Thursday 5th March

As the saying goes, nothing in life is smooth. When theres an up, theres a down. When I’m Happy, I’ll also be sad. Today was one of those sad days. Yesterday, I went out shopping with one of my friend. Bad decidion. I hate shopping. Okay, I don’t really hate shopping, I just suck at it. My friend made me comb juction eight from the basement to the third floor. And he didn’t even feel tired!

So I came back home yesterday, too tired to even touch any of my homework. So I did something extroadinary.

I left my homework undone.

And I left for school today, all cheerful and happy. And my teacher killed that happy mood. First, there was this heap of NEW homework. Then I had to hand in my yesterday’s undone homework. Moreover, I had physics remedial right after class.

Shit. I did my maths homework, during Values Education. I did my Geography, during Social Studies period, and I did my English, during recess.

The Result, a really lousy piece of homework. Plus the English assignment has been sneezed on. And that wasn’t mine.

But, my life have been following this trend. If I’m gonna be happy for one moment, the eve would be a sad day. So tommorrow’s Good Friday. And Good Friday means Sentosa.

And Sentosa means Aristotle. The fellowship has been reformed. Its time to enjoy ourself, just as we did past saturdays. I really hope that this outing would be a great one. Why? cause all of my planned outings usually turned out disastrous. Why me…

This time, however, Dingxiang is organizing. He’s feeling the pressure of being a leader, so I’m there to give him some emotional and mental support. Hey, its not easy leading or organizing something. So I would have to congragulate him tommorow for organizing this event.

Anyway, I should not forget my spiritual commitment. I’ve decided to make this easter something special. I’m going to create a post card for Jesus. Then, I’m going to write down a little speech and when we get to sentosa tommorow, I’m going to place it IN sentosa, under a pebble. Its like a tombstone in living memory of Jesus who died for my sins.

Jesus, Thank you for giving me life. And thank you, for taking away yours for my sake. For our sake. For the world.

Watch over us tommorow. I pray it would be a good outing.

Tuesday 4th april

Tuesday didn’t get exciting till in the evening. Jieji, benedict, dingxiang and I went for the mindchamp scholarship that night. Ben was late, so Dingxiang, Jieji and I had dinner together.

Dinner meant going to Long John Silver. And thats where Dingxiang spilt his sprite all over the floor.

Anyway, we were assigned to room galileo, and we sat together. The session started late, and the director (Ben) introduced himself. If you expected this course to be fun and games, you’re wrong. When he started talking, everyone listened. he had this air of authority around him.

Ben told us a little about himself, before interviewing us as a group. He asked me what I expected this course to be like, and what I hope to achieve. Maybe it sounded like a talk, but my mum thought studied pshychology to tell me that he was already reviewing each and everyone of us ever since the talk started.

Ben even noted Dingxiang’s knowledge, “Wow. you really read up a lot”

Which Bernice replied, “In our class, he is known as Mr. Knowlege.”

Which I said, ” Dingxiang is one of the administrator of wikipedia”

And Ben said, “Wow.”

Boy I could tell he was impressed.

I didn’t want to tell anyone this, not even dingxiang, but every time he reviewed each one of us, his eyes would flicker to a malay woman sitting together with us. She would recognize his flicker and write something down. I saw him did that with me and Dingxiang, and a girl. Other than that abnormally, everything went smoothly.

Ben actually told us that he escaped death, twice. One was when his car overturned. Another was when he slammed into a pole while wakeboarding. Ouch. Now half of his body is made augmented with titanium.

What i really remember, was he telling me that he may have survived those two “brush with death” just to stand here and teach us. If not, somebody else might be teaching. He might be disabled or even dead.

Anyway, Ben hinted that he will be watching us closely. Who will be the first to leave, and last to go. I remember his standing at the door, waiting for us to leave, but I cant remember who was last? Was it me? But I’m defitely not first. I was way behind Jieji and Benedict.

Anyway, I wrote a previous article about me hating leadership. Maybe I don’t hate leadership… I need to be able to learn to grow. Thats what I wanna be. A great leader.

MindChamps on TUESDAY!

Good news is, THERES MINDCHAMPS ON TUESDAY! yay.

Bad news is, ben is coming. He’s still kinda cold… But anyway, he’s kinda socialble… hope he won’t be that cold tommorow.

