School(s) & Pride

Patrician Pride….
Now, I’m not a patrician mainly because Saint Patricks is an all boys school and I’m a chick. But my dad is a Patrician (or ex Patrician, I guess) and thats why I take concern about this.

Before I continue, my dad and his old school friends formed a football team called SPS ’79 a few years ago, mainly to exercise, play the sport they love and enjoy the company of their old friends. Over the past four years, respective families have become involved, majority have jerseys(even if we don’t play) and other years have joined in. Some of my uncles are involved as well and now it’s an amazing group of people where not only Patricians bond and have fun.

What I love about this group is that I want to be just like them. They are a group of alumni which love their school and love their school days. The topic of Patrician pride came up late in the conversation this evening while planning their reunion.

I just had my two cents in the conversation. Pride comes from family. If you don’t have family, pride will not grow. SPS ’79 is one giant family, and as much as I like to tease friends from the school and as much as I might not like to admit it, I have a bit of SPS pride in me. Because of SPS ’79.

Tampines Junior College (TPJC), my current school, believes in school pride and bonding (it’s in our school song). The family I have there makes me feel like I’m part of the school and that’s what matter. I really don’t care about school politics. There’s no fun in that. There is no positive result of that. Being part of the Drama Elective Programme(DEP) of TPJC just makes me feel like I’m in another close family and that there is a strong need to maintain my friendships there, which I hope I will maintain after I graduate in 6 months.

The problem with having or maintaining school pride is the ‘politics’ behind pride. Every school has, had or will have this problem. People attempt to build (dictate) school pride, without the basic foundation; school has to be like a family. End of story. Get that right!

Enough with politics between schools, alumnis and ex-students. There’s no point! Pride is pride, family is family. Politics screws things up.

I seriously didn’t believe there was a need for this post before tonight! I actually thought people understood that.

To all schools and school alumnis: school pride is based on family. If the strong foundation of family is there, you have your pride.
To groups of random friends that were from the same school, do something fun and regular together. Just have fun together. When you worry about ‘pride’, things mess up.

 

Maturity

Dear world,
So my old friend Derrick has returned to the blogging scene with his come back post on his plans for his life. To be perfectly honest I thought he dropped off the face of the earth. But there was always one thing that interested me about Derrick and it was not that I am a hormonal teen looking for a boyfriend!
Derrick always had a greater sense of maturity than anyone else I have ever met! No adult or teen or kid has been able to show to me that they were as mature as Derrick. Sure some have come close but never really on par. Sometimes I wonder if Derrick is just a class of his own.
I am getting a head of myself. The topic up for discussion this week is maturity. And I just had a friend who turned 18 and he is becoming a real prick. Whoever said that when you turn 18 you come more mature did not meet my friend (obviously)!
I am turning 18 this year and I really do not want to change. Sometimes I wonder if being mature means going back to being a kid. And now you all are wondering how this is so.
As cliche as it may seem, kids are more peaceful people (however, with constant violence in video games and in entertainment, this might no longer be the case in a few years).
Maturity, I believe, is defined by seeing the world much differently than how other people view the world. It is this ‘skill’ that makes mature people like Derrick, well, mature! Sure, I am waiting to obtain the privileges that come with turning 18 (who isn’t?) but I do not just want to drink my life away.
Kids do see things differently. Most of them are open to everything new to them, and their sense of adventure and curiosity is high. They constantly come out with new ideas(which we eventually steal and make our own).
People define maturity as understand big concepts like law or planning your future well, but those have a lot of grey areas! But how do we understand the grey areas when we were taught right from wrong. The more mature people come up with seeing everything in a different way and not to weight and balance the grey areas.
This year I want to explore all possibilities in everything. I want to be a kid. I want to be mature.

