A Mind of My Own

A feeling of nostalgia overcome me when I watched shows like The Days, Hana Kimi and Brown Sugar Macchiato. School crushes were a plenty of course. What’s growing up as a teenager without girly crushes over that cute guy in class or another class?

I never shown my bravery at telling any of the crushes that I remotely liked them. The girls in BSM were brave to tell them. One even made a scarf for hers. I can’t knit at all despite a few attempts. I have never had such adventures like Ashiya Mizuki in Hana Kimi with so many guys. Actually, in real life, it’s impossible to actually sneak into a boy’s school unnoticed.

I mean, not all girls can actually disguise themselves as boys so well. Sometimes, I wondered where all the handsome ones had gone to and realised that dramas chose only the cute ones to act. Pretty girls don’t study at the same school either. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a title called School Belle in the first place.

Come to think of it, I can’t remember if we had any School Belle in Secondary School either. Did I miss out something in my bumbling years? I still remember this primary school Science teacher. Somehow, she was stalking me by entering the same secondary school I was attending!

The horrors! Everyone was afraid of her because she was fierce. Especially during her pregnancy. I wonder why. It was by pure luck that I wasn’t assigned to the class where Home Economics was part of the subjects.

Frankly speaking, I fell asleep by the 3rd lesson of History within 5 minutes. World War II and all about how Singapura became Singapore was really old news. Why can’t we learn about Pernarakan Culture or the differences between Taoists and Buddhists? How many different religions do we have in Singapore actually?

How many different dialects do we have actually? I don’t even know which Lunar day of the month we have to pray to the different gods. I don’t even know what customs we have to observe during a birth, 1st month for the baby, wedding and different things to say during Chinese New Year.

I don’t even know how long some of the buildings have stood in certain places either. I wonder what I learned during my school years besides Mathematics, English, Electronics, difference between like and love. Forget like love since such feelings are still new.

Sometimes, I wonder if the school years could have been more interesting if I had done something brave. Like actually remembering the script on stage when I was performing. That’s when I realised that I have severe stage fright.

At work, you may get asked to spell a word that is simple and everyone should be able to spell but the same person keeps asking you how to spell that word every time. You get frustrated because you think the person is stupid and should go back to primary school to study again.

Have you ever thought that maybe that person could be suffering from dyslexia? It is not an illness but a form of learning disorder that makes learning spelling a difficulty for the dyslexics. They are unable to read and write properly and their speech may sound impaired.

However, they are able to think in multi-dimensions and are visual thinkers. With the relevant learning tool guides, they do learn how to read and write properly. This learning disability can be discovered in the early years so that the child would have the right tools to help him/her learn.

What they need is your patience and some guidance so that they wouldn’t give up on learning and think they are stupid. What matters is that they learn so that they won’t feel pity for themselves in future. Parents are obsessed with their children getting the highest marks in class and often compare with other neighbours in front of the children.

This brings a subconscious need to compete and the child starts to compare among his/her peers with grades and name callings. Learning should not be only about competing for the highest score without understanding what they have learned.

Understanding what we have studied in school is more important than getting first in class without understanding what was taught.