Reflection on post mid term exam blues.

'Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.' Epicurus, the great Greek philosopher once said. Indeed, in our everyday lives, we tend to feel jealous of others for things they possess that  we do not have, often these things are materialistic in nature. In Singapore's educational landscape, this often translates to a competition of who has the best grades. Having been through numerous continuous assessments, tests, exams (i.e., GCE O levels, GCE A levels), from my observation, after every exam, without fail, there will be a ritual of comparison of results after they are released. People never seem to be satisfied with their exam results. They often look up to people who scored the higher grades with envy and when this happens often enough, negative emotions pent up and feelings become suffocating. 

I feel it is normal to feel envy whenever you don't do as well as others but we shouldn't let ourselves slip into a negative emotional state. For instance, with the passing of the recent midterm exams, some people explicitly express disappointment in their results even when they did better than a lot of people. What these people fail to realize is that they can cause a negative domino effect. By their expression of negative emotions, people who did worse in an exam than these people will naturally feel worse. That is why I feel it is important to adjust one's attitude and take a leaf from Epicurus's book.

For those people that are still feeling down from the midterm exam results, always remember that 'what you have now was once among the things you only hoped for.' When we were young, many of us aspired to enter a prestigious university but how many of us actually get an opportunity to do so? To be here, studying your butt off, is a dream of many but you out of that selective few of many have achieved this dream. Look back at your personal struggles in life and how you overcame them, you are already a winner.

Of course, one should not be easily satisfied and what I am advocating is not that of course, but rather to correct one's attitude. Morph your envy into motivational energy, challenge yourself to keep doing better and never give up. Attitude determines your altitude. So instead of desiring of what we have not for example, better midterms grades, we should instead focus on what we can change such as working hard for the next exam.

In conclusion, don't fret and delve into negative emotions if you haven't done well for midterms or any other exams you encounter. Epicurus himself suffered from immeasurable pain during his final days having been afflicted with kidney stones and yet advocated cheerfulness and optimism. Remember, no problems are unsolvable, attune to a more positive mindset and look forward to a potentially brighter future ahead.

Siempre avante!
Signing off.


  

Review: My first 7 weeks in NTU

Time flies when you are not paying particular attention to it. In a blink of an eye, It has been already 7 weeks since I enrolled into Nanyang Technological University. Although it has been only a short period of time, my time at NTU has been very enriching and an eye-opening experience.

 First off, there was the orientation week. Orientation week is the first week of the first semester. There are no lessons, only orientation programs planned to help the incoming freshmen familiarize themselves with the environment at NTU. I still remember how apprehensive I was on the morning of orientation. My past orientation experience hasn't particularly been the best being a more introverted person in nature but I decided to just go for it mainly because it will be good to meet more people from the same course so we can help each other out in the days to come (Little did I know how true this will be!). In addition, I thought of how much effort the seniors have put in to organize such an activity. It won't be very nice to plan a certain activity only to have very few people show up. So I just went for it :-).


Before I came to NTU, I have always heard rumors about how ulu the place was. It was infamously nicknamed 'Pulau NTU' by many seniors.

I finally got to experience how true it was on my first day school after taking a gruelling 2 hour MRT ride from the east to the west and then having take a bus into campus. The first day of orientation was quite a pleasant one. We got to meet our friendly SPMS buddies which were seniors studying courses from the same faculty as us. We were given a tour of NTU, the venues for our tutorial rooms and the various lecture theatres. NTU is huge and without guidance on the first few days in campus, it is very easy to lose your way.  Fortunately, because I study Mathematics and Economics, it isn't very difficult to travel in between tutorials as HSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences) and SPMS (School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences) are in very close proximity to each other.

Besides the tour around NTU, we were also introduced to STARS planner by our OGLs. In the past, people used to nickname the system 'STARS WARS' for its infamous way of allocating electives based on first come first serve basis. Fortunately, they changed the system to make it a balloting system so students who are unable to select electives early will still get a chance to take up that elective.

Other than the tour and trying out the STARS planner, we also had orientation games which I wasn't a big fan of. It was still quite fun though with laughters all around. I could tell the GLs weren't particularly liking the games as well but they just tried to be more enthusiastic so we can have fun which I am so grateful for :-). Seriously, without the guidance from my OGLs, I would have been so lost for the first few days and I am really thankful for there is the SPMS Buddies scheme which has made my first few days so much easier.

Overall, I was glad I attended O week as I not only familiarized myself with campus, I also made some close friends which I currently hang out with everyday.(Just awesome:p).

Well, after orientation, we had the freshman welcome ceremony where we took an oath in robes which was pretty cool :p. There were selfies all around and excitement in the air. With that, began a new chapter in our lives.

After matriculation, thing started to really pick up. Lectures started...then tutorials...then work started piling up...
 

















And now, here I am in a flash.  So that's all about my first few weeks in NTU and I will be posting more update hopefully in the days to come.