Living in a fast-paced city, it is a very rare sight where we could spend time reflecting upon ourselves of what we had been through. As part and parcel of growing up, we continually seek ways to improve upon ourselves, be it technical or soft skills. It might result in often having to neglect what we had long-cherished for, inflicting hurtful feelings on those we hold close by heart and pushing them apart from us.

Having been through the education system for more than fifteen years, her perception of studies totally changed. Once viewed as not an academically-inclined student, she often lingered after school with her friends to visit the arcade at the shopping malls nearby. “Play like there is no tomorrow.” This is her mindset. She wasted precious time which could be put to better use. How effective can she be? Having to procrastinate and chunk her revisions for any upcoming assessments at the very last minute, burning the midnight oil to squeeze all the jargon and formulas within the few hours.

In her early school days, she often felt contemplated even at the simplest things. Her status quo was to be able to get into the "best" primary school in the west region, which was due to affiliation by her parents, and passed the entry test.

Whenever she received the marked workbook, she did not bother to do corrections and unfolded the dog ear that her teacher indicated. She put minimal effort into studying. Having this type of attitude towards learning earned her a nose-dived grade, from 86 marks to 68 marks in her Mathematics. She had to be demoted from the third-best class to another. However, she did not learn from this indicator and continued to play and put forth less effort in her academics.

“Let me complete the questions using the shortest time possible so that I can take the opportunity to rest thereafter.” This is what she used to do during the examinations. She was fortunate enough to be able to graduate from primary school with a Normal Academic stream, despite barely reaching the benchmark.

Studies seem like a chore to her. The bookshelf beside her study table used to be packed with supplementary materials, which her mother will use to guide her to finish her practices. To better prepare for the Primary School Leaving Examinations, her parents went the extra mile to sign her up for mind mapping sessions and hire a renowned professor to teach her Mathematics using what is called the “arrow” method. At that point in time, what she longed for was the tea break whereby her mother will buy glazed donuts from J.Co Donuts and Coffee.

Notably, she has always been perceived by her teachers as "soft-spoken" and "hardworking" in her secondary school days. After she excelled in her second year and topped the cohort, the sense of satisfaction of having her peers and the rest of the students applaud her achievement, was the sense of satisfaction that she wanted. It sparked an intrinsic motivation and she soon realized the importance of academics as she strived her best for every test and examination.

However, she knew by heart that working hard does not equate to working smart. Frequently faced with "free-rider" issues, the distribution of workload for the group project was not equivalent.

“We can do it later”, and “There’s still time” were the replies that she usually gets to hear from her teammates. She knew that the submission of last-minute work will not be perfect and did the remaining portion, as she was concerned with her grades. Being introverted and having a handful of people that are considered to be her in-group, her teammates took advantage of her and pushed their workload believing that she will be willing to complete them without any grudges.

Luck has not been with her, always missing the benchmark by a little, which resulted in her spending an additional year in her secondary school whereby she lacked a 0.05 percent to be able to graduate in four years; missed a grade for her language subject to enter the Polytechnic Foundation Program; revoked offer from Early Admission Exercise to enroll herself to the Early Childhood Education and Psychology diploma in one of the renowned polytechnics.

At that point in time, she felt lost, even desperate and her future was obscure. It seemed like an endless dark tunnel to her, as she saw her peers being able to join their dream courses.

“Where will I go?”, she doubted. Those courses that she yearned for are highly competitive. Her results back then were not fantastic and far off to be able to enroll herself.

It got even tougher when the Joint Admission Exercise did not go as expected; she was left with no choice but to join the Joint Admission Appeal exercise. Fortunately, she met one of the friendly lecturers from the School of Infocomm. He guided her on another alternate pathway that she can opt for. She then managed to secure a spot in one of those courses that would be in demand in the future - the course named Business Applications.

Having known the importance of education, she relentlessly strived to put in her best effort to excel in her studies. Her hard work finally paid off. She then became the top student in the cohort during her second year and was thankful for the opportunities given by her lecturers.