year 2 life in NUS.

Time to unfold a whole new chapter of my life (:





Stay strong and live on for those who lost the privilege of life, for life itself is a gift. <3
Live, to the fullest, everyday.

Missing you

1.25a.m.

Missing you badly sweetheart

You know, ever since you have been gone.
I have been emulating certain aspects of your behaviour, i.e your caring ways...


I refer this as "continuing your legacy"


Sometimes when I'm doing these
Part of me feel that you are living inside me

That is such a consoling feeling


But still, feelings of anguish still continue to overwhelm me from time to time....

*Wipe off tears and continue studying*

9 more days to finals

Time flies when things get busy. It felt like only 2 or 3 days have passed ever since I last blogged(?) but surprisingly it has been 2 weeks! :'(

For the past 1 week, my baby Honda PCX has been under maintenance at Mah ptd since it has reached 15k mileage already. And... I've been missing it so much! 

Finally got to collect it back yesterday~

Oh yes! I've officially turned into a 1-year-old licensed rider in Singapore last month XD XD XD

My baby with its probation plate :

My baby with its probation plate removed:

Doesn't it look so much sleeker and non-nooby now?! Hahahaha.

Actually I think I'm the one who makes my honda pcx look noob -_- because I'm so short and small size for a biker LOL

For those days when my bike was not with me ... Really gotta thank Zhengwei for fetching me to school by his car although he had to work.  =DD

Brought my sister to orchard library that day and we were shopping at some newly-opened Japanese store ^^ 

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Went for an interview at NUS today for a volunteering programme at Cambodia.

Interview was going so well until... the person asked about my weakness. 

I said I can be too emotional and let my emotions lead my behaviour instead of letting rationality lead my behaviour. 

Then that person asked me to give examples...

I chose to be honest and started talking about certain things I have done when Kal sweetheart passed away but even before I could speak at least 3 or 4 sentences, I ended up crying.

The interviewers immediately told me to stop answering this question and comforted me.

I became so disoriented later on that I even forgot to return the tissue pack to them after the interview omg T__T

Nevertheless, fingers crossed as to whether I can get to be one of the 20 volunteers in the programme. :'(

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So busy with my work that I hardly have time to study. And that builds up stress.

Really bad to have my finals coinciding with my students' mid-year examinations....

But as a tutor, I still have to stay committed and do what I need to do.

I'm gonna JIAYOU and CHIONG TIL EVERYTHING IS OVER!!!!!

YOU CAN DO IT MAY <3

Not feeling well

Vomited when I was riding my bike back home in expressway at 2 a.m. yesterday.

That feeling of vomiting yet I still couldn't stop riding because I was at the expressway - it totally sucks ... Never want to experience that again ...

I went over to my mum's place and she helped me to clean up the mess (all the vomit on my bike and on my clothings).

I thought I was okay already but today I vomited again after eating my lunch in school

Cancelled work.

Currently 6.10 p.m. I'm still in school canteen and it is raining heavily. Can't go home to rest yet.

Tummy not well still....... Feel like crying T___T

A day out with my lovely sister on Saturday

Work in the day; Out with sis from evening to night :-)

Goofing around in the bus trip haha

Brought her to have some delicious waffle and iced chocolate shavings ~

Here are some of the loots I have gotten from "1-1 @ Bras Basah Complex". XD 

Loving all the songs ~

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My tutor commented that my assignment 2 deviated towards feature writing instead of focusing on news article writing... and that I have completely ignored Reuter's style (a set of norms/rules that journalists adhere to so as to standardize writing). 

So right now... I am studying Reuter's style - so that I won't make these mistakes again.

Media law was taught last week and I enjoyed learning it... The subject isn't dry like how others claim since there are many interesting case studies to substantiate certain laws. The subject itself is also interesting - i.e. how laws are legislated in certain ways, under what kind of conditions can a context/case be argued to be an offence or be against the law.

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I just applied to be the next #TheTravelIntern!!!

Tuition every Thursday

I realized I've always been blogging about school and other stuff... and rarely on my tuition job!

So today, I'll like to spend some time posting about certain interesting things that happened in my work. XD

Today, Lynn (parent of a child I am currently coaching) was happily telling me how her daughter has scored well in her composition and her teacher even wanted to photocopy her composition and share with everyone in the class... As she continued to rattle on how glad she was because Reanne's weakest component had always been Chinese composition... I suddenly interrupted and said: "That piece of composition... I did it with her during tuition!"

Her lit-up face suddenly toned down drastically and she screamed in a seemingly amused manner: "REANNE!!!!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME TEACHER BOON MAY TAUGHT YOU ONE!!! GRRR! MAKE ME HAPPY FOR NOTHING!" 