Okay, maybe I’m being too evil. Bens a kinda nice guy… So maybe its good news after all. Note to self: Never irritate ben.

Its so awesome knowing that I’m finally going to see my mindchamp friends after two weeks of seperation. Don believe, look at the photo, right at the top. Ben’s there, as well as Jieji, dingxiang and Brandon. Well, looks like its only the five of us.

Alright. Its time to make history. Mindchamps, I’M BACK!

 Jieji is in red, ben is in white. Jieji doing some preaching stance while bens looking away.

My goals in Life.

Ever since young, I’ve been living on one goal, and one goal only.

Enjoy Life.

Short, sweet, and extremely fun motto to live by. That allows me to be carefree. Whatever thigns that doesn’t make me happy. If theres something i really hate to do, i would avoid it. Thats why my academic work starts to slack.

So I’ve introduced several new mottos in life. When I was in primary school, I learned the consequenses of selfishness. I learned the warm touch of being a caring person. I learned the importance of helping someone.

My new goals slowly formed. I can easily sum it all up.

1) Enjoy Life

2) I want to make everyone happy, even if it means sacrificing myself.

3) I will never turn down a friend.

4) Just do it. No matter what, just do it, or else I will regret it forever.

5) Never be scornfull. And I mean never.

From goal number one, i learn to smile at any difficulties i meet. From number two, I learn to think of others rather than myself. From number three, I learn to help a friend, no matter what. From number four, I learn to be outgoing. And lastly, I learn never to be scornful of something, rather learn to laugh at myself.

Whats on my slip of paper?

On the last day of minddchamps, we had this activity where everyone will write something on a piece of paper about one partuicular person. the slip was passed around so that everyone had a chance to write what they think about a person. What I recieved, was entirely unexpected.

I was a leader.

Yup, thats what they put. The word “leader” awoke something in me. memories flashed before me; My leadership qualities wasn’t only discovered in mindchamps.

Truthfully, i had no idea I am a leader. I have no expereince what so ever as being a good leader. But since kindergarden, I had to lead my class during a class activity. In Primary school I was awarded a good leadership badge. In Primary five, I had another similar course to mindchamps where I was voted the best leader, even though i wasn’t officially selected.

In sedcondary school, I keep recieving eagles award for leadership, although I have no idea where those darn medals came from. Why? Why? Why?

I hate leading. I hate the respondsibility I have to bear. I hate it when someone brings the group down. When something goes wrong, the leader gets the blame. I get the blame, and I hated that. I never like it when someone asks me, “Why? Where? what should we do?” I hate it when I have to make a decision that affects the group.

Why? Cause deep down, I’m scared. I’m scared of failure. I’m scared of making a wrong decision where evryone starts to hate me. Its risky. Either I make everyone happy, or I make everyone sad. I had the second result, and thus, I hate leading.

But when I saw that “You’re a good leader” thing on my slip of paper, it hit me head on. What? I’m a leader? but who made me leader? Since when was I ever a leader? Heck, I dunno how to lead. But then, why is evry one telling me tat I have leadership qualities?

I’m not boasting. I hate leading, but people say I excel in that area. For those who know me and you’re reading this, tell me why, please. I need to know, what makes me a leader? And a good one at that.

Lord, if this is the way you have shaped me, then i have no regrets being a leader. If somewhere in my life where I’m called upon to lead, I’ll be there. I believe we all live for a reason. And if my reason is to lead, then I hope you’ll teach me to be a good leader.

Cause so far I’ve been leading blindly, unconciously, and unaware that people see me as a leader.

Its only now that i realise my potential. For those people in mindchamps, thank you for uncovering my “forte”

Good Friday

Mindchamps is over. My friends tell me to get over it. I just cant.

My friends told me not to dwell on the past. I cant.

Those were happy memories, and I’m so glad i manage to write down all my thoughts and feelings in this blog before I lose those precious memories. This blog isn’t just a diary for me. Its a diary for everyone. I’m writing this so that in the future, I can look back at the past and have something to smile and remember about.

