Teenage Life
Teenage Life
After some serious consideration - in the past minute - I have decided to do a post on "teenage life". Hey, everyone's different so I'm just going to share based on my perspective and slot in some of my experiences as a teenager.
So they say that a teen is considered a "teen" when he or she is between 12 and 20 years old. So as long as your age has the "-teen" part at the end, you're a teen, if not, you're no longer one. As such, I feel pretty old right now. Well, OLDER, anyway.
At 13, most Singaporeans go through this education system called "secondary school". At that age, everybody probably thought they'd have more freedom. Perhaps, even have the chance to go wild and free in school every day and the teachers wouldn't care less? RED BUTTON. That's a CRAZY misconception I keep hearing of!! Yes, while it is true that as you grow older, you get more freedom, but I believe now as I look back - and I thank God my teachers believed the same - you don't know anything yet. That is why the rules are still enforced. You still get punished for violating the school rules. You still get demerit points depending on the severity of your mischievous acts. Why? Because JUST at 13 years old, you're given more freedom. You've only JUST been exposed to freedom. So that is where we all begin to figure out just how to control that wild, beastly fire in our hearts. Our every word and action has an impact - good or bad, or even both.
I must say though, I was boring as heck. I obeyed everything simply because I couldn't care less about rebellion. But I was mixing with the wrong company. Since I simply took in whatever came my way, you could say I unknowingly rebelled. But as soon as I was aware of the consequences, my defiance died down and I went back to being my boring self.
Teenagers have a lot to figure out. Thanks to puberty, we have quite a tough life. Well, I'm not just talking about the physical part, but I believe it's also the mental and emotional side of us. But while it was tough, just like refining a ore, sometimes we're just put in the fire to be refined to be better people.
Often I found myself getting agitated, downcast or jovial really quickly. I saw this a lot in my classmates as well. It'd take me a few days to sort things out in my mind before I realised how silly I was. But hey, at least I finally bothered to do something, out of my usual boring cycle of thoughts. Realising that looking at the bigger picture of things makes you look less foolish, that is.
With the mental and emotional stress that I received around that age, I quickly found things to do to take my mind off the things bothering me.. or as Singaporeans would say, to "destress" myself. One of my "destressing" methods was singing. I came home and sang to an empty house. Every day. Without fail. I didn't understand the meaning of soundproof walls at that age so I couldn't care less about my neighbours. Nobody complained anyway.. Another "destressing" method was to write poems. Till today, I still write in it, though not as frequently as before. (click here to view it)
So at 14 or 15, of course, just like my friends, I was eager to fall in love. Many of my friends in school were attached. I was attached... but the relationship ended a few months before I officially turned 14. Strangely enough though, both of us ended on mutual agreement and we simply had no more feelings for each other. I guess that is what people call it, the "puppy love". Perhaps I grew out of that puppy love and was in search for the "real love". I never really learnt what that was in school. Only the general things like the various stages of physical intimacy... Safe stages... Grey areas... Danger zone... I'm not sure if every school went through sexual education, but yup, this was what I learnt during "sexual education". That is, about what relationships are.
I was also exposed to the teachings of the human body and some brief explanations on sexual practices and talks about tampons and what not (sorry there, I come from a girls' school). Believe me, I never understood the whole section about the sexual practices because I didn't understand what masturbation was. I thought it was some sort of mutated human being or something because I recall having seen that word on the screen, followed by a drawing of the human body which looked a little weird... Hence, I concluded that masturbation was referred to a mutated human body....
WHICH I LATER FOUND OUT THAT WASN'T THE REAL MEANING OF THAT WORD.
a w k w a r d ...
Though in search for love, I think it was pretty cool I learnt a different kind of love.. One that is not the romantic kind, but the kind between friends. Through all the fun, mischief, jealousy, stress, birthday surprises, studying and so much more, I cannot begin to express my gratitude for FRIENDS. They help you, accompany you (just as you accompany them because without each other, we'd all feel so lonely), guide you, pull off stupid pranks with you, have stayovers, study hard and play hard together, discover the grossest things on earth and create interesting hobbies that no adult would ever understand the idea of doing what you guys do together...