Hahaha XD Her reaction was so hilarious! 

I also went to teach Jovan today. He is a mischievous, inquisitive and cute primary 4 boy whom I have been teaching for 1 year plus for now... I always laugh at him narrating his stories with lots of sound effects. He always like to ask very weird, you can say out-of-the-box yet hilarious questions... 

I remembered once.. our conversation went something like this:

Jovan: Teacher Boon May, how do you know a person is a boy or girl?

Me: There are a lot of ways to see it. Obviously for your age, the hair length would be the most obvious characteristic to determine a person is a boy or girl, right?

Jovan: But teacher! I have this Indian classmate who has long hair but he tells me he is a boy. 

Me: Ahh, then maybe you can see if he goes to the male toilet or the female toilet?

Jovan: But teacher! Maybe my Indian classmate is a girl but this Indian classmate just wants to go to the boy's toilet?

Me: Easy! If he is using the urinal, the thing that boys pee on in toilet.. then he must a boy because he can "aim" his urine there. Girls cannot "aim" when they stand up and pee! 

Jovan: Teacher, you are wrong. Guys cannot aim when they pee one. Like me ah.... when I pee... "WOOOOOOO" the pee everywhere one!!!

Hahahaha. I swear the way he described the sound effect in a very animated manner was really so cute and funny =D

Today... I got a shock when he asked me if I had a "gang" when I was in primary school because he has a "gang".

I laughed and said: "I wouldn't say I have a gang, but I would say I have groups of friends! Jovan, gang is usually used to refer to a group of people who do bad things, really bad things, like hitting innocent people."

While he nodded and seemed to completely understood what I meant.. He still continued using the word "gang" to describe the group of friends he had in school and all the mischief they had been up to.. as though he loved the word "gang" so much... Lol.. Kids XD

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Share a song that I heard from a busker outside Yew Tee mall today...

Was actually running late for my work but this song managed me capture my attention. Ended up, I stood there to listen to the entire song and was so satisfied with the song that I went up to contribute some money to the busker haha.

Well.. why I was so intrigued by this song was because... if you listened to the song, you would realise.. the lyrics are really depressing. And somewhat they relate to my life experience a lot.

YET...

That happy melody and the way the song is being sung... are a complete contrast to the depressive lyrics!

"Just like the flowers, I'm growing wild" - this part of the lyrics seem to illustrate an implicit meaning together with the melody associated with positive connotations. This is the part I like the most haha.

Amazing ((:

As I was slowly passing 
An orphan's home one day, 
I stopped for just a little while 
To watch the children play. 
Alone a boy was standing 
And when I asked him why, 
He turned with eyes that could not see 
And he began to cry. 

I'm nobody's child, 
I'm nobody's child. 
Just like the flowers 
I'm growing wild. 
 no mummy's kisses 
And no daddy's smile. 
Nobody wants me, 
I'm nobody's child. 

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Happy things worth remembering/mentioning:

-Mimi accompanied me to eat at my favourite Xin Wang Cafe after work today! =DD (Our jolly "hello", remember? Hahaha!!)

-Rai agreed to lend me his DSLR so that Derrick and I can film a short video to try to apply for being a travel intern next Monday! =DD

-Next Friday is coming! And that means I get to meet my girls soon. Miss them so much

-Week 11 of university. Heading nearer to the end of everything and this means... 3 MONTHS OF FREEDOM!

-Done GER1000 executive summary with a bunch of efficient groupmates on Wed ((:

-Teacher gave really useful insights on my NM2101 assignment so I have a clearer vision on how to approach it

-Parent from my tuition (Eugene) bought me a handphone stand that can be mounted onto my motorcycle. SAY BYE TO BEING ALWAYS LOST WHEN I TRY TO GO TO A NEW PLACE.

-Was so hungry and sleepy yesterday after a long day in school but I got a pleasant surprise when ZW drove down to dapao me some really delicious food =DDD

Boatquay

So therapeutic there.

Why we should speak up

Last semester, one of my professors asked for feedback openly in class. Thinking that since she values feedback so much that she could ask in class, I gave an honest negative feedback in front of my classmates. To my horror, she immediately snapped and some people in the class even made sounds like "orh hor..." which kind of made the entire atmosphere even worse.

I went back, pondered about what exactly did I do wrong - was it misunderstanding? Did she interpret wrongly? Or did I just phrase my feedback too flagrantly?

Later on, I couldn't stand the feeling of leaving things hanging (since now we are in bad terms but we still need to see each other in tutorial classes). So I took the initiative to clear things up with her and offer my apologies.

Thankfully, she's cool and over about it.

In fact, our relationship became way better than any typical student-teacher relationship in university after that.


Now.. that's not the point of why I am talking about this incident in my post today....

