Mrs Poon requests a reflection journal from us. I think it's a great chance for me to "stop and stare" for a while...

  I am a person with a lot of interests, each of which so often came about as I was inspired by someone or random events in my life. I came to love cooking when I was a fan of a Japanese show called “Iron chef”; as the chefs in the show kept using the same techniques and the same ingredients for their dishes, I got bored of it and my love for cooking was gone (though I still like cooking but I don’t love it to the extent of wanting to be a chef!). My first day of IP marked the start of my love for Economics. It was the very first IP lecture on Economics conducted by Mr. Chris Ho that sparked my interest. “A lovely subject on the study of human behaviours!” or so I thought. I wanted to be an accountant back then; however, when Mr. Ho moved to Hwa Chong, my love for Economics had faded away before I even noticed it. And of course, I came to love Chemistry during term 1 of my IP2 year. Chemical bonding was fun but when it came to electrochemistry in term 3, I realize that Chemistry is not my cup of tea (I blame the fact that electrochemistry was combined with physics as a module).

   In fact, it’s more true to say that I’m a person with changing interests. None has stayed long enough but Biology. It is an exception. I have been in love with Biology since my sec 1 days and it is still occupying a significant room in my heart now. No other subjects can provide one with a more thorough sexual education, allow one to appreciate the complete beauty of life or explain the meaning of the existence of all natural living entities. The best decision I made in J1 was to join Biology Olympiad. Though I did not earn a medal for myself, I found something more important – my passion. My trainer shared with me his love, in which I coincidentally found mine: evolutionary biology. I was introduced to Richard Dawkins’s books. After finishing his first book “The selfish Gene”, I’m completely enlightened: it was both eye-opening & awe-inspiring! I like the idea of all organisms being equal rather the orthodox condescending view that human beings have the supreme power. I agree with him that human beings came into existence not by chance but by the natural selection in which the fittest “genes” survive to proliferate. After all, I decided to pursue “Zoology” in university as I believe that the study of animal behaviours can aid me in understanding how evolutionary mechanism works. This time, I’m confident that it will not change.

   On a side note, I have always been proud of my memory. I can remember a page in a textbook correctly to every word in a short time. In short, I can remember things for a long time if I put my mind to it. Though I did not do well for Promos, it is because of my procrastination in the first half of J1 and bad time management throughout the year. I believe that I can definitely improve this and an A in Chemistry will just be a matter of time (till July). I believe that I’m one of the lucky souls that realize what I want to do with my life so I will definitely achieve that goal.

   Thank you so much for allowing me to share my dream!

I had a talk today with one of my best friends in middle school. We haven't talked to each other for almost 1 year. Actually I thought I lost the friendship with her after graduation. As I got used to be on my own everytime, it did not matter much. But it was really a heart-to-heart talk and I found out that though we have changed, we surprisingly found a common understanding as we could talk for the longest time. I almost burst into tears when I told her most of the things I hid inside my heart. It's like the sudden release of  emotions that were compressed all the time. How interesting!