JOWEEEEEN

this is everything i didn't say

ragnarok 2017!

Saturday, 6 May 2017 || 11:09 am

i thought i was going to spend the monday of the long weekend at home with no plans. but how wrong was i. it was quite a last minute decision to take part in ragnarok, (i think it is) an annual poly fun time which we are invited too as well. i initially did not intend to go because you know i'm an awkward anti-social person who does not fancy being among large groups of people, but i kinda felt the need to take a leap of faith, step out of my comfort zone and let God do His thing. so you can imagine how scared i was 24 hours before the event even started. so in the end, i spent almost the whole of monday at sentosa with a group of people in yellow (and red and blue and green), and boy, i don't regret stepping out of the house that morning.

the groups first met for lunch at harbourfront before heading to sentosa. only half our group was there for lunch but i managed to talk to some people so i guess it started off okay. the monorail was down so we took the shuttle bus instead. it was a warm and long journey and we reached beach station where we took the trams (which came at long intervals) to tanjung beach. i think i officially became gabriel's nightmare when i sat beside him in the tram and started off with "hi gabriel do you remember me what's my name" HAHAH i'm sorry i tried to socialise (i also talked to cj a little during one of the breaks we had)!!!!!! but yes we reached the beach one hour later than we were supposed to so we were tight on time but anyway-------

first things first, there was a short sharing by christian and chelsia (yay) kinda got me in reflection mode. then we had flag making session when we also thought of a group cheer, so here's team heimdall before the games started aka before we got all sweaty and red-faced!!

HEIMDALL HEIMDALL WATCH YOU FALL

GONNA PUSH YOU TO THE FLOOR

HEIMDALL HEIMDALL WATCH YOU FALL

MAKE YOU GO HOME WHILE YOU CRAWL

HEIMDALL HEIMDALL EH

OOOOO HEIMDALL

credits to duncan and everyone else for thinking of this cheer in a short period of time even though we messed up sometimes but eh, 100 for team spirit leh guys!!

the first game was a relay race with several station. we had to guess a riddle first which got me all ???? but some of my group members heard it before so we got to the next station pretty quickly. then it was the memory game where we had to open two cards of the same number out of twenty or something. i contributed just to the number 2 ok hahaha. then it was a no-communications but a lot of teamwork game where we had to give the game master cards in ascending order. only a pair of hands could be in the circle at one time and no one could talk, and we spent the longest time at that station because trying to count one to twenty butterflies actually made my eyes sore for a while. HAHA kidding. the last station, in my own opinion, was the most fun because we had to list the new testament backwards which was kinda confusing for me because i was trying to sing the song while the other members were shooting random books which messed with my head. but eventually, we did it and came in first place, despite not leading in the beginning! so it was a good start for heimdall woohoo!!

second game was target (or lollipop //queues the east light's cover of lollipop). it was a game where there will be 2 "guiders" and the rest of the team had to be grouped into four groups, tied, and blindfolded and dig out water bombs before making our way to the end, where we can take off our blindfold and will be required to throw the water bombs at a hoola hoop wrapped with newspaper and try to break it. i was tied with daniel yong and raj and i was at the end like how?????? because i'm not a good digger hahah. but being the group that have to travel the shortest distance to the first location, we found the three water bombs in a short period of time (thanks to duncan for leading us to the waterbomb and joven for leading us to the end). so while the two guiders went to guide the other groups we kinda just squat there literally like lost kids and i swear i thought it was duncan who came to talk or i was just dumb but one person who ended up to be the game master (zu ke) came and said "oh yall find all already just wait for duncan then" then i'm like "ok can help me hold my specs (which fell on the sand as i was digging)" and the person was like "ok". it was embarrassing for me in the end when zu ke came and returned my specs omg sorry i really really thought it was duncan it really slipped my mind or something!!! but!! with cj's power we managed to break the lollipop before we ran out of water bombs and we emerged second!!