Fun. Everyone who experienced most of that ^, congratulations, you've had a great "teenagehood".
Pivotal moment here.
As I was saying, I was searching for love. And I found it. Not in my school. But FINALLY, like some of my other friends, I had set my eyes on someone. 15. I was in love with Taylor Swift's song back when I was 14. I heard that song, "Fifteen", over and over. I couldn't wait to fall in love at 15 and finally sing it. By God's grace, a man appeared before me and I seized the opportunity like a desperately hungry cave woman. It took me every bit of me to step forward, say hi, and start a conversation.
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO START UP A CONVERSATION TOPIC WITH YOUR CRUSH?
WHAT TOPIC WOULD BE BEST?
I DON'T WANT HIM THINKING I'M A SHALLOW-MINDED IDIOT.
BUT HE LOOKS REALLY MATURE AND INTELLIGENT.
CAN I BEAT THIS? CAN I COME UP WITH A GOOD CONVERSATION TOPIC?
IS THIS CONVERSATION TOPIC GOOD ENOUGH?
WHAT IS A CONVERSATION??!!!??!?!?!
I'M DYING.
Yep. and I had a friend there with me at that scene. Giggling away. Not doing anything. But giggle.
I fell in love at 15 and I couldn't stop falling deeper and deeper in love with him after being complimented of my poems and getting his MSN email address and chatting with him and discovering how EXTREMELY SIMILAR we were. Familiar?
To some others, it might be a lot of bickering that the "couple" later on finds out is their sign of chemistry between each other. But for mine, it was pretty obvious. I made the first move in so many things. But did he feel the same way?
He didn't tell me anything but I was crossing my fingers and hoping so much that he did feel the same way. He was probably not exactly.. hot.. but to me he was charming, sweet, polite and VERY intelligent. Who wouldn't want a guy like that?
A year later, he sorta confessed. I found out I was his first so he had no idea what to do or say. I didn't really care. I was probably the kind of girl who didn't care if the girl or the guy was the one who initiated the relationship or whoever should pay for meals, etc etc. I believe.... nah. Like I said, I'm too lazy to think of all that.
So I found out he loved me and we were to tell our parents about it. So we did. I must say we were both so blessed to have each other. I say this for both of us because right now (yes, we're still together), I'm so thankful for a sweet family like his and he openly shares with me about his view about my family too. SOOO, we're both very comfortable. And we see a future with each other. Get engaged. Get a flat. Get married. Have kids. Blah blah blah.
That is my love life. SOOO back to everything else.
It is probably at the O lvl or N lvl examinations year that EVERYYYBOODDDYY goes hectic. It is the major exam that determines which tertiary education you'd end up in (JC/Poly/ITE/even uni). With all the stress going on, it wasn't very healthy for it to be bouncing between classmates and friends so everybody swarmed the teachers. I laugh thinking about this because that reminds me of how devoted my teachers were to their students. How willing they were to conduct extra classes for us even when it wasn't even scheduled. It was as if us students were saying, "We're about to dive into the deep sea. You're our only float. You're coming with us."
HAHAHA! Good times, good times.
Graduation was great. I couldn't say I missed my school very much, but for what it was worth, I am thankful in every way that it shaped me.
Receiving the result slip for the major exam ^ was terrifyingly intense. I remember thinking, MY WHOLE LIFE DEPENDS ON THIS!!! I remember seeing my friends cry before even getting their result slips. I remember hearing the deafening silence in the hall right before the first person of every class stepped forward to receive their result slips from their form teachers. The tension was enough to send me into my cave for a good week.
^ which I often still do feel when there is tension, but once over, I celebrate either ways, regardless the result. With tears of joy or sadness, and lots and lots of food. Hey, at least it's over! Gotta celebrate, right? Thank God for friends again.