To get to the main point.. let me back track a bit..

During the period when I told my friends about this incident - I remembered very vividly some of my friends said, "Boon May. You need to learn to live in the reality. You should only bootlick the professor, never argue back and ask less questions so you won't annoy him/her so much."

What they had said struck me. Not because I feel that what they say were true and I should change the way I am to "adapt to the reality" but.. because what they say were strongly against my consonance.
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Firstly, I don't bootlick, and have never booklicked anyone else in my life before. I think that it might be due to the some high ego in me that I never booklick others.. This can be a big disadvantage in my life.. I know that long ago - but I won't concede. Because I always feel If you can build good relationships with others through sincerity and goodwill, why do you have to booklick?

Another reason is that I grew up treating everyone the same and this isn't something that can be changed within a day or so.


So yeah. Bootlicking is a big NO-NO for me.


Secondly, if something is wrong, I will always speak up. Some people see this as "arguing back" but to me, there is a fine line of difference in these two.


Thirdly, I always believe if we don't know something, we should always ask questions. Or else we will not get anywhere. Even if after asking questions, we may not get the answers we want.. we may appear stupid..


But the thing is, at least after asking questions maybe from person X and person X couldn't give the answers we want.. we would now know that we have to find other ways to get answers.

It means we are taking a leap forward and becoming clearer to where we should get our answers, isn't it?

This brings me to the point I want to talk about today - Asking questions.

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This semester, I met the toughest, most sarcastic and most unhelpful professor I have ever met in my life.

Every question I posed to her was rebounded back with sarcastic or harsh comments.

It is no wonder nobody has asked her questions during and after class except me all the times.


While I have to admit, sometimes I do ask questions out of convenience.. But most of the times, my questions are really legit.

I remembered doing something really meticulously and wholeheartedly.. spent the entire day and came up with something to show her and asked if what I have done are alright. and I got the harshest reply from her in something like this: "I won't entertain things like this. Why are you spending so much time doing some thing that will waste your and my precious time? Please make use of your time wisely."


First, my heart sank. And then later, I got angry. I felt like... all my efforts have gone to waste. Instead of providing me constructive feedback, why did the professor have to sound so mean? My dislike for this teacher started to build up.

I started to doubt myself - Am I really wrong in asking questions? Because every time I ask a question, all I get back from her is a harsh or sarcastic remark and it felt like I got slapped in the face every time and it hurts.

Until today.

We were supposed to have a make-up class at 2 p.m. today. Having been released from my second tutorial early, I decided to go for the make-up class half-and-hour early.

To my dismay, I found out that this professor I dislike also went early.

"Should I just leave and come back at 2pm?" this question sprang into my mind.

"No, let's just have a talk to her and see how it goes," I thought.

And so..

I greeted her, sat beside her and we chatted for 30 minutes.


To my surprise... her demeanor when she talked to me 1-1 was so different from how she was usually like in class - that angsty and sarcastic tutor whom perpetually seems to have this "come near me and you will get it from me." that kind of aura.

When she spoke to me 1-1, she was cheery - all smiles and courteous.

Somehow, she knew that I was working and studying at the same time (which I don't know how come she knew) and asked how I was coping with my studies.


I replied, "Average" and what she replied me was something I have never expected coming from a professor...

"Coming from my experience, results are really nothing. Really.


"Remember the two things that you would always need: First, you must be able to accept feedback.. feedback from anyone, your boss, your colleague, your partner, whoever. Second, you must be thickskinned. Very thickskinned.


"And you know what Boon May? From my classes I have with you... the way you dare to ask questions... I can see you are a very strong girl. And I'm sure this will bring you a long way ahead even after you graduate from university. Believe me."

I was speechless when I heard her saying that.


My impression of her took a reverse turn drastically.


From what she said about "must be able to accept feedback", a sudden realisation came to me -
So all along... she was being mean for this reason!


She wanted to train her students to be able to take criticisms and be more resourceful.


And.. all along, I felt like I appeared stupid in her eyes because of her harsh comments.

Yet I was so wrong.


Contrary to that negative and silly interpretation of my side, I appeared to be "strong" to her for daring to ask questions.


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So... this brings to the conclusion and the morale of why I want to share this experience of mine..


Sometimes... why we choose to be passive - because being passive is within our comfort zone. We don't get hurt, don't appear silly and in fact, we appear like we know everything.

But actually, we have a lot of things we do not know. But that's okay -

And it's okay to appear silly to ask questions even if these silly questions might hurt us. Because we learn. We learn to ask better questions. We learn that if we can't get answers from asking questions from a particular someone, we can always be resourceful and get our answers elsewhere than to be stuck at the same stage. And most importantly, we learn to accept negative feedback so that they won't hurt us anymore.