Aristotle used to be the most active and enthusiastic class I have ever encounted. But now, once the course has ended, everyone just bid goodbye and went their seperate ways. My only constant contact dribbled down to one: Ding Xiang. Whats happening? Was all those promises we made before we bid good bye just empty promises? Didn’t we agree never to meet each other again?

the following night after mindchamps, I sat down on my bed and literally cried. Darn, it is so hard to leave my friends. So i did the only thing i can do. Pray to my best friend, Jesus. Before you continue reading, I want you to know that this prayer is not to be laughed at. Please, I’m a passionate christian, so if reading the prayer offends you, skip it.

Jesus, What should I do? Theres this emptiness in my heart now that this course is over. Its like something that I have been living for has suddenly dissappeared. What is this feeling lord? I pray that we will never part, that I will never forget my friends and leave, just as I have left michael.

Lord, back then, I didn’t have the power to protect michael, to remember him, and to make him happy. I was torn apart against my wishes, and I truely regret that. But now, I have the power. I have the power to unite the fellowship. Lord, give me the strength to bring them together. I’ts been so long that I’ve regarded Aristotle as my second family. Lord, what should I do?

Deep inside, my heart told me one thing: I can do it.

So, taking the lord’s advice and minghui’s idea, a trip to Sentosa was quickly formulated. Each passing moment, I keep reminding myself that I cannot repeat my past.

I’m sincerely wishing that I Sentosa will be a blessed and wholesome trip. I hope someone read this diary someday and remember my dreams in making the sentosa outing, a fun trip. I’m writing this “dream” ahead of schedule, so that when good friday comes, I will be able to pen down what happened and compare it with my hopes over here.

And jesus, taking you for taking the cross for me. On good friday, I will bring a flower and a card in memory of you. I will place it in sentosa, and create a tombstone for you, in loving memory of the day u died for us.

Watch over Aristotle lord. Watch over us. I hope this outing will be meaningful, and never be the last…

31 march saturday

I woke up on staurday, half prepared to go to mindchamps. Then it hit me. No more mindchamps. No more course. no more fun.

Darn. I hated that feeling. Anyway, I had POA remedials that saturday morning, so I packed my bag, and left.

I had this stupid cold all morning. When Mr. Tuang was teaching, i was sneezing. sheesh, cant concentrate. Boy was i glad when his lesson ended. Time to escape! It was quickly decided on how to spend my saturday. Go balestiar to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Nicholas, Jimmy, Yonglun, Juiping, Jimmy and me left school.

By some stupid prank that I entirely didn’t concern me-for once, Jimmy got mad and left. Turns out, Yonglun “stole” Jimmy’s phone and hid it in Nicholas bag. Jimmy was too mad to follow us. So we lost jimmy somewhere in Toa Poa yoh where he ran away.

Anyway, Bad things aside, we made it to the cinema in one piece. TMNT showed,  and having watched the cartoons before, I had some idea what was going on.

heres the tip: For those who don’t follow teenage mutant ninja turtle, don’t watch it. Cause u wouldn’t understand a thing thats showing. y?

Cause the shreaders defeated, the turtles have split up, and for once, the turtles are beginning to lead a perfectly normal life. Until some bad guy came and mess everything up. theres always a bad guy.

Moreover, the cartoon concentrated on raphael and Leonardo, rather than Donnatello and michaelengelo. Thats what happens when u have four turtles. U follow two turtles, and miss the other two. Stupid.

Climax of the movie: Raphael beats Leonardo in sword fight. Leonardo beats rapahel in unarmed combat. Leonardo got captured, raphael wasn’t. In the end, Raphael saved the day.

So much for leonardo getting the limelight, even though Rapahel was my favourite turtle all along.

30th march – friday

Yes. Its a friday. One more week to go before good friday. till then, I’ll have to mug every single day till my mum allows me to go to sentosa. Friday, as usual, means that I’m eagerly looking forward to the weekends. ITS TIME TO REST! But i have chinese remedial and then maths tuition in the evening. Oh great.

My chinese teacher complimented me today. There were four of us (Jui Ping, Timothy, Jian Wei and Me.) He said that he admires my enthusiastic spirit and that I kind of motivate him. Wow. Am I that energetic? Brent from EmpowerU said a similar thing to me too. He said that my drive was infectious. Heck, I didn’t even realize I’m hyperactive. Anyway, Ding Xiang has finished his second podcast. Its now ready to roll. He made me a guest in his podcast, which was way cool. Its my first experience, so I got overly excited. My voice sounded corny on the record… so embarrassing- Again.