Next stage, at 16 or 17, it's tertiary education level. I am well aware of the different cultures in JC/Poly/ITE. As many would say, the most kiasu and smart people end up in JC (Junior College), the artsy people (they could be smart too, just not in the educational way we were taught and tested in primary to secondary school) go to Poly (Polytechnic), and people who did not score very well, to ITE.
I often found the first group, though seen as the more favoured group, a little strange. I do admire people who went JC though. I must say that their confidence in speech, level of language and knowledge are pretty admirable. But as I have classified above, they are the smart bunch. They often have a lot of stress upon themselves, who knows how it affects them emotionally and mentally... For better or worse.. I am thankful that my friends who went through JC stayed SANE... Given the amount of work, I can only imagine the torture they go through every day. Studying. And finding little ways to party to "destress".
I went on the Poly route. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed my journey here. WAAAAYYYYY more than secondary school. If anything, I felt like I was in kindergarten, happily bouncing on my trampoline. Well, I did what I loved to do. Composing, songwriting and exploring the studio side of things. My course involved more than that of course. Anyway, I grew in knowledge in what I loved to do.. But what stuck to me the most was the extreme freedom in this school. What do I mean? Just imagine.. a tiny stream fast forward into a waterfall. Yep. it was a big jump from secondary school to Poly. My lecturers were so chill my course mates and I treated them almost like friends, only holding more reverence for them since they were indeed a level higher than us. But it was my first time talking on personal terms with one of my lecturers. One of the things you never will be able to do with your secondary school teachers. Somehow, just somehow, in poly, everybody's more down-to-earth, laidback, less uptight than people in secondary school. I guess it's just one of the benefits of the "artsy" group of people.
Of course, not all Poly courses are "artsy". There's also the science, IT, architecture courses, etc. But I think even their courses are way more laidback than secondary school. Yes. Poly is awesome. Go to Poly.
Only if you are sure of where your interest lies, of course.
I don't have many ITE friends, but I do know a friend who went to ITE and then to Poly after graduating from ITE. He'd been in the newspapers and website articles many many many times. What is his profession? Nursing! And he's great at it. I knew him personally at a certain course we went through together. He was in the same group as I was and when I observed him, I'd never seen anyone more kind than this person. Brandon Chia. Search him up on FaceBook. His DP description: has a stethoscope hanging around his neck, monochrome filter. An admirable man. But anyways, my point is, you know the theory of how some people have high IQ and low EQ, vice versa? I think most ITE people are the most fun people you'll ever meet. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to mock them. But just from my observation, they are down-to-earth people and more often than not, are great listeners. Well, I'm not just speaking from observing my friend as mentioned above. My dad was from ITE too. And my dad is the best dad in the world. I couldn't ask for more.
Well, I do remember though, graduating from Poly was the next pivotal moment for me. Nope, it wasn't moving on after my O lvl examinations. It was moving on from Poly that shook me the most. Why?
Well, I believe I can say this for those who went through JC and ITE as well. You don't know what the future may bring. You're nearing the official adult age (21 years old). And if you still don't know what you wanna do, you either get a whacking from your parents, or you'd be like me, walking up the stage to receive my certificate and telling myself, "I'm so screwed."
Haha well, parents do mean well when they punish their children like that ^
Asian parents, especially, do that to express their love for their children, whacking reality on to them. It would be true if you start in an industry later than someone, you'll be lacking behind. Of course that would be true! Everybody starts from the starting line, right? But everybody progresses at a different rate... Everybody learns at a different rate.. Then later you'll start to think.. Would it really matter if I progress faster than others? My personal opinion is, don't strive too hard and neglect what's more important.
Anyways...
Here as I write, turning 21 in September, I'm telling all you worried teenagers out there.. Don't worry. It's never too late to figure out what you want to do in future. The education system and traditional thinking of our parents may limit our thinkings and squeeze our hearts, but at the end of the day, you need to be sure of what you wanna do, be convicted about it, and do it. Only then can you excel in it and feel happy at the same time. EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT.
