We celebrated National Day at school yesterday and I must say, I really didn’t expect to enjoy myself as much as I did. I thought I’d be struggling to get my kids enthused; little did I know that they would be more than willing to put aside their pre-conceived notions about the scaled-down classroom celebrations and fully participate in the activities. We had such a wonderful time playing the games, and singing our little hearts out loud to the National Day songs, I think we got a little high. :p

However amid all the laughter, I nearly cried. As I was singing along, it dawned on me that I would probably never experience this with my form class again. I almost broke down right there. In fact, for the past few weeks, whenever I’m teaching these kids, there’d always be moments when I would just look out at them and right there, even though all of them were with me, I’d just be missing them. Call me sappy, but I really do have a crazy huge attachment to this class of mine. Perhaps it’s the “first form class” syndrome but I always think of them as my babies. My darlings. And because we’ve been through so much over the past two years, I really can’t help but hold them dear to my heart.

As much as I would love to have them all come back next year, I know they don’t have the same plans for their lives. Some are content with working immediately after they graduate, some yearn for bigger things, while others are happy to go wherever their results bring them. Whatever happens, I just want all of them to be the best they can be and be proud of their own achievements.

Saying goodbye to them is gonna be so incredibly tough.

When I first got Troy, no one imagined he’d last a few months. Not even myself. One full year on, I’m proud to say the little guy is still swimming his wee little heart out in his spacious (for him, at least) tank. I’m beaming, to say the least. But when I looked back at pictures of Troy when I first got him, I immediately became ashamed of my highly inept pet-owning skills.

Here’s the guy about a month after I got him:

And this is him today:

Rightaway, you’ll notice the discolouration. He’s no longer as vibrant as before, and his fins are all scraggly and less than perfect now. The only consolation I can give myself is that he’s STILL ALIVE. And seeing as Troy is my first real pet, I guess I’m not doing too bad.

So now that I’ve crossed the one-year mark, what’s next? Well, I’m actually thinking of getting another fish! But I’ll have to find a perfect one, one that can get along well with a Betta fish cos I definitely wanna keep Troy around for as long as possible.

Anyone got recommendations?

So my last attempt to blog a whole series of posts based on The Purpose Driven Life failed. Majorly. But really, was anyone even surprised? I’ve never been able to keep up with my own blog. Sometimes, I think it’s a lot bigger than I make it out to be. Alas, here I am again, in all my humbling glory, blogging. I’ll just blog once a week, I tell myself. Yeeaaah. We’ll see about that.

Let’s see, what has happened since June? Oh, not too much. I’m still taking Spanish classes (my first test is next week! Madre mia!), I went to the Da Vinci exhibition at the Science Centre, I got myself hooked onto Postcrossing, I had a massively awesome time wailing to Rock tunes at a slightly dodgy karaoke lounge (but they had an amazing catalogue of English songs), I went to see Liverpool FC play when they came down to Singy (yay!),  and I’ve started to finalise my December plans to London & Paris (woo!). AND all this time, I’ve managed to survive (albeit barely) the demands of work. Anyone wanna pat my back?

Now we’re on the last day of July, and I can’t help wondering if I’ve done anything impactful over the last 7 months. More specifically, will I look back at this year thinking, have I done anything for anyone? It’s one thing to lead an eventful life. I’ve attended 3 concerts, gone to a big (by my standards) sporting game, picked up a new language… but what about helping someone out? Getting someone out of a bad habit? Leading them to learn more about God? I don’t know if I have the fruits to show for that.

I’m probably feeling all this because it’s my last year with my form class and I have no idea what’s going to happen to them after they’ve graduated. Just two days ago, while standing at the back of the classroom and singing the National Anthem with the kids, I couldn’t help feeling a wave of emotions overcoming me. I wanted to treasure the moment so badly because I knew that some of these kids are not going to come back next year. You see, as much as I would like to have all of them stay one more year to take their O levels, I also know that that isn’t the route for some of them. As a teacher, the one thing I care most about is making sure I’ve impacted a life enough for a student to have enough confidence in his/her abilities so that he/she can fulfil his/her full potential. And I really don’t know if I’ve prepared my kids enough for life after Secondary School. I wonder if there is anything I could’ve done better over these past 2 years.

That said, I’m glad to see evidence that my class has grown. Many have become serious about learning and are focused on doing well. They’ve formed study groups. They’re asking more questions. They’ve even put in more effort into subjects that they don’t love. It has been a long and arduous process, but I’m happy to see that change has come. I just hope I’ve done enough.