Oh yeah, Mindchamps called me on friday. My mum picked up and told them i was at school. Turns out, it was about that scholarship thingy i got chosen by empoweru. WOW. Awesome. They told me to meet them at mindchamps office, 17th floor, on tuesday, 7.30 pm.

YES! I”M FINALLY MEETING SOME OF MY MINDCHAMP FRIENDS AGAIN! ITS BEEN TOO LONG!

So Jieji, Benedict, Dingxiang and me settled for dinner on tuesday. Oh yeah!

March 29

Today, I had another bet. I’m not the betting kind of person, but this bet was crucial. Allow me to outline the conditions and participants of this bet.

Team A: YongLun and Me.

Team B: Nicholas and Jimmy

We had this physic test recently. If team B’s combine physics marks are higher than team A, then the four of us are forced to go cycling on saturday. And I so don’t want to repeat last week’s mistakes. Note, mistakeS. with a capital “S”

But if team A wins, We get to go to watch a movie. Propably teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. yay, turtle power….

Nicholas and YongLun got their marks way ahead of schedule. So heres the Scoreboard.

Team B (Nicholas) : 17.5 / 20

Team A:(YongLun) 18 / 20

Ok, my team is leading by half a point. Not much, but we’re leading anyway. So its the final showoff between Jimmy and me. Jimmy seemed pretty confident. He kept harping over the physics test, and how I was gonna lose. Me? I’m just scared. Why? cause I anyhow did the last question. You can say that i closed both my eyes and did the last question. Seriously, I had no idea wat the hell is the question asking about.

So when I got my test result, I was in for a suprise. I got 18. Yup, 18 /20. 2nd in class, together with YongLun. jimmy? He got 11. Yup, one big fat 11 / 20.

Note to self: If you don’t know, just anyhow ticam ticam. You’re sure to hit the jackpot.

I don’t know what blind marker marked my paper that day, be it my form teacher, the principal, or Daniel.

March 24th – saturday

If you think my weekdays are crazy, you havent seen saturday yet. Usually, Saturday meant one whole day spent in Mindchamps. I enjoyed that. Now that mindchamps over, I feel empty now. I had some church activity in the morning, and i met with my school friends after that. Jieji asked me if I had the time to play pool, but i regretfully turned him down. What was I thinking?

The reason why I had to decline his offer was because I had an appointment with East Coast Park. My school friends decided an outing today. We would go to east coast, hire some bicycles, and enjoy the rest of the day. Sounds simple enough. If only I knew what was going to happen next.

Jimmy, Nicholas, Yong Lun and I met up in Bedok Interchange. Now heres the thing with Jimmy. Theres this saying that anything that may go wrong, can go wrong. Not with Jimmy around.

With him, Anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong.

Jimmy knew what bus to take to the park. Or rather, he thought he knew. We boarded the wrong bus (608) and dropped at the wrong bus stop (Roughly seven bus stops away from East Coast road). Then we had to backtrack via a taxi. Our problems didn’t just end there. After we each fork out a buck to the driver, (who sped off without a backward glance) we entered east coast park, vibrant and energized. We were an hour way behind schedule, but who cares. As long as we can have fun.

Wrong.

Instead of turning left, towards the bicycle shop,  jimmy lead us right. We walked for half an hour in THE WRONG DIRECTION. I didn’t know East Coast was that big. It was the blind following the blind. Jimmy didn’t know the proper directions, but he didnt admit it to any of us. Jimmy lead us until past a construction site where East Coast Park obviously ended.

tired, hungry and exhausted, we backtracked again. A full 2.5 kilometer towards the entrace, and another half a kilometer to the bicycle shop. I really wanted to kill Jimmy, really I did. I guess I wasn’t the only one mad. Yong Lun totally ignored Jimmy and Nicholas had the intention of ramming Jimmy with his bike.

Me? I just silently curse him.

We got into the shop, hired four big mountain bikes, and dusted off. Half an hour later, Nicholas incurred a tyre puncture. In short, he became unlucky person number one. Theres three of us left now, all untouched by any disaster or bad luck so far into the ride.

We cycled back towards the bicycle shop to get a new bike. Jimmy and YongLun cycled slowly with Nicholas while I sped towards the bicycle shop. I notified the shop owner, who told me i needed the reciept. I didnt have it with me. darn. Its with Nicholas.

