you live you learn, you love you learn you cry you learn, you lose you learn you bleed you learn, you scream you learn you grieve you learn, you choke you learn you laugh you learn, you choose you learn you pray you learn, you ask you learn you live you learn
you know, there ain't many 7 pointed 'o' levels candidates around in the polys. hell there're even less 7 pointers who spent a year in jc in the polys.
well, if for some reason you're looking for one, you just found him.
one of the most common response that i got when i told people that i was going to quit school, and head to a polytechnic was, "but wouldn't that be a waste of time?".
"wouldn't that be a waste of time?".
and hell, they do have a very good point. the earlier that one can get into the workforce, the earlier one can get an income. accordingly, one can then earn more, at a younger age, and then, own more. so what others complete in 2 years, i chose the option that takes 4 years.
and thus the comment.
but i do not believe that i wasted my time. i chose to go my own way, and came out richer for the experience, and to quote robert forst again (because it just seems so appropriate, and also simply because i don't know any other).
two roads diverges in a wood and i - i took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
indeed, i'm thankful for all that i've gained in poly.
1. coming to poly allowed me to fulfill something that i'd wanted to do for the longest time but never had the chance to do so: to play football at a higher level, to see just how far i can go. i have gotten my answer, but training with the sp team was an eye opener, despite never really breaking into the first 11, or the first 16 for that matter. nonetheless, i've improved tremendously, football-wise, both tactically and technically, and i enjoyed myself learning to enjoy football more.
2. it is in poly that i made up my mind about what it is that i want for myself, what it is that i want to do in university - preferably nothing to do with science. the thing is, i've enjoyed reading and writing, but never really gone ahead and gave myself a chance to pursue them. and the frightening thing is, had i continued in jc, did my 'a' levels, served ns and went on to uni - the well-trodden path - i'd probably have chosen to do something science related in uni too, just to have a "secure" future. coming to poly, and to a science course, made me realise irrefutably that this is not something that i want to be doing for the rest of my life. i want to try something else, and i'm thankful, for this chance to finally recognise what it is that i want out of my education, out of my life.
3. moreover, the polytechnic gave me two trips overseas to see what it is like outside this sheltered shell called singapore. to leave these shores and immerse myself in a different culture, engage with different people, to serve and to give a little back what i, by grace, have been given. these trips taught me the joys of giving, and gave meaning to the otherwise vipid and insipid skills that i've been learning for the past 3 years considering that i'm do not intend to continue with optometry. while others chose to go on these trips perhaps to sharpen their clinical skills, others because of the fun (all of these perfectly legitimate reasons), for me, it has always been about helping those in need with what i know, and hopefully, in so doing, i'd grow as a human being. had i not come to a poly, i would never have had such opportunities to see india and indonesia in such light as i had, to experience the peoples' warmth and hospitality as i had, and most surely, to grow and learn as i had.
4. and lastly, poly gave me good friends. while i still keep in contact with quite a few of my secondary school friends (in fact, i see them almost weekly) the thing about guys is that we can spend the entire day playing football, doing things, but not know anything about each other. for example, for every single one of my teamates in my numerous teams, i know if they are right or left footed, how comfortable they are receiving the ball on their weaker foot, their nick names, the car they drive, the football team they support, the position that they play in, the boots that they wear but not know their last names. things are slightly better with my secondary school friends (i know their last names), but our conversations (when we're not shouting instructions at each other on the pitch) revolve around nonsense, or talk cock. i saw these figures in a report: that men speak on average 2000 words a day, predominantly comprising of instructions. women, conversely, utter over 10000 words a day, plus they do not give as many instructions as men. my point is, many of my friends from secondary school, good friends as they are, are good people i enjoy playing football with, trash talking about our respective team's fortunes, coming up with ridiculous jokes, i've come to realise that i hardly know anything about them at all. poly though brought me people whom i've gotten to know well throughout these 3 years, and i can truly say that i'm glad to have known them.
so here's to poly, to football, to the future, to foreign exposures, and to friends.