UK increase in uni fees

Dear world,
If you do not know, I am not a UK citizen and hence will not be complaining about the increase in university fees in the UK.( international students would still pay full fees… That’s if I was going to UK. But I’m not)
So you do not need click the X on your browser. No complaints about the UK parliament here.
But I was on twitter and I searches ‘university fees’ and everyone spammed the same few messages, asking the same few questions, had plans to walk out on classes on Wednesday at 11am local time etc etc.
I would like to politely inform all the UK students that I feel frustrated as well, but not for the same reason they feel frustrated.
You may think ‘you will never be a UK citizen so you don’t understand ‘ but hear me out.
I may not understand, yes, because even subsidized tuition fees here are rather high ( higher then UK anyways) and £9000 may seem like a reasonably cheap price to pay for an education in university and I still stand by the fact that it still is considerably cheap to get a degree. Slightly over $10000 Singapore dollars if my maths is accurate. (Singapore dollar is strong now, so this might increase in coming months).
I am also trying to understand the UK system alil bit more. Most of the tuition fees are tax payer’s money and in fact most things in UK are paid with tax ( if my sources are accurate). I am not condemning this system but I do not entirely agree with it (neutral stand, don’t want to interfere too much with politics) but I think, there are always two sides to this story.
The students strongly strongly believe in their right of an education, and I will not deny them that right. But a free education in a materialistic world? Nothing in a materialistic world is free. It either has been already paid for or is highly subsidized. but yes, education is very important and you have your right to one. But there is this arguement that came across BBC news and twitter post. One girl on BBC that was interviewed or made a comment or something, well, she said my parents had a free university education, they should be paying the taxes for mine ( trying to remember this from memory) and someon on twitter commented that scottland had free education, why should the UK students have to pay.
I am sorry, no matter how much I try and remember the girl, I keep thinking it was a void argument. it made no real sense. As for the second one, well, that is life for you. If that is the cast I should be arguing that my education should be free too. Most Singapore students do take Cambridge exams.
And well, the government has to do this, to an extent. With the financial crisis several months ago that still affected several countries, the government must make more money than it gives to the people before becoming bankrupt. Then students really will have something to protest about.
Well people feel social injustice, they do not sit back and think. They are just filled with emotion. That was why the protests ended up being violent.
Hope UK hangs in there.
Regards,
Cheyenne

Singapore Housing: worries, problems, and may be a solution?

Dear World,

I have found some interesting data which I would love to share with you all.

You see me General Paper teacher keeps telling me to read and I have been but so far, the reading has not been spreading far just yet. It will. For now I want to discuss some thing I find very serious to my future and to the future of Singapore. Who knows? You might just be involved in it to.

It started off with my cousin, Jackie’s wedding last year and now the housing situation with her and her husband is not all that ideal I heard ( they don’t have a place of their own yet) and this coming september her sister, Von, will be tieing the knot too. I am curious about thier housing situation. AND THEN, my relatives were all teasing Nic’s boy friend ( Nic is the youngest of the 3 sisters) what time next year do they expect to mark in their calenders. After drunken giggles, the boyfriend said save money to get a house and then get hitched ( I am exaggerating the get hitched part, he did not really say that).

Then the conversation went on to rising house prices ( my family is always like that). I have seen with my very own eyes that prices of housing are going up by a hundred or may be two hundred thousand and many properties are worth ONE MILLION SINGAPORE DOLLARS ( you can sent at least 3 kids to an overseas university with ONE MILLION SINGAPORE DOLLARS).

Now here is my isusse ( for lack of a better term).

With the Singapore Goverment wanting more couples to get married and have 3 or more kids ( new campaign), how can they when they can’t even afford a house big enough to fit 3 or more kids? The goverment claims that the problem is that women are becoming more educated and want to have career lives. This is NOT entirely true. There are those that want to start a family but they have to settle the house before doing ….
They have to work and earn enough to move out of their parent’s house and get their own place and THEN they can START thinking about having 3 or more kids like the goverment wants.

So I propose the goverment try and help couples out. Give compensation for couples who want a house but can’t afford it. Set some new requirements. Sure they might not want to have kids immediately after getting a house, but they sooner they have a place to call their humble abode, then they sooner they can start thinking of having the sounds of pitter pattering feet running all over the place. AND THE SOONER YOU WILL BE HAPPY!

Think about it. I don’t know if this post will make much of a difference, but I don’t know if writing into parliment is the brightest idea either especially if I don’t have statistics to back up my ‘claims’. But it is a growing trend. That should count for something.

oh my gosh. The Prime Minister was right. Some of us Pre-University Seminar people might end up in politics.

The scary thing is that I might be one of them.