When Nicholas got his bike changed, which was half an hour later, his new number plate read thirteen. I joked about thirteen being a bad number. Nicholas laughed along, but we didn’t care. We continued cycling until Jimmy found it funny to punch people’s back while cycling.

Revenge was the rule of the game. Yong Lun and I silently waited for the perfect opputunity to payback. I cycled to Jimmy’s right and smacked his back with such force that I nearly lost my balance. Yong Lun came on Jimmy’s left, and did the same.

Only he wasn’t as skilled. He lost control, and rammed his bike into Jimmy.

It was like the bicycle accident of the day. Yonglun got tossed off his bike and skidded a metre on the road. Jimmy however, toppled under his bicycle and ended up tangled under a heap of two bicycles.

YongLun’s suffered several scrap, but Jimmy had a deep cut just above his knee. Tending to the wounds wasn’t difficult; Yong Lun had the foresight to bring some plasters. Now Jimmy and Yonglun’s down with bad luck. Only me left.

We got the bike returned, and we left East Coast Park. I’m so lucky to avoid all those bad luck. What a horrible day.

I later got home with one hell of a stomachache.

Friday 23th march

Finally, the closing of a school week! I love friday. Well, who doesnt? Lucky for me, I don’t have any CCA on Friday. However, I do have tuition. Anyway, I had English for my last two period, and we had some kind of debate. Clerence and Kishen against terrence, Justin and Steven. I rooted for Steeven, although they lost. The debate turned into a heater argument, regards to Clerance. He objected to everything that Steven said… And i basically stoped following the argument half way through.

The lesson dragged overtime by twenty minutes, and after English, I sped out of my class room to find Kenneth. See, we have thi study group that includes Kenneth, bing Xi, Habib and me. For a change, Kenneth wasn’t around. He had something on, and it was useless organizing a study group without a leader. So I went home early to finish up my maths tuition homework.

I did several sums before i got bored. Mistake 1: My handphone was inside my study room. Mistake 2: Curiousity got the better of me. Mistake 3: I had five SMS.

The rest was history. I talked to Jieji about the sentosa outing. He wasn’t keen on volleyball, but he wanted swimming. Problem is, he cant swim. he’ll drown anyway, but as long as theres someone swimming beside him, He’ll be fine.

Aristotle Friends

JieJi                                                           <— Ding Xiang

Ahhh, the mature dude. Jieji became my best aristotle friend only around the sixth to seventh week. Although we don’t sit together, we take the same bus to and from Mindchamps. He stay pretty close to me, so I always end up dropping right outside his house just to wait for him. He’s always late…

Jieji is very understanding, and that personality makes him mature. He and I can communicate pretty easily. Well, at least way better than the girls. When ben started getting all cold towards me, jieji suddenly became my newest buddy. We cracked a bit of jokes here and there. jieji love talking like a minister. he used words like, “I believe. I object.” Stuff like that

I’m guilty of labelling Jieji as JieJie. Well, at least I’m not as bad as some people. (His name means festive chicken in chinese) Moreover, Jieji has this influential aura surrounding him. He attracts people, and when he talks, people listen.

Ding Xiang

Ding Xiang is the most creative person I have ever met. Think you know everything? Wait till you meet this guy. His imagination is awesome. Did i mention, I tried a test on him, and he proove to be the creative and imaginative type, just like me! People like people like themselves.

DingXiang resembles Michael in several ways. He takes the effort to create a website for Aristotle. He makes weekly podcast. If you think I am the only organizer of activities. You’re wrong. You’re forgetting Ding xiang. People say Ding Xiang is odd or talkative. I say that he’s unique. He has the potential to go far. Very far.

Ding Xiang is the master of knowledge. Well, the the master of useless knowledge actually. Just like Daniel. Daniel remember all the unimportant stuff and forgets the crucial ones. I’m not sure if the same applies to Ding Xiang, but he proves to know everything. Literally.

Ding Xiang is able to adapt very quickly. Since week one, he is the fastest to get out of his comfort zone. He responds quickly to Daniel’s question. I bet Daniel saw him as one of the few active ones.