//thinking about it, i think i have ear-brain coordination problem because 1) zu ke said to wait for duncan and i thought he was duncan and asked him to hold my specs 2) i was talking to cj during the break and he literally just said he was in poly year 3 then i asked "so are you waiting for enlistment or something" then he had to repeat himself again that he was in poly omg joween please

due to time constraint because we started late, we skipped one game and capture the flag was the last game. but before that, our group earned extra 100 points for team spirit which i mentioned earlier, and like 80 or 100 for flag design??? must be the cheers that we always chanted (or tried to practice) heh. capture the flag was the scariest game to me especially since it turned so violent so i was just at defence the whole time, digging three moats so that there will be uneven surface say an enemy wants to come and take our flag. i literally shoved anyone who tried to come in my way and almost got sea water in my eyes omg. capture the flag ended off with the green team winning because honestly they were like the avengers time (my team was like the avengers team as well, except i was the black sheep hah).

so the day ended off with a short sharing by nathan and a lot of photo taking afterwards. to sum it all up, ragnarok wasn't as bad as i thought it would be because honestly, i enjoyed myseld ad i actually got to talk to people which was and probably still is one of my biggest insecurity!! more importantly, going through monday really strengthened my faith as i surrendered to God and He really blessed us that day. THANK GOD!

till this day, almost one week after ragnarok, i actually still can't believe that i went to the activity-- something i never thought i would do two weeks ago. but no regrets, better than being cooped up at home doing nothing. enjoy these pictures mostly with heimdall!!!

till next time x

pjc: the memories

Thursday, 4 May 2017 || 8:59 pm

"hi, i'm joween and i'm from pioneer junior college-- no, it's not at pioneer, it's at choa chu kang." this is how i would introduce myself when i'm asked which school i was from the past two years and even after i graduated. but i'm afraid i won't be able to introduce my school like this anymore come 2019. in two years, my school will be merged with jurong junior college and the location will still be at the current pjc site-- despite how ulu it is on a hill behind teck whye secondary and primary school.

i must admit, i never had the intention of going to pjc. i have never heard of pjc until the release of O levels results when we got the JAE Admission Exercise booklet which provided us with a list of schools and courses to choose from. i only went to pjc because it was the best jc that i could go to without having to travel for more than an hour. visiting pjc's open house a day after the release of O level results, i was won over by the school spirit which i saw there as the students- my seniors- danced the two school dances and shouted the school cheers with pride (little did i know that most of them just ended ogl camp one week before and hence the dances and school cheers were fresh in their minds). the school was bright and lively as well, in contrast to another jc open house which i visited before that. my decision was made certain then, that i would put pjc as my first choice, even though i've never heard or seen it or known anything about it before my visit there. with an O level score of net 12, i was worried that i would not be able to get into pjc as my score was just borderline from the cut off point, but i managed to get into pjc arts stream, and that started my 2 years long journey in junior college.

with a unique subject combination of econs, history and lit for h2 subjects and h1 math, i was put in a small class of 18 people. weird, diverse, different individuals, but i guess we all had a thing for writing essays (or not). though we're a tiny class and ended up with 15 people at the end of year 2, we kinda grew closer as a class over time. no matter how annoying or noisy or dumb our class can get, i really enjoyed my time in 15a05. gp and lit lessons with ms zaleena that ended up with debates, history lessons where we learn that our class performed the poorest which wasn't surprising, snacking during math lessons, and mini matches during pe because our class is that small. but i am so glad i got to go through the two tiring years with the people who went through the same struggles as i did. guys, WE DID IT! we survived 12 years of formal education.

my cca was the ambassadors. i kinda regretted not joining dance, but ambass is fine as well, being an event-based cca. though a lot of the people here have rbf, they're genuinely nice, and i met some of my good friends in jc from here. we had the opportunity to attend workshops like communications, personal grooming and dining etiquette (can write in our testimonial ma) and there's a compulsory overseas trip to china (which i did not go). but oh well. a part of me is glad i joined ambass because of the lack of cca sessions heh.

