School(s) & Pride

25 06 2011

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.

 





Being yourself, truely

27 06 2010

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





There is a scary kid world too!

4 02 2010

Dear world,

I know I was blogging about the scary adult world in my previous post. Now I am here to blog about the scary kid world.

Adults don’t understand teenagers and kids ( under 13) don’t understand teenagers for one reason and one reason alone. At teenagehood, you begin to realise that the kid world and the adult world are constantly clashing.

This is the only reason why being a teenager is so damn hard!

When you are a kid, there are a few basic expectations. Be respectful to your parents. Make your parent proud. Do well in school. Others are like, love your siblings, have fun, enjoy.

When you are an adult, you have expectations too. MOVE OUT! Get a job! Earn money and make a living. Those are the basic expectations. Others are like own a car, own a house ( move out and own a house is a different thing all together), get married and give your parents grandchildren.

Kids have it tough. Parent yell at them. Some feel like they can’t talk to their parents. They have to be the perfect child. They have to paint, dance, act, sing, play the guitar or some other musical instrument and score at acadamics. Kids really have no time to play!

That is all they want . PLAY! Kids are biologically programmed to play. That is all they want.

Adults get more freedom ( that is why alot of teens want to grow up faster, the freedom. I will touch on this more later). They make their own choices, do what they want, they are responsible for themselves. They don’t understand what that is like yet because they have yet to move out but! They don’t care. As long as their parents ( who say they love them) aren’t under the same roof they are fine.

To all parents. Give your teens the freedom. Because to keep love is to give it wings. I know you don’t want them drinking smoking or doing drugs and most kids, if they know that they are given the oppertunity to be responsible without their parents breathing down their necks about it, they will be responsible. Parents say they love their kids. I think they say it by default. Some love their kids. Most not really. Most don’t love their kids unconditionally. I believe that is how conflict between parents and teens arise. The lack of love from the parents side. I am not being biase. I am being truthful.

Most teens just want to be understood and accepted especially by the 2 people who tell them they love them. Honestly, parents! If you contradict yourself, immediately your teen will not believe you anymore!

You know we arent that tough to figure out. You just lack the understanding that it is not us that is the problem and making us emotional and rebilliant. It is our surroundings and situations. And , trust me that includes you.

This is actually on a personal note but I wish my mum just knew that I love her and that I just want her to trust me and love me unconditionally, no matter who my friends are , what school I go to and my appearence. I also wished she knew how much I am so afraid to ask her things and talk to her….because the fact of the matter is…I already know her answer to each question I ask. I don’t see the point in asking any more.

Teens, try and understand your parents. They love you. Yes they do. They just don’t understand you. Be patient and hopefully.

Parents, you don’t need to agree. You just need to understand. However, if you keep your teen waiting too long, you actually may lose contact with them after they move out.

With regards,

Cheyenne…





The scary adult world awaits….

26 01 2010

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





Nothing in life is free.

14 01 2010

And this doesn’t even apply to money!

Seriously. This post is free. The only thing you will get free from me. But remember, you had to buy the laptop,pay for the internet access ( unless you are in a free hotspot) and you have to pay the electrical bill at the end of the month for charging your laptop. If you ask me where did I get this silly explanation above, I would like to thank my class 4/9 of 2009. I remember this answer and I know which girl said it ( all girls school remember?) but I can’t remember the question…hmmm

Anyways I hope you don’t mind the above wackiness. I am getting to my point.

Last Monday at 2pm, the GCE O level results were released. All my friends and schoolmates went back to school to collect our results. Some had tears of happiness, some had tears of sorrow and some ( like me) just could not believe their results.

Before I go on, I would just like to express my reason to why this post is so late. It is because, if I posted it any earlier it might come off as a bragging post rather than an inspirational one. I will not post the actual results like how many As and Bs I got but I will tell you that I am a 12 pointer. It is not a perfect score but it comes pretty close.

Anyways, to all those who got great results, congrats and I believe all of you will agree with me that we worked our butts off for those results. We either worked unbelievably hard or studied using mind maps, audio tapes or other methods of studying and revising that we know will work for us.

However, I do not wish to discourage those who did not do so well. Exams are not for everyone. This is why school does not work well.