Keep telling yourself that, chill out and stay tuned for the next post! :D
After some serious consideration - in the past minute - I have decided to do a post on "teenage life". Hey, everyone's different so I'm just going to share based on my perspective and slot in some of my experiences as a teenager.
So they say that a teen is considered a "teen" when he or she is between 12 and 20 years old. So as long as your age has the "-teen" part at the end, you're a teen, if not, you're no longer one. As such, I feel pretty old right now. Well, OLDER, anyway.
At 13, most Singaporeans go through this education system called "secondary school". At that age, everybody probably thought they'd have more freedom. Perhaps, even have the chance to go wild and free in school every day and the teachers wouldn't care less? RED BUTTON. That's a CRAZY misconception I keep hearing of!! Yes, while it is true that as you grow older, you get more freedom, but I believe now as I look back - and I thank God my teachers believed the same - you don't know anything yet. That is why the rules are still enforced. You still get punished for violating the school rules. You still get demerit points depending on the severity of your mischievous acts. Why? Because JUST at 13 years old, you're given more freedom. You've only JUST been exposed to freedom. So that is where we all begin to figure out just how to control that wild, beastly fire in our hearts. Our every word and action has an impact - good or bad, or even both.
I must say though, I was boring as heck. I obeyed everything simply because I couldn't care less about rebellion. But I was mixing with the wrong company. Since I simply took in whatever came my way, you could say I unknowingly rebelled. But as soon as I was aware of the consequences, my defiance died down and I went back to being my boring self.
Teenagers have a lot to figure out. Thanks to puberty, we have quite a tough life. Well, I'm not just talking about the physical part, but I believe it's also the mental and emotional side of us. But while it was tough, just like refining a ore, sometimes we're just put in the fire to be refined to be better people.
Often I found myself getting agitated, downcast or jovial really quickly. I saw this a lot in my classmates as well. It'd take me a few days to sort things out in my mind before I realised how silly I was. But hey, at least I finally bothered to do something, out of my usual boring cycle of thoughts. Realising that looking at the bigger picture of things makes you look less foolish, that is.
With the mental and emotional stress that I received around that age, I quickly found things to do to take my mind off the things bothering me.. or as Singaporeans would say, to "destress" myself. One of my "destressing" methods was singing. I came home and sang to an empty house. Every day. Without fail. I didn't understand the meaning of soundproof walls at that age so I couldn't care less about my neighbours. Nobody complained anyway.. Another "destressing" method was to write poems. Till today, I still write in it, though not as frequently as before. (click here to view it)
So at 14 or 15, of course, just like my friends, I was eager to fall in love. Many of my friends in school were attached. I was attached... but the relationship ended a few months before I officially turned 14. Strangely enough though, both of us ended on mutual agreement and we simply had no more feelings for each other. I guess that is what people call it, the "puppy love". Perhaps I grew out of that puppy love and was in search for the "real love". I never really learnt what that was in school. Only the general things like the various stages of physical intimacy... Safe stages... Grey areas... Danger zone... I'm not sure if every school went through sexual education, but yup, this was what I learnt during "sexual education". That is, about what relationships are.
I was also exposed to the teachings of the human body and some brief explanations on sexual practices and talks about tampons and what not (sorry there, I come from a girls' school). Believe me, I never understood the whole section about the sexual practices because I didn't understand what masturbation was. I thought it was some sort of mutated human being or something because I recall having seen that word on the screen, followed by a drawing of the human body which looked a little weird... Hence, I concluded that masturbation was referred to a mutated human body....
WHICH I LATER FOUND OUT THAT WASN'T THE REAL MEANING OF THAT WORD.
a w k w a r d ...
Though in search for love, I think it was pretty cool I learnt a different kind of love.. One that is not the romantic kind, but the kind between friends. Through all the fun, mischief, jealousy, stress, birthday surprises, studying and so much more, I cannot begin to express my gratitude for FRIENDS. They help you, accompany you (just as you accompany them because without each other, we'd all feel so lonely), guide you, pull off stupid pranks with you, have stayovers, study hard and play hard together, discover the grossest things on earth and create interesting hobbies that no adult would ever understand the idea of doing what you guys do together...