Because ultimately.. I strongly believe we will become the clever one emerging from all those people around us who think we appeared silly.




Ending off with this quote that I concur with =)

So tired & missing sweetheart

5.58p.m. now. Currently in NUS Biz Library.
Going for work soon.

Have to interview communication manager from AWARE after work.
Gonna finish up my infographic by tonight.

2 more days to my official 1st year of being a licensed rider in Singapore.

Need to settle the renewal of insurance and road tax tomorrow~
Still can't find any documents regarding my motor insurance T_T

Been so busy

Diligently living my life

Guest speech on 10 March 2015:



A picture taken with my Responder Critique, Simon and my tutor, Miss Cardoza! :-)




A picture captured by yeeting when I was speaking XD



Dinner with Xin ting at Breko's Cafe :)















I'm so honored and happy to be given the chance to speak as a guest in one of the GEM2027/GET1008 lecture! Still can't believe I did it anyway =DDDDDD

Not sure if anyone heard of this saying before, but one of the greatest fears for people is actually public speaking!


For myself personally... I used to be such a timid girl back then in primary school who don't even dare to raise up my hands and ask if I could go to the toilet....

And then...
10 plus years later... I actually gave a guest speech to 150++ people which to me... is such a great achievement. T____T

I'm so so thankful for everything and for everyone who supported me.
Will never forget this <3


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Single Parent's Day on 12 March 2016





















Went down for Single Parent's Day event and listened to some of the speakers who talked about their stories.. Can't help but to go to one of them and hugged her! Rai captured the image of us talking to each other after the hug haha ^

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Volunteered for ChariTeach photoshop and spent my day (9am-5pm) learning the various techniques in Photoshop~~ =D

A poster I've done with the guidance of the instructor~ =D

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 You know... there'd people out there trying to break you, but...

always remember, how you perceive yourself is more important than how they perceive you.

<3

Always remember this: You're AWESOME

NM2101 midterms tomorrow

Study plan for NM2101 midterms for 6/3/2016

1. Familiarize the key terms in the textbook

2. Memorise the more important key terms in the textbook

3. Read the required chapters in the textbook. (Understand briefly what is covered there)

Chapter 1 pg 3-21

Chapter 3 pg 47-70

Chapter 6 pg 108-130

Chapter 8 pg 155-163

Chapter 4

Chapter 7 pg 142-146

Chapter 8 pg 173-178

Chapter 14 pg 293-307

Chapter 17 pg 375-376

Chapter 9 pg 185-200

Chapter 10 pg 201-216

4. Read lecture notes & mind maps again

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

5. Review tutorial questions

Tutorial 1

Tutorial 2

Tutorial 3

Tutorial 4

6. Review forum questions

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

7. Write down the concepts/materials in a paper that are likely to come out tmr based on teacher’s hints

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Where are you Mimi, I'm worried.

3 more days to starting of school again!

WHY DID MY RECESS WEEK JUST FLEW BY LIKE THIS T_____________T


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Right now I am reviewing the persuasive speech which I am going to showcase on 10 March. Taking account of the feedback that Miss Cardoza had given me, I am going to edit it and present a new version on that day. Gonna get this done by today so at least I have about 2 weeks to practise!


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HAPPY NEWS: Received an e-mail informing me that I have gotten accepted for being part of a volunteering event in NUS! The happier news is that Sheryl would be joining me for this XD

I can't wait!




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Met up with yiqun to study yesterday. But other than studying, we played bball, played stress, watched less than half a movie, and eat. It was quite fun haha. He is such a noob at playing stress but somehow he can always find the chance to "stress" me and make me lose. Lol!

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Went to work today - Natalie's and Celine's tuition.

Celine and her family is going to move to Shanghai soon T___T gonna miss them. They are such lovelies.

Meeting up with sec sch mates :-D

21 Feb 2016

Been so long ever since I met these crazy, bubbly and as usual nonsense as ever peeps from secondary school :P

We had lots of fun eating the fried chicken, potato wedges and maggi and talking to one another as well as playing "stress" and "in between."

It was so funny - the way the game was like. I'm basically the one who always throw in all my money and say "ALL IN" and either win a lot or lose a lot. 

Cheryl is the one who would be like, "20cent only" "20cent only k" hahahaha, as usual her pattern :p

Belle is one whom I don't know why ended up losing until left so little money and qihang kept giving her chances. LOL.

In the end we just said, let's not care about the money and call it a game. XD

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22 Feb 2016

Went to school to finish about 6-7 psychology research participatory experiments for my PL1101 at one shot; headed to work; came back home; studied with qihang 

:P

23 Feb 2016

Planned up a list of things I gotta do today, let's be productive, GOGOGO.