Clement

Clement always sit next to me. Even if its not possible, he would at least try to sit close to me. Because of that, I find Clement a loyal friend. Clement’s interest lies on photography, gaming and anime. I’m not as passionate as him about anime, but I find it easy to relate to him about japanese animes. Moreover, Clement strikes me as a typical boyish singaporean. Full of spunk and likes gaming.

Clement is a whizz when it comes to computer hardware. Thats where his speciality lie. Clement likes to talk alot too, but I find that alright. Hey, at least he has communicating skills right? I still remember last mindchamps lesson we have. Clement brought a Camera and began snapping pictures of everyone. He wasn’t the only one to bring a camera along, but what makes him stand out is his analouge camera. While everyone was using digital, he was using the old flash and snap camera.

Brandon

I will never forget brandon. He’s enthusiasism rivals even DingXiang. Among the class, theres three very enthusiastic people. DingXaing, brandon, and ME =D. That charactoristics makes us best friends. Moreover, Brandon, jieji and I sit on the same bus after mindchamps every week. Twice, we ate dinner together at chomp chomp. Both occasions at chomp chomp.

Brandon lives in erangoon north. I’m not sure where exactly, but its along the Bus 73 route. Brandon likes to sit next to me too. Ding Xiang, Brandon and Clement are always fighting for that space next to me… I didnt know I was that influential… guess its first come, first serve. Brandon is also the most talkative person in class. He can ask Daniel a thousand and one questions that made daniel go crazy. Questions like, “Why this? What if? This cannot happen..” brandon strikes me as a audio digital person. You know, one that keeps asking, why?

Before my last mindchamp course, Brandon and I arranged to meet outside the Toa Poa Yoh’s Library. We scouted around for possible lunch hangouts for saturday. We decided on pizza hut. What i really liked though, wasn’t pizza hut. But the initiative for Brandon to actually call m and ask if he could meet me in Toa Poa Yoh. Like Ding Xiang, he takes the effort to hang out with friends. He is one friend-orientated person, and I will never forget him.

KaiJie

Kaijie is one of the quiet ones in class. He does part time jobs, and somewhat creates this “I’m Cool” image. Kaijie isnt active in mindchamps, but he’s one hell of a talker when it comes to msn. After introducing him to msn plus, he starts playing with voice clips. He even spams them at me!

KaiJie was originally from Aries, but he transferred to the champs. Awwww… man… I could use such a great guy. Kaijie has this mask that prevents him from becoming active. You know, like some gatekeeper that tells him “you cant be active.”

I’m trying to break that mask off whenever i see him on msn. Problem is, whenever i see him on msn, he invites me to play a game!

  Clement is on the left, Dingxiang on the right.

Shawn

Shawn has a warm influence on the class. He doesnt act like  JC student. Rather, he acts like a school kid. Thats great, he hasn’t lost his drive. Shawn has this warm smile and makes people laugh with his carefree attitude. Shawn likes to call people cute. Correction, he calls everyone cute.

Shawn likes to hang out with friends. That can be seen during the empower u where he dances with the Aristotle gang. Shawn eats with his parents during lunch break, and hardly have the time to hangout with the group of guys. I find that a little sad… He wants to join us, but he has to eat with his family. I seriously considered asking his parents to let him eat with us, but thats just downright rude. How mean of me… So I refrained from asking.

Either than that, Shawn proves to be one active person. He doesnt hesistate to give embarrassing answers that will make the class laugh in seconds.        <—-Shawn on the extreme left

Benedict

benedict used to my friend for the first half of mindchamps. During the second half, he started hanging out with the girls and become cold towards me. Especially me. I don’t know why theres this great divide between us, and I cant remember offending benedict in any way. Anyway, Benedict shares the same star sign as me. Maybe the star signs clash? (we’re both scorpio) as pointed out by minghui.

Benedict likes to be popular. He likes hanging out with friends. Especially the girls. He changed his name and reverted to a girl. Now he’s called “sister” by everyone. He is the first person I have ever seen that admits he is a girl. Ewwww…. Anyway, Benedict never hesitates with any of my outing. I hate to admit this, but Benedict and I share abit of the same personality. Ben’s best friend used to be Jieji. Now its Berina… I think…

Benedict has a strict life. He likes pointing out that I’m too boystrous. Benedict has his own armada of principals. Don’t do this, and Don’t do that. To get this, I have to do that. Also, Benedict doesnt talk much in front of his dad. But when his dad is not around, he just talks in anyway he likes.

