My first semester as a secondary one student
After approximately 6 months, the semester has come to an end. Time really flies. A boy who first came into the 90 year old school has now finished his first semester and is heading into the June holidays and then the third term. I couldn’t adapt to the school at first, as it was so big (well, not because of that), and I had to take a staggering 7 subjects from a mere 4. Plus I have EP3, and thus I couldn’t manage well by balancing EP3 with the homework given to us from our various teachers. This resulted in my MSG (mean subject grade, not the salty thingy) going very high and caused me to be one of the lousiest in the class. However, in term 2, I got used to it and besides balancing my EP3 well with my homeworks, although I had to stay up late in the night sometimes to do it. Perhaps, I thought to myself, this is secondary school. Compared to my primary school, it was very much different; more subjects, a bigger school, more friends who seemed like strangers and of course, different teachers. In primary school, whenever there was any conflict with my friends, I would automatically go to the teacher and complain about it to her, but now I am in secondary school, I knew the situation was different, and the teachers will be too busy to entertain us. Thus, we had to settle the arguments among us. I had to pick up the courage to apologize, as much as I hated it, make up, and bury the hatchet with him, let bygones be bygones.
When I first came here for the secondary one orientation, I was very unfamiliar with the environment. It was as though I was lost in a forest. Any idea how big is Hwa Chong? A staggering 33 hectares!! Compared to my primary school, my primary school was like a needle in a hay. I did not know where to find my way at first, but I got smart. I used the hall as a landmark and wherever I went, I would remember where the hall was from the place and after that, I could get back there.
My EP3 is track and field-sprinting. Thus the training is about 4 days per week(imagine that!) and it is about 2 ½ hours per training. By the time training ends, my body will be aching all over and I will always need to drag my heavy legs back home. When competition is nearing, there will be even more training, resulting in my energy being used up and being tired. Thus, the quality of my work will not be as good as the others, and the next day I will not have the energy to pay attention in class. All these require adaptation. In a term’s time, I got used to it and I learnt more about time management as during the interval before my EP3, I would take out my work and finish it. Thus, by the time I drag my weary body back home, I can revise a little bit and go to bed. Don’t get the wrong idea guys, for my EP3 is not entirely that bad. Yes, it may be tiring, but the training is fun. I get along well with my friends in my EP3 and sometimes, we can play soccer in training. The coach will also let us do hurdles. I am not bragging but I am one of the best hurdlers. Haha.
There are quite a lot of events that happened in the first and second term. An example is the secondary one camp, whereby I got to bond with my friends and got closer to them. I also learnt how to work with each other, got to learn about leadership qualities and some life skills.
Another important event was the track and field finals, whereby we went to the Choa Chu Kang sports complex to watch the runners pit themselves against the other athletes from other schools. We cheered the runners on and I think that this played an important part in our school being able to clinch the double champions for the B and C boys group. You may think that cheering is not of much help to the runners from our school, but can you imagine the scene whereby the runner is going to give up, but after we cheered them on, they suddenly gained the power to cross the finishing line.
One of the events that happened in our school was the influenza A, H1N1, or commonly known as the swine flu. Our school took safety precautions, taking temperature almost every morning, and closing the gates of our school. I think that the precautions taken are good, besides, it is better to be safe than sorry.
As we are heading onto the June holidays, everyone is in high spirits, but let’s not forget that we have a lot to do during the long holidays. We have to complete our ACEs, as there will not be time in term 3 for us because of the preparations for the exams and the coming End of Year examinations. Thus, we have to do our ACE as it is important (10 % of the whole results). Even if you got 65 marks, if you max your ACE, won’t it be 75 marks and an A1for us?
After calculating my MSG this term, it should be around 2.5, and it is an improvement for me, as my MSG last term was 4.67. In term 3, I want to make it better, as we should seek places for improvements every single time. It will not be easy, but I believe that, with hard work, I can do it. By managing my time more wisely, I can do it. By paying attention in class, I can do it. I will excel in my academics and my EP3!! Yeah!