If you were present at any Singaporean school ( I don’t know about the rest of the world), you could hear people tell the top students that they are so smart. “GENIUS AH YOU!” is the slang version or “You are VERY SMART LA!”. I had people tell me what too. Well not really. I am not really smart. In fact I entered secondary school with a low Primary School Leaving examination grade. I worked my butt of for this exam because I had a goal. Some didn’t do well because they were unsure of their goals, others just did not have any and sometimes it is external reasons why one does not do well.

However, work your butt 0ff. Take it from me. I squeezed my brain during the examinations and worked my butt of months before.

I have a friend, Herman. A few months he asked me for my goal grade. I told him 6 which is all As. He said it was impossible. I am from a convent school. A neighbourhood school. I should not dream big.

I might not have reached that goal but I did pretty well, well enough to enter the school which will offer me drama.

A few days ago Herman asked me for my secrets.

I don’t have secrets. I just tried my best and left the rest to God.

Ok. I do have secrets. But when I tell you them, you will think they aren’t really secrets cause you already heard of it. You just haven’t tried it yet.

I use colourful notes, check my work, revise according to how well my brain can cope and use loads of helpful and inspiring phrases. I visualise my results why before hand. You must be a dreamer and you must have courage

Dreams are like stars you may never touch them but if you follow them they will lead you to your destiny ( Anonymous)

Courage is not the absence of fear but the acquired ability to move beyond fear. ( Matthew Kelly)





The way of Tattoos

10 01 2010

Today I went to the Tattoo convention at expo. Today was the last day of the convention and I went and I saw loads of people getting tattoos making tattoos and browsing tattoos. I am that person browsing!

But the number of people there, the booths. It was amazing. And the different types of tattoos and the different cultures coming together. There was the mordern way of doing tattoos and the traditional way and everything around me just screamed culture. Everything just went wow. I was filled a hall with people and experiences and who are artist and who put art on their bodies. It amazed me their commitment to such an art. An art which is often not looked highly upon.

I adore that people come together and celebrate what they love and bring to the table new ideas, images, cultures.

I don’t know why tattoos aren’t really highly looked upon in society but if you look at it differently, there is a purpose and reason to why people want art on their bodies. It is a whole new way of admiring.

I am planning to get one….when I am legal of course…right now too many ideas floating in my head on what to do but I am planning to do a small one.





My future, my choice

3 01 2010

Today I went out with my cousins and my friend, Dhivya but only one cousin ( plus Dhivya) had dinner with me at Singapore flyer.  We had a discussion about my future. Upon getting my O level results, I will have to make a choice. A junior Collage(JC)? A polytechnic? Singapore School of the Arts(SOTA)? Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts(NAFA)? Private Arts school?

When I am looking at JCs, she asked me why waste my time? Polytechnic is a wonderful route. And if you are interested in drama, enter SOTA.( note: I am tired!!! I don’t remember all the words to that conversation.what she really said isn’t the above…its just paraphrased).

I just got ticked off. She is in Normal Academic Stream which does 5 years of Secondary School so she heads back tomorrow while I did 4 years in the Express stream ( Singaporean NA readers this is not discrimination! I am just explaining to others who do not fully get our education system).

I don’t know. I don’t know what I want to really do. I mean I am at a crossroads and I don’t want to regret anything and I have been taking my time with this decision.

I just got an application for a scholarship. It is in engineering but I am not fully interested in that.

I don’t know. I think everyone should stop worrying about everyone else’s futures and worry about their own.

I forgive my cousin if anyone like wants to know. I can’t stay mad at her for long.:)





We are just Ordinary People

1 01 2010

Before I begin, let me just ask you all something. Did 2009 seem to past by fast? Through out 2009 I felt the earth spinning faster. Everything just seemed to go really fast and there was no time to stop.

A couple of days ago I bought the soundtrack of FAME with my Christmas money. I saved the soundtrack on my laptop and into my Ipod nano. There is one song that I can’t help but constantly listen to. Ordinary people by Asher Book.