Terrified,
Cheyenne

P.s. I premed my hair

P.p.s Tomorrow are my exams. Wish me luck

Being yourself, truely

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. My cousin helped prove that to me tonight.

You see we are all different people with different strengths and weaknesses and different talents as well. I can’t be Jonny Depp or Britney if I wanted to. I can only be me.

So just a little reminder.
Being perfect sometimes isn’t worth it.
It is not worth the mess.
Believe me or not and face the fact,
Don’t try and put it to the test.
Take what you have
And make it grow
And trust me
The products will show
Sometimes just being ‘me’
Is the best I can be 

I hope that helped everyone out tonight oh and btw I downloaded wordpress on my I-phone so I can update as soon as an idea pops into my head so you will get updates from me more often 
Take care
Cheyenne Phillips

A more dangerous world

http://www.newsweek.com/id/233838

read the article first

Strangely enough, these are one of the few things in the world that we know at the back of our heads but it is very pushed to the front until an article  like this shows up and tells us off.

It is amasing what our world is coming too and what ignorence we have not to learn from misfortunes and beliving that nothing will happen to us. It astounds me how much the human race believes it is more powerful than mother nature that we need not care about her ‘ little power’.

To be honest, some of it is human ignorence while some of it is basically how we work.

I just wanted to share

talents are yours

Hey world,

so I am currently in Tampines Junior College and if any JC students are wondering what my combination is, it’s H2 chem, math and theatre studies and H1 bio. To the rest of the world that didnt understand the above combination just know that I take Theatre studies (TS).

My College has ‘ asked’  everyone to purchase the book ” the 7 habits of highly effective teens’  by sean covey.

They have also ‘ asked’  us to read it. Now, I am reading it for some hope that it will help me in some way in my life.

After reading through the first …oh….30 pages or so, it has.

This morning before drama cca ( not TS lesson) I was reading a page on finding and developing your talents. Now ladies and gentleman, if you recall in my secondary school days, I was indirectly told that I could not act ( but I am not that stupid to believe a word the person said). I love acting. I love the stage. However in 2008 I tried my hand at co-directing a school play and even directing the passion play in my church for the year 2009.

I loved it. it was fun. To an extent, even more fun than acting.

So after reading that section, it made me think ‘ Do I really want to be a cast member for this year’s Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Competition?’ Now we have the option of becoming a crew member.

So this morning I swapped. And I came back early. giving my mother a shock. She didn’t take the news….as well as I thought she would. I will admit that I originally wanted to be crew and one rehearsal, the instructor pointed to me and said you’ll be the boss! I was in cast.  I kept thinking of changing and even my friend said he wanted to switch from cast to crew so we did it together this morning.

I felt kinda happy and like this burden was lifted off me. I know there is an acting component in TS and I know I will have to act but I wanted to oppertunity to explore other areas. I will improve my acting to the best of my abilities. However I dont want to deny my chance of exploring other possibilities and other areas .

I think it will be fun.

I hope everyone finds and develops a talent. ANY TALENT.

just as long as you are happy, I am happy

The Singaporean Dream

I am currently studying in a JC. The next step in the educational system here is a University education. This is what society expects of me. Sometimes I wonder I am expect of me.

To be honest, I had no intention of contining my education. If I could, I would drop out and travel the world and see and learn and meet people from different walks of life. However, in this fast-paced world, I can not afford it. I will not survive. Without credentials, a job, money, no one can survive. No one can make a mistake because many know that one mistake can cause you everything.

In fact, making mistakes has become a ‘ crime’  in the Singaporean education culture to the extent that students rather not learn, but memorise their texts and encrave the knowledge in their brains and then just ‘copy and paste’ everything back on their examination papers. This is not only seen in primary and secondary educational institutions but also in JCs. No one in my lectures raise any questions of clarification or possible other doubts. People believe whatever the lecturer says is 100percent true. Not me. I like a clear my doubts. I feel very unsafe with uncleared doubts.

Before I side track further, I would like to talk about my project work presentation assignment. It is a mini competition with in school to improve our presentation skills. The questions is ‘ Youths have a role to play in_________’

I have an idea which I intend to build on tomorrow but for now  I just wanted people to think about youths and their roles in society.

Adam Lambert Performance: For your entertainment.