Fun. Everyone who experienced most of that ^, congratulations, you've had a great "teenagehood".
Pivotal moment here.
*sheds a tear*
As I was saying, I was searching for love. And I found it. Not in my school. But FINALLY, like some of my other friends, I had set my eyes on someone. 15. I was in love with Taylor Swift's song back when I was 14. I heard that song, "Fifteen", over and over. I couldn't wait to fall in love at 15 and finally sing it. By God's grace, a man appeared before me and I seized the opportunity like a desperately hungry cave woman. It took me every bit of me to step forward, say hi, and start a conversation.
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO START UP A CONVERSATION TOPIC WITH YOUR CRUSH?
WHAT TOPIC WOULD BE BEST?
I DON'T WANT HIM THINKING I'M A SHALLOW-MINDED IDIOT.
BUT HE LOOKS REALLY MATURE AND INTELLIGENT.
CAN I BEAT THIS? CAN I COME UP WITH A GOOD CONVERSATION TOPIC?
IS THIS CONVERSATION TOPIC GOOD ENOUGH?
WHAT IS A CONVERSATION??!!!??!?!?!
I'M DYING.
Yep. and I had a friend there with me at that scene. Giggling away. Not doing anything. But giggle.
I fell in love at 15 and I couldn't stop falling deeper and deeper in love with him after being complimented of my poems and getting his MSN email address and chatting with him and discovering how EXTREMELY SIMILAR we were. Familiar?
To some others, it might be a lot of bickering that the "couple" later on finds out is their sign of chemistry between each other. But for mine, it was pretty obvious. I made the first move in so many things. But did he feel the same way?
He didn't tell me anything but I was crossing my fingers and hoping so much that he did feel the same way. He was probably not exactly.. hot.. but to me he was charming, sweet, polite and VERY intelligent. Who wouldn't want a guy like that?
A year later, he sorta confessed. I found out I was his first so he had no idea what to do or say. I didn't really care. I was probably the kind of girl who didn't care if the girl or the guy was the one who initiated the relationship or whoever should pay for meals, etc etc. I believe.... nah. Like I said, I'm too lazy to think of all that.
So I found out he loved me and we were to tell our parents about it. So we did. I must say we were both so blessed to have each other. I say this for both of us because right now (yes, we're still together), I'm so thankful for a sweet family like his and he openly shares with me about his view about my family too. SOOO, we're both very comfortable. And we see a future with each other. Get engaged. Get a flat. Get married. Have kids. Blah blah blah.
That is my love life. SOOO back to everything else.
It is probably at the O lvl or N lvl examinations year that EVERYYYBOODDDYY goes hectic. It is the major exam that determines which tertiary education you'd end up in (JC/Poly/ITE/even uni). With all the stress going on, it wasn't very healthy for it to be bouncing between classmates and friends so everybody swarmed the teachers. I laugh thinking about this because that reminds me of how devoted my teachers were to their students. How willing they were to conduct extra classes for us even when it wasn't even scheduled. It was as if us students were saying, "We're about to dive into the deep sea. You're our only float. You're coming with us."
HAHAHA! Good times, good times.
Graduation was great. I couldn't say I missed my school very much, but for what it was worth, I am thankful in every way that it shaped me.
Receiving the result slip for the major exam ^ was terrifyingly intense. I remember thinking, MY WHOLE LIFE DEPENDS ON THIS!!! I remember seeing my friends cry before even getting their result slips. I remember hearing the deafening silence in the hall right before the first person of every class stepped forward to receive their result slips from their form teachers. The tension was enough to send me into my cave for a good week.
^ which I often still do feel when there is tension, but once over, I celebrate either ways, regardless the result. With tears of joy or sadness, and lots and lots of food. Hey, at least it's over! Gotta celebrate, right? Thank God for friends again.
