Twilight of a Semester; Dawn of a new Year

Before I begin. To all my friends, students and juniors who are taking their A levels and SPM’s: All the Best! I hope you all ace your papers and come out chargin’!

Week 12 of my first semester in NTU is drawing to a close, and Holly Crack, did it close out fast; it seemed like it was barely a month ago that I was still wandering around campus and getting lost. At the same time, though, the feeling of how unbelievably fast time flew here for me is juxtaposed with the paradoxical feeling that I’ve been in NTU since forever.

And forever means a lot of time for me to do a lot of stuff. In my short three months here so far, I’ve learned some fundamentals of Psychology, Experimental Science, Economics, Management and Critical Writing; printed on enough paper to increase my carbon footprint three-(hundred)-fold; joined 4 clubs; read more textbooks and books than I ever did in my two years in Junior College; learned every inch of NTU’s grounds; ate at (almost) every canteen the university had to offer; got my bare pass for that one assignment that I spent over 40 hours on… The list goes on and on and on…

…And I’m still not done. As week 13 rolls in, I’ll be teaching again; I’ll be mentoring this wonderful kid I met at CatchPLUS; I’ll be planning for my next semester; I’ll be finishing up preparations for my trip to Penang… There’s so much stuff to do, so much to take in and manage-

-and it feels so good. It feels like I’m being alive.

So as Thursday’s morning draws nearer, and my dry eyes beg for me for some sleep, I’m going to write about what I plan to do with the rest of my time for the Semester.

As of right now, here is a “bucket” list of things I hope to accomplish in the following two months:

• Look for a second Tuition Assignment.
  Probably not very wise of me, but I hope to get another tutoring job. My current assignment has me booked on Monday and Friday evening, and I hope that I can have fill my Saturday with a job too. Assuming this second job gives me the same rate as my first one (or more, I ain’t picky. <3), I’ll have a nice bit of income that will, at the very least, pay for my rent and living expenses for next semester. Fingers crossed for a good one.
• Dabble in Filming
  If you’re a student in Singapore, you’ve probably seen this excellently crafted video by “dat other Uni”. Well, that got me inspired to do something similar for NTU. I still have no plans for this, and I hope to take it reeeeaaallll slow, but I do hope I can challenge myself to create something that can at least match that video.
• Learn French and Coding
  {
  println (“Oui, si te plait.”);
  }
• Teach my mentee and student to discover their love for learning
  I truly think that if there is one quality that every human being must have, it must be Curiosity. It is from that inexplicable, indescribable desire to understand and discover that other important qualities are learned and adopted. It’s how one discovers optimism, resilience, courage, empathy, passion, delight, piety, trust and creativity…If I am going to disappear from this planet anytime soon, I am going to make damned sure that I left, having made someone more curious about their life and their world. This is a major milestone that I hope to hit, and I hope I hit this milestone with my student and my mentee.

I have so many plans…and I still haven’t even finished studying for the semester finals. XD

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This week, I recommend “Thug Notes” for all them gangsta’s and playa’s who wanna educate themselves about the finer points of classic literature, ya’ feel me? Ma’ boy Sparky Sweets (Ph.D) does a tight job of piquing interest for good books, fine literature while keeping it real with that badass swag.