We’re just ordinary people
We don’t know which way to go
’cause we’re ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we’ll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we’ll take it slow

Above is the lyrics from the chorus. It is actually a love song. But the chorus is amasing.We are Ordinary people. We need to take it slow. Think about 2009 for a little bit please. Did it not go by fast for you? Did you rush through anything?WHY? We are people. Not robots. There is nothing to rush. We humans rush like crazy to save time and with all the saved up time we have, we just waste it on TV or something really lame. We need to slow down.

To all the working folk, calm down. Settle deals slowly this year. A rushed brain lowers productivity. Do things slowly and well and be done with it. Not do it fast and then it ends up to be crappy.

To students, including those in Polys, Universities, Pre-U or other standards, in exams take your time. Don’t rush. You miss stuff out when you rush through everything then you don’t do well. What is the point?

To everyone, let 2010 be meaningful. Let it have a slow pace so that you get the job done and can smell the wonderful roses at the same time. We have to enjoy 2010 and yet we do not understand why.

I dare each and every person here to slow down for 2010. Take time to breathe. You have to let your brain think for a little while and slow down. You are an Ordinary person. NOT A SUPER COMPUTER

We are Ordinary People. To my fellow Ordinary People, ‘this time we will take it slow’

With my regards

Cheyenne Phillips





The future ahead.

27 12 2009

Hey all,

It has been a pretty fast (and tiring) year for me and next week, the whole of Singapore will be tuned in to CELEBRATE 2010. However, before we go into the future, lets look back on the past.

I want to say many things here and I apologise deeply if this blog post is rather … personal, but some times it has to be.

I began this blog with Ideas and opinions and I wanted to be heard. I am glad that I am heard. May be not by many, but I still am heard. I hope all those who follow my blog and still do, don’t lose interest soon. After a while, and I will be honest, I got bored. I felt under appreciated and not worth the read. So my writing was put on pause and when I began writing again, it became more personal and many might begin to question the purpose of my blog.

I am here as a 16-year-old girl to offer my opinions and experiences to those who wish to read about them.

Oh trust me. I will try to talk more about the current issues we face around the world and bring local news and global views to everyone. As I begin a Junior Collage or a Polytechnic next year, I will share my school life, including my ideas of topics and views on events that have yet to come on my blog.

But that is about my blog content.

Today my cousin, who is currently serving in the army, asked me what I wanted to do next year. I told him I love drama and intend to take up theater studies in several Junior Collages and a few production/theater /drama /psychology/ biology courses. All depends on my results.

I am sure no matter what it is, I will happily share with you.

Another thing I would like to share with everyone.

I was kinda hoping of having 10000 views by the end of this year and I am short of 700 views. It was in honour of 2010. But we have a week to collect 700 views… is 100 views a day possible? I guess I am going to have to try!

With regards

Cheyenne





O levels so far

26 10 2009

HEY YALL.

It’s me cow girl, Cheyenne here and boy got I a story for you. Well first off, today’s english o level paper was not that hard. Infact it was as easy as rounding up those darn pony dogs. Second Im as scared as a hound dog in sand foxes territory for tomorrow elementary math paper. Now you may go on and tell me, you’ll be fine but ay! You aint taking that darn rusty old paper tomorrow. That paper which decided your future. See here your great great great…( many greats later) grand papy never had to do no stinking o levels. He just went off and rode on those mustangs you hear. Oh well…

I wrote yall a little story based on the word blue. I wrote it days before I saddled up and drove todays menace out of my sight. I would like yall to read it. My only warning. It may be quite sad….

Blue

Blue

To many, blue is just a colour -much like red, green, yellow and more. To me, blue is the strange mixture of calmness, sensitivity, strength, boldness and coldness. It is an addicting feeling to be surrounded by so many emotions at once. Unlike drugs, there is no rehabilitation centre. So once you are hooked, you are hooked for life.

My story is simple. I drowned myself in blue. My original school colours were black, white and blue. My uniform was blue. When I finally had gotten my own room, I insisted half of it was to be painted blue. I had one dream. To be completely surrounded by blue.

No one believed anything was wrong. I was not considered obsessed or troubled. I was considered the biggest fan of blue. This followed me right up to my University years. It was there where my need to be surrounded by blue increased and I enrolled to major in the course which would allow me to fulfil my need.