Benedict is passionate about australia. He likes being an aussie. He lives in australia for sometime, just like me in america. Crap, whats with all the similarities between him and me? Anyway, Benedict has a strong patroitism for australia. Maybe he is loyal to australia? who knows.

 ben in the center.

Nicholas

Nicholas is very quiet. And I mean, extremely quiet. He doesn’t talk much, or participate much. But he is one focus person. If he is quiet, it means that he is focusing on something.

Nicholas likes to come to mindchamps early. Very early. He can come half an hour before mindchamp actually starts. Moreover, Nicholas never offs his bluetooth. For some reason, it is on the whole day. thats how DingXiang and I met him. DingXiang found nicholas bluetooth while we were in the lift. Wierd way to meet a person huh?

Berina

Berina’s selling point is her friendship. I don’t hang around her much, but she has establish herself well within the ranks among the girls. When berina says she doesn’t want something, the girls follow. Also, berina likes teasing and complains alot about me. Even when we are in the same group, she likes to critisize me… Oh man…

Berina likes to hang out with Hazel. Both of them are pretty quiet during the lesson. Especially Berina. She’s the most bashful one among the whole Aristotle family. However, she has matured pretty much among the whole ten weeks of mindchamps. From a shy girl, she has transformed herself to a influencial and confident person. Even if that means that she likes to critisize me. Well, at least she’s happy doing it. I’m fine with that.

 Berina is the second from the left. Minghui on the extreme left.

Hazel

Like Daniel said, Hazel is one intelligent girl. She scored the highest among the class… either that or she’s hardworking. Hazel has a vibrant nature brimming with potential. She’s also somewhat like the leader of the pack of girls. Well, at least I think she is…

Hazel knows how to play games well. She’s usually the last few standing when it comes to games. (total opposite of Dung Xiang) She, like shawn is very focus during games. Maybe thats why she keeps winning. Funnily enough, she gets frustrated when she lose. I still remeber the musical chair incident. Boy was that funny. She sat on another guy, whos name slipped my memory. The result? She wacked him. More like a playful wack rather than a frustrated wack.

Hazel is somewhat pretty in a sense that she tries to interact with the girls. Hazel best girlfriend in Aristotle would have to be Berina. They both look like a pair when they hang out together.

Ming Hui

Minghui proves to be the most open girl in Aristotle. She is the only girl that I can talk for nearly an hour on the phone. What I find great about her is her concern she show to all of us. When I had family problems, she was there to talk to me. When i first got the empower u scholarship, she was the only one to call me. Somehow, she reminds me of michael…

Hangiong out with Minghui gives me plenty to laugh about. One, sms me, twice when I was bathing. The first time my phone was on silent, but the second, it was on “loud”. It didnt seem funny now, but I was laughing my heads off then. Also, just last week, she accidentally sent a message meant for her best friend, to me!

It went like: Lets talk again like this tmr k? My best friend forever…

My reply: Are u sure you sent to the right person?

Sunday 11th march (empower u)

Saturday was one awesome experience that I would never forget. Sunday will be the last day of empoweru. Great, I feel so down knowing that the fun is coming to an end. Sunday was more passive compared to saturday. Sure, we did some dancing and stuff, but not to the extreme as last night’s closing climax.

My sitting position has changed. For a first, I’m sitting at the front. And I mean, right at the front. beats sitting at the back last night.

Brent and Dale started out by listening to last night’s board breaking experiences. I shared a couple of my thoughts, and Brent responded by complimenting my enthusiasm. That felt good, until he said it was infectious. Am I infectious?

Later, he showed a couple of movie clips that was propably about half an hour long. After watching the series of films edited together, he shared a story where all of us had to close our eyes. Dale warned us not to open our eyes until he gave us the go ahead. Until then, no peeking.

His story began with me. He mentioned something about a forest environment and that I heard somebody call my name. I followed the voice into a cottage. I stepped in and found an picture album of me. He told stories of my past. The happy and Sad moments that i shared. As i flipped over, i start to see pictures closer to the present, until finally, I came upon photographs of what I did yesterday. I flipped it over, and saw that the next page was blank. While the story was being told, I felt somebody touch my hair. Not once, not twice, but three times. For some reason or anoyther, I felt elavated.