i know a couple of people from my school whose first choice was not pjc, some others simply there because it was close to where they lived and a handful ended in pjc just because. even though unwilling at first, i've seen that these people, me included, have enjoyed their two years in pjc, be it through cca or other activities organised by the school. for me, the highlight of my jc life was orientation-- as a newcomer and as an ogl. pjc is the first jc i know that has around 8 to 10 ogls in one og group, as compared to other jcs that have 2-3. as far as i know, there are over 200 ogls per year and this is because our principal wants to give us the opportunity to be involved and grow as a student leader. even kairos students are given the chance to be ogls. and personally, that is something about pjc that i'm very proud of, how so many are given the opportunity to serve the school whereas not as many students are given the chance in other schools. also, many students are given the opportunity to go overseas for cca/subject trips, including japan for geog trip and perth for lit trip. me being, well, me, i did not go on any overseas trip.

every school has strict teachers and in pjc from my experience, they are from the pw and econs departments. didn't bring your pw book? stand. didn't bring your econs lecture notes? copy the whole notes after lecture. but i know, this is for our own good. pw consultations dragged to as late as 9pm as my group and i desperately tried to reduce our word count. our tutor, who has a young child of her own, would stay back together with us and made sure that we did our work. the econs lecture group was split into groups so that the lecturers could teach at a pace comfortable for the students. we can even approach tutors who don't teach us for consultations. just make sure i do my work, and my tutors will be willing to hold consultation sessions. the caring teachers i've been under the teaching of are people i really appreciate since j1 and especially in j2 during the stressful period before A levels. as i was really worried and stressed out for gp and lit because i lacked so much and hadn't finish reading my texts when the exam drew near (i never finished reading it, anyway ha), my tutor who teaches me both these subjects would encourage us, telling us how much faith she had in us, even though i think i ended up disappointing her. my teachers definitely played a big part for me in my two years in pj, always encouraging me even though i was not the smartest nor the most hardworking student. following the merger, some teachers will be redeployed, and i don't know if my teachers will continue teaching in pjc. what if one day i decide to visit my alma mater, and i don't get to see my teachers anymore? my math tutor whose classes i really enjoy attending, have moved to another school. what about my other subject tutors?

despite being 17 years young this year, pjc has every reason to celebrate all its achievements so far. special mention to my cousin who was in the pioneer batch of pjc, could have went to a better school but did not, studied and currently living in the us, wan yan for designing our school crest!! the school campus moved from near the science centre to the current campus in teck whye. in 2015, we celebrated pj15 and sg50 with our first ever fiesta (bless up). in 2016 and 2017, we achieved 100% A/B for pw (thanks teachers and strict dept). our school cut off point decreases almost every year, and there are improvements for our A level grades as compared to previous years. can i also say i'm so damn proud of h2 history 2016 cohort because there are more than 90% A/B of which more than 80% got A and our whole class got 100% A/B for history!!!! there are also many stories of perseverance in our school and you can read them here: natasha amanda richmond esther. throughout the two years i was in pjc, our sports teams managed to bag a few awards, as our school's ultimate frisbee team emerged the champions in ijcu, and the basketball team clinched second place in the annual a division competition. 17 years young, but pjc has managed to gain recognition over the years because of all the outstanding pioneers, pioneer junior college, once known as a new, young jc in the west has established a name for itself, and i'm proud of it.

it is sad to know that pj will never be the same anymore. less than two decades, and a new beginning. even though i do complain a lot about the school, the timetable, the facilities, the teachers, the heat, the distance to the bus stop, literally everything, the school still holds a very special place to me. i've learnt a lot in pj in the two very short years i was there, many memories forged. having econs and history papers on your birthday? #neverforget HAHA. pj fiesta that was held only once so far. the annual walk around teck whye. being called "pioneers" which sometimes make us feel old. what will happen after the merger? new school song, new school uniform, new school name - new identity. what will happen to our school creed? what will happen to our two school dances? so many questions.

the past two years in pj have been an experience for me, and they're all memories good or bad. if there's something i can remember from pjc, it's our motto, a phrase repeated in our school song and creed, and will hold it to heart:

while i live, i learn.

till next time x

update: i've decided to just stick to blogger for now... until i have more time to edit my wix site so yeah back here again!!!