Next stage, at 16 or 17, it's tertiary education level. I am well aware of the different cultures in JC/Poly/ITE. As many would say, the most kiasu and smart people end up in JC (Junior College), the artsy people (they could be smart too, just not in the educational way we were taught and tested in primary to secondary school) go to Poly (Polytechnic), and people who did not score very well, to ITE.
I often found the first group, though seen as the more favoured group, a little strange. I do admire people who went JC though. I must say that their confidence in speech, level of language and knowledge are pretty admirable. But as I have classified above, they are the smart bunch. They often have a lot of stress upon themselves, who knows how it affects them emotionally and mentally... For better or worse.. I am thankful that my friends who went through JC stayed SANE... Given the amount of work, I can only imagine the torture they go through every day. Studying. And finding little ways to party to "destress".
I went on the Poly route. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed my journey here. WAAAAYYYYY more than secondary school. If anything, I felt like I was in kindergarten, happily bouncing on my trampoline. Well, I did what I loved to do. Composing, songwriting and exploring the studio side of things. My course involved more than that of course. Anyway, I grew in knowledge in what I loved to do.. But what stuck to me the most was the extreme freedom in this school. What do I mean? Just imagine.. a tiny stream fast forward into a waterfall. Yep. it was a big jump from secondary school to Poly. My lecturers were so chill my course mates and I treated them almost like friends, only holding more reverence for them since they were indeed a level higher than us. But it was my first time talking on personal terms with one of my lecturers. One of the things you never will be able to do with your secondary school teachers. Somehow, just somehow, in poly, everybody's more down-to-earth, laidback, less uptight than people in secondary school. I guess it's just one of the benefits of the "artsy" group of people.
Of course, not all Poly courses are "artsy". There's also the science, IT, architecture courses, etc. But I think even their courses are way more laidback than secondary school. Yes. Poly is awesome. Go to Poly.
Only if you are sure of where your interest lies, of course.
I don't have many ITE friends, but I do know a friend who went to ITE and then to Poly after graduating from ITE. He'd been in the newspapers and website articles many many many times. What is his profession? Nursing! And he's great at it. I knew him personally at a certain course we went through together. He was in the same group as I was and when I observed him, I'd never seen anyone more kind than this person. Brandon Chia. Search him up on FaceBook. His DP description: has a stethoscope hanging around his neck, monochrome filter. An admirable man. But anyways, my point is, you know the theory of how some people have high IQ and low EQ, vice versa? I think most ITE people are the most fun people you'll ever meet. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to mock them. But just from my observation, they are down-to-earth people and more often than not, are great listeners. Well, I'm not just speaking from observing my friend as mentioned above. My dad was from ITE too. And my dad is the best dad in the world. I couldn't ask for more.
Well, I do remember though, graduating from Poly was the next pivotal moment for me. Nope, it wasn't moving on after my O lvl examinations. It was moving on from Poly that shook me the most. Why?
Well, I believe I can say this for those who went through JC and ITE as well. You don't know what the future may bring. You're nearing the official adult age (21 years old). And if you still don't know what you wanna do, you either get a whacking from your parents, or you'd be like me, walking up the stage to receive my certificate and telling myself, "I'm so screwed."
Haha well, parents do mean well when they punish their children like that ^
Asian parents, especially, do that to express their love for their children, whacking reality on to them. It would be true if you start in an industry later than someone, you'll be lacking behind. Of course that would be true! Everybody starts from the starting line, right? But everybody progresses at a different rate... Everybody learns at a different rate.. Then later you'll start to think.. Would it really matter if I progress faster than others? My personal opinion is, don't strive too hard and neglect what's more important.
Anyways...
Here as I write, turning 21 in September, I'm telling all you worried teenagers out there.. Don't worry. It's never too late to figure out what you want to do in future. The education system and traditional thinking of our parents may limit our thinkings and squeeze our hearts, but at the end of the day, you need to be sure of what you wanna do, be convicted about it, and do it. Only then can you excel in it and feel happy at the same time. EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT.
Keep telling yourself that, chill out and stay tuned for the next post! :D
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