Hi everybody. If I am not wrong, yesterday was the Hwa Chong-Nanyang Girls combined sports meet. I am not going to talk about that. Ok, I wil give you a little infomation. I only won one medal, and that is from the 4x100m relay race. The 100m race, I didn't win anything. Haha. But that is not the objective of today's post. Today's post is: Is the process of the race or the results of the race better?
When asked this question, most of the people would say,'' The results is better," because people only focus on the results, but who cares about the process? Although the process of the race is important as it plays an important part in the results, the results is obviously more being bothered about by the other people, and no one would want to care about the process of the race. They only care about getting into the top three positions in the race, and the process is not being cared about by the racers. I asked one of my friends whether the results or the process is more inportant, and without waiting for my answer, he immediately replied," It is obvious the reults right?" However, in my opinion, I think that the process is more impotant. If you do not put in effort, and you only care about the results, what for caring about it when you didn't even put in the effort needed to win the race, and you will for sure end up losing the race. Take, for example, me. I only care about the results of the race, and did not bother to put in the effort. Thus, in the finals of the 100m, I ended up on the losing end, without winning anything. Thus, after the race, I thought about it and think that," Hey, the process is better. Why care about the results when I only want to win and not put in any effort?"
Another live example is your exams. If you only care about the results and not care about putting in the effort, how can you score well? However, on the other hand, if you bother to study and not thinking about scoring well, you can for sure score better than the person in the first example. I am not saying that the results is not important, but if the process has a higher priority over the results. Thus, I would like to conclude that the process is more important than the results.

Hey yo people. Back here to post. This time I amm going to talk about my results.My results are as shown below:
Chinese:A1
Maths:A2
Language Arts:B4
Lower Secondary Science:A1
Integrated Humanities:A2
Infocomm Studies:C5
Mean Subject Grade:2.5
Overall, I think that I had made an improvement in my msg, but I am still lagging behind a lot of people in the class, and there is still room for improvement. I will work hard next term and "beautify" my msg, and it is no good to be too salty, better make it as low as possible. I will improve on the subjects that I am weak on such as LA and IS as I think that for IS, I did not put in as much effort as the other subjects, thus I will take note of that, and for LA, I did not read the book well and I did not bother to memorise the important quotations, but I wil try to do it next term. As for the good subjects, I will try to maintain it. I know that it will not be easy as the term goes on and on, and the current will get stronger and stronger, thus we will need to row the boat as hard as possible in spite of the fact that we know that it will be tiring, but wat we will get at the other side of the river will be worth what we are working for. Mark can do it!! He will overcome the numerous hurdles in the 400m race and persevere till the end. He will succeed one day!!

Hey yo dudes. How long has it been since I last came to this website? Err.. let me think...five days? No, too short. Ten days? Too short too. Fifteen days? Bahhh, forget about that. Ok, what special occasion was it yesterday? Yes, it is mother's day. On this day, people are supposed to bring their mother out for dinner, show gratitude to them for bring them up, err... can't think of anything more. On this day, people are supposed to think about how their mother went to great lengths to bring them up. Have you ever thought of how hard it was to bring about a weight in your stomach for 9 months? Have you ever thought about how happy they feel when you all come to earth as a little baby? No we won't, cause we are boys and we wouldn't feel what they feel. Have you ever thought of how your mother will feel when you scream at them and talk back to them? They will think that it is their fault that they have not brought you up well. They will think that their efforts to bring you into the earth up is down to the drain. The day before yesterday I had a quarrel with my mother. I grumbled when I was told to do something. I talked back to her. I thought that I had triumphed when she kept silent. However, after a few moments, I did not feel so. I felt guilty. I felt as though a sword had pierced through my heart. I did not know why did I feel that when I thought about what I said to her. The feeling was automatic. I looked at my mother for a moment. I saw wrinkles on her face. I felt that she was older. She was not the young pretty mother she was. She was left into the house to "rot" because she wanted to take care of us. What I am now, where I am now, was due to her. It was due to her sacrificial of her youth did I went into Hwa Chong Institution, all my achievements cannnot be done without her. Thus, today, wat I want to say to my mother is," Happy mothers' day, my dearest mother!! May you live in bliss for your life!!"