I’m not suppose to disclose the whole story in this blog, but to summarize it. I found a cloaked man sitting on a chair and told me to persevere. The man, was michael. No suprise there.

After he told the story, i almost cried. brent had everyone share their experience, and who they saw under the cloak. Back then, I was too emptional to share anything. I wanted to raise my hands. really, I did. But my muscle refuse to budge. Perhaps bringing up Michael is too painful to comprehand…

I heard some people share their speeches. I almost cried-again. Whats with me today? I’m getting all emotional… Ewww.

Later, we had a break where we had to prepare some group activity. What my group planned to do, is nothing. No skit, no dance, no cheer. darn it. Evantually, we got into the spirit to think up of something… and i swear, it was all last minute’s work. The skit wasn’t even properly planned. I was given the role as a father mocking bird killed by a hunter… how embarrassing.

We did the skit, and it went erm…. not exactly as planned. But we did it anyway. I saw the other team’s performance, and boy were they good. I saw jie Ji and brandon doing some dance when their group was called. I nearly laughed. jieji was funny, Brandon just looked awkward. ben tried to get the dance started. The guys followed him. The girls didnt. Hazel was standing at the side of the stage, doing nothing. While everyone was dancing, she was standing. lol…

later, we split from our groups and did one final dance. KNowing that this was my last opputunity, I headed for shawn and Jieji. The usual gang. We dance, and laughed till we couldnt stop… Then brent made us sit down before telling another story. He mentioned a story about carrying fifty CD records and shelving them perfectly. What a funny, but touching story. He also shared about his movie experience where he thought us to do MORE THAN IS ASKED OF YOU.

I remembered that.

We ended behind schedule. Way behind schedule. Brent made his final statement before bidding us goodbye. Oh wait, There was this prize presentation thingy where Frogs won. Some girl got a hamper, which included a water bottle, a scholarship, and CHOCOLATES! WOOHOOO!

Too bad I didnt eat it. I’m starve. When EmpowerU ended, i managed to locate my poster. Well, at least the poster with “John AHA Ng” on it. That will be my memo… maybe I should get it framed. Anyway, Most of my class filed out. JieJi, brandon and I stayed back to get some autograph. JieJi wanted to get the scholarship, and asked me if I wanted to get a scholarship too.

I got Dale and rbent’s autograph. Then JieJi and asked brent about getting the scholarship. brent told me personally i didnt need to apply. I got selected out of the 150 people in EmpowerU. 5 scholarship Slots. And I’m chosen. Wow. Jieji also got selected. That makes two from ARISTOTLE! Daniel must be proud. I sent several sms to everyone. rather, i spammed. I didnt care though… I was estatic. jieji, brandon and I decided to hit Chomp Chomp food center to eat. Dingxiang’s father sent us to the interchange before we took bus 73 to serangoon garden. I was still dancing on the bus! 

It was pushing midnight when we finally got our supper. I was dancing all the way to the food court, and nearly got knocked down by a car. I danced when I ordered my food. I danced when I sat down to eat. I danced when I finished supper. And I danced when I got home.

Later that day, I got a splitting back pain.

Thursday

Here comes thursday, and for the first time in this week, I’m happy. Why? Because I’m skipping school for my Robotics competition. Awesome!

Too bad I didnt win. Anyway, the trip back to school was eventful. Viknesh, Leroy and I sat at the back of the bus, chanting the song, “Tokyo Drift” and “Sponge Bob” Boy was it fun…

So I went back to school early. Only to remember that I still have to go to Juwen’s old folks home. Waaaa, Do I really have to go home late every time?

Wednesday

Today is another stressful day. Does the stress ever end? My POA teacher wanted some assignments to be handed in after school. I did my homework, but not on the proper writing material. I had to rewrite every single work on a fresh sheet of accounting paper. By the time I’m done, I’m already 20 minutes late for my after-school enrichment.

Crap.

Well, only six people from my class attended the enrichment. Gosh, my class is so lazy…. What to do? I came home late again. My brother came home even later and boy, did my mum yell at him. My mum and Joel don’t get along very well… I wonder why? Anyway, did my homework this time. A five minute speed through my POA homework, before hitting the sack.