Dear World!

HAHA. Actually I had a discussion about this video with 2 of my JC friends and I had told them that I havent seen the video. They described it to me and I thought ‘ OMG ADAM HOW COULD YOU!” ( I am a FAN!)

Then I saw the video and I began to laugh. Several Reasons why. Firstly, the song he sang was ” For your entertainment”. Ladies and gentlemen of the world, Adam Lambert is an artistic genius trapped in a world of non-believers. I know I am making it sound like I have joined the ADAM LAMBERT CULT but listen. There is not such cult. Ok I can explain his performance, just people of the world, listen to me.

For your entertainment is a song which Lambert Genius-ly picked out and the dancing, lighting, staging and the whole theme behind it was genius! He did it all for your entertainment. Now you might say you are not entertained. REALLY? You all seem to be going on about how bad an influence he is. How long ago was his performance anyways? Last week?

If anything 4 minute performance that keeps people talking for about a week is not entertainment then I don’t know what is.

I saw everything from start to finish. I watched it again. I listened to the lyrics. Here are the lyrics that struck me the most. ( Oh yeah! I don’t think everything in this world is wrong. In fact I believe people are innocent until proven guilty)

I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
Well I’m about to turn up the heat
I’m here For Your Entertainment

Hey! This is hard to explain. Society believes his actions were…not appropreate. I believe it fits in perfectly which the song, the lyrics and his overall image. Ladies and Gentlemen, sex sells! It is a fact! Even if it is gay sex, it does sell if use well to sell.

You want to know how sex sells? Notice how much publicity Lambert’s performance got over the past week? The number of exclusives? The number of magazines that interviewed him. The number of sites that disagree with his artistic talents and the sites that do agree? The number of views on that video on youtube?

Sex sells ladies and gentlemen. It was a genius performance, admit it. Well thought out, genius theme. I think it was the best thing I have ever seen the entire year and I have seen a lot of new movies recently. Trust me. Adam’s performance was way more appealing than some of the movies I just saw. It had high energy, there was many things happening which was appealing to the eyes, the flashing lights, the flexible dancers, Adam’s  “bold”  moves. It will definitely be a performance that you will not forget.

It does not even matter if you agree of disagree with it. You know you will never forget it.

Regards,

Cheyenne

The scary adult world awaits….

Hey….fast and enhanced adult world.

I am Cheyenne. I am 16 and I am SCARED AS HELL.

There are many reasons to why I am scared as hell. Firstly, my school posting results are out in about 10.25 hours from now. That would be 8am on the 27th of January Singapore local time that the Ministry of Education releases the posting results. I DON’T KNOW IF I CAN GET INTO THE SCHOOL(S) OF MY CHOICE!!!!!!!!!!! Secondly, I have another fear concerning the school(s) of my choice. You see, I am eligible to enter a Junior College( JC) where it is compulsory for me to take Malay as a subject. If you haven’t been following my blog, or if I have yet to mention it then I will mention it now. I SUCK AT MY MOTHER TONGUE! Finally my mum told me I might not be able to study in an overseas university because we might not afford it.

NOW I AM SCARED AS HELL. I want to cry so much. Not that I hate Singapore Universities. I just really want to get out of this country. Plus there are universities that offer me better Drama or Marine Biology courses. I am currently looking at scholarships. I AM 16 AND I AM LOOKING FOR SCHOLARSHIPS!!!!!

There are other options. I am looking for a part time job. I am scared to death as it is and I don’t mind tutoring little kids to help fund my college courses. I don’t want to commit to a job just yet. I don’t know what my timetable is like until I enter a school (which I hope is soon).

I feel like a kid living in an adult world. My parents tell me don’t grow up too fast but the fact of the matter is that I have to. I can’t survive in this world without ‘ growing up fast’ . The harsh reality is hitting me hard, and I am not even facing the worst of it yet. I should have taken up a job.

I think when I am all settled, I’ll apply to a tuition center.

I am a kid living in an adult world. I wanted to grow up fast. I wanted to be free and I wanted to be extremely adult. Now I wish time would stop. Just for me. I don’t want to grow up any more.

I am scared for what the world will bring to me.

Sometimes I wish I didn’t turn 16…..

Lots of luck,

Cheyenne