Approximately 4000 kilometres away from Sunny Singapore, Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia offered me a scholarship in Oceanology. It made sense, did it not? I had a need to be surrounded by blue and what a better way to do so than to study the biggest blue substance covering the earth’s surface. The Ocean.

My first year in this course bored me. Only in my second year did I become more interested. Most of my second year was spent out in the open sea. I would dance and swim and submerge myself in the cooling abyss. I would dive down deep to collect specimens from the ocean floor and I would be close to losing my breath before reaching the surface. The adrenaline rush was another addiction that I could not stop.

My Professor and classmates constantly warned me of the dangers. My professor was going to ban me from entering the water too. “Why do you enjoy hurting yourself so much?” he would always ask.

He finally did ban me but insisted I still come to the coast to study the specimens the others had found. However, the smell of the sea was a good enough push for me to disobey my professor and swim away when his back was turned.

I was a good distance away before the group realised I was gone. They all kept shouting for me to return but that just made me swim further away. Their shouts for my return quickly turned into shouts of panic and of warning. A classmate, Dave, shot out after me. He and the others saw something I was too distracted to see. I was swimming into the mercy of a large storm. Thunder ripped and the waves were harsh. The cooling waters took a sharp drop in temperature. Many would have swam away to save their lives. I embraced the blue surrounding me.

The lightning made me smile and I echoed the thunder’s loud scream. The waves tossed me about as if to ask me to join in on their dance. I dived down to watch the calmness of the ocean below its violent dance with the wind and rain, thunder and lightning. Then a strong hand pulled me out from my paradise.

“What do you think you are doing?” Dave shouted above the thunder as he gripped my shoulders.

“I am enjoying myself!”

Dave looked at me like I was mad. His blue eyes scanned my face looking for some sort of ‘sane’ thought. I had never realised how beautifully blue his eyes were. They were these bright pools of blue filled with warmth mixed with fear and terror. It was mesmerising.

“ I am taking you back now!” He yelled with the thunder.

I quickly pushed away. “ I am never going back!”

“You have too, now come on!”

“Dave! Listen to me. I like blue roses. Only blue roses” I said seriously. He stared at me, trying to comprehend my sentence.

“Blue roses…I don’t understand…”

I leaned in and pecked his soft cold, blue lips. “You will.” Before he could say another word, I dived. I dived deeper than I ever had. I looked up and saw Dave reaching out to me, his blue eyes screaming for me to return with him. I reached out to him and we almost got hold of each other but my body gave in and the water flowed into my lungs and I drifted further away from his reach. He was running out of air and went up to catch his breath as my body sank deeper into the abyss below. He dived down again. He could no longer find me and swam back to the shore, tired and with a heavy heart. Our professor picked him up in the school’s speed boat and a rescue team was immediately sent out.

Meanwhile, I smiled as I saw him swim away. My skin began to change in colour and my lungs constantly filled with water. I smiled because I was finally becoming part of my most beloved colour. Blue.

I did not understand her. Out at sea, I did not know what she meant. It took me days to understand. Then, the day of her funeral cum memorial came. Her family had travelled down and now stood along the coast where she had drowned at. Her entire class showed up as well. I walked towards her family, giving my condolences carrying a blue rose with me. Her father tried to smile when he saw the blue rose and mumbled that his daughter had loved blue roses before breaking out into a fresh batch of tears. He calmed down as much as he could and thanked me for trying to save her. Tears whelmed up in his eyes as he looked at me and then walked away to be by himself.

A large boat took her family and close friends as well as a priest to the area where I watched her drown. There, the priest began. There were many tears and many loud sobs. Everyone was so emotional, it made me feel guilty that I could not save her that day. Father asked if I wanted to say some words, considering I was the last to talk to her.

“I did not really know her. I apologise for not trying harder to save her that day. I am really sorry for your lost…. She did put up a fight to return to shore and if it makes you feel any better, she looked rather happy as she was going down. Before she did though, she told me she loved blue roses and so, I brought her one today.”

I walked over to the side of the boat. “This is for you.” I said as I dropped it into the ocean and watch it sink below the surface. It did so gently, it almost looked like she was going down again. I know she is happy, or at least I hope she is.








Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 666 other followers