17/08's geographers have come to terms with a study plan, and I'm really hoping to do well with as one. I never regret, ever since I took up geography. Economoics are widely perceived to be the more useful, more applicable subject, but perception remains perception. It all depends on whichever field we aspire to go into. And I'm really glad I chose one which I liked, not the one that is the most conventional.

Recently, very much thanks to Roy's effort, and even more so God's intimate instructions to him, that we begun a daily morning christians meet up for the fellow christians of 17/08. Well, for a start, it was really good. The pioneers were Roy, Eewen, Angelina, and me, and we shared about all sorts of things, mainly church services and whatever we have been feeling and our hinge has been telling us. It was good, and after who knows how long, I've begin some audible prayers again. I mean ever since long long ago, I've reverted to silent prayers. So now that the comfort in praying out loud is coming back, I'm really glad. There were also other days when people dropped by to join in the discussion, specifically Xiu Hui came for one session, and Zen joined a few others. So we really hope what we are doing would bring glory to the already very glorious Lord, so that more people will come to know Him, and our group will expand indefinitely.

Of course, being the green horn that we were, discipline was one of the problems, and the awkward moments being the other. The latter was avoided as much as possible though. Haha, I mean with people like Tiong Wei, it's quite hard for any awkward moments to last very long huh=P. A few days ago, being almost late for school deterred me from attending the session, but I've been trying hard to get the momentum back. Of course, the other members like Eewen and angelina have been praying hard for the rest that I've requested for during our first meet up, and amazingly fast is He answering my prayer. I slept at 8 the night before!=D

Today I returned, and all of us, me, Roy, Angelina and EeWen joined Eewen's church group for this morning worship thingy at a changed venue. Our designated morning meet up area was the alpha area behind scope- amazingly how I'm influencing alpha to become somewhat christian-y house- from our house clan name- Xcion- to today's meet up at that area. Today's venue was at under the stair case outside auditorium, and a surprisingly huge group gathered- a mere 6 to begin with, and subsequently with the addition of those who joined in later, it easily numbered up to at least 11. Phew! That's the size of alpha house committee!

First song was Blessed be Your name! Nice familiar song! The second song was something like wonderful Saviour. Not too bad also! Really a good way to begin the day, despite the rainy weather, the passion for Him was not dampened at all! Praise the Lord! And I heard Roy sang for the first time=P

One of the twins shared about His intimate quiet time he had with the Lord last night and it was about the indicators of the knowledge that we are safe. How do we know? My answer was "the fact that we are still alive". Maybe something more to add, the fact that we are still alive and we are still able to follow His way. One line struck me particularly strongly, that is we love because He first love us. His love for us is so vast and abundant that it overflows, allowing to love those around us. A instantaneous response to our prayer request during one of our morning meet ups regarding granting us with more mercy and tolerance to tolerate the intolerable, and to love the unloveables.

Our Lord is a wonderful God! Hallelujah, praise the Lord!

It's been a while since I last had the daily entry thingy! I mean school's workload's been rather hectic huh! Even if I were to blog, the recent posts had all been some rants and prayers (wrong to put them together, but that's what those entries had been) regarding my own sentiments and all, so the blog's been missing out quite a huge chunk of my life already. Oh well, perhaps it's a fair comment to say that stepping down from HC successfully killed 80% of the fun in school! Thank goodness I've managed to replace part of that 80% with the motivation to study and perhaps 30% of it in watching bleach=)

Smart captain, crazy vice captains!=)

The coolest guy in Alpha (the right one=P)

16th Alpha guys!

Angels from above=)

Vice captains ftw!

16th Alpha, my love=)

Today was a pleasant day though. At least I had a pleasant surprise, a pleasant deja vu, but in a fashion of its own. I've never topped a language subject, putting aside chinese that is. And that seems even more unlikely in an JC environment. But life's a profound thing, and I'm just so glad I did not have the full intelligence of God, so that such occassional surprises would indeed bring a glimmer of light across the gloom. I topped General Paper for the first time ever (even after an unjust deduction of 2 marks because I did not write down my question number, because I had a stomachache and handed in the paper 10 minutes before time), and hopefully it will continue. Oh my, recollecting of something I said 2 years ago- I would rather ace my english and get a 'c' for physics. Isn't that coming a little too late, now that O'levels have already ended, and the subject combination in JC almost certained? But oh well, if words are ever meant to come true, I would like to make a slight amendment, that is to ace all subjects!

Like my previous post said, I believe I have the potential, but potential remains potential unless they are realised by the individuals themselves. Hope I would be a positive example to influence whoever that is reading my blog and is feeling diminished over poor results! I believe I can, so can you! Belief!

Ariel gave me a peace of mind telling me that I could tell me primary school teacher without guilt that I am still topping. That was really a huge relief, but my sentiments: keep it as it is first and make sure I achieve it again at the final phase- only then would I be able to hold my head up high and fulfil the expectations my teachers had of me^^. Jiayou JC-ians=)

Geography has become one of the subjects that I'm beginning to enjoy more these days, but the heavy contents still require a vast amount of effort just to cope with. True enough, the entire holidays (minus away the amount of time I spent watching bleach), were dedicated to compiling physical geography knowledge alone. Notice the word, physical? Indeed, it's only one part of the H2 subject, yet it already took up almost the entire holidays. Not to mention that the compilation was not done until very much later. That only left me with one day before each paper to revise for the respective subjects. Chemistry paper was on wednesday, revision done on tuesday's night; physics was on thursday, revision done on wednesday's night; mathematics on friday, revision on thursday's night. Trufully, last minute attempts like these didn't feel good, and if given a choice to relive the holidays, I ought to have started much earlier. Nevertheless, the faithful Lord whom I relied so heavily on did not forsake me. He granted me strength, He granted me wisdom, He granted me everything that I need to pull through this period of intense struggle. I am just so so thankful! I wouldn't say that this amount of efforts will guarantee good results, but I'm just so glad that I manage to come through, at least with my body still intact. Math was a heavy fall, which I've equate that paper which I've taken yesterday to be the worst ever math paper I've taken in my entire life. Not that it's not doable, but that both my mental and physical states at that moment were just not right for any heavy brain-work. Brain power finally succumbed after 3 days of overusage. Chemistry, while doable, was marred by the fact that my calculator went out of battery even before the paper began. Physics was met with much confidence, only to be scarred by that careless mistake that I am too ashame to even talk about it right now. Such setbacks, such blows, all of which were casted on me like like a mother's slap- painful, yet wakening. Painful that grades were lowered by avoidable things like those, wakening that it's time to buck up before the finale. For that, I'm very thankful to the Father who covers me with the warmth of His hand from above! Thank you!

Today's a Saturday, a pretty rare one. One of its only kind where the small group of H2 geographers had to come back to school to sit for one-half of the paper for this June Common test! Of course, many of us were filled with resent and grief, largely because of the ungodly hour that we were made to come to school, only to be locked out until much later. 745 was the reporting time, and the school gate only opened at close to 715. A sign of disappointment to the rigidity of the system! Anyway, the paper was great! One of the best ever geography papers I've taken thus far. Considering the amount of sleep I had the night before- a mere one hour; considering the amount of hardwork I've pumped into this subject- a whole 2 weeks and maybe more, they certainly did pay off! I felt good doing it, the facts and data and examples were there. Even when I was met with a stumbling 12 mark-worth of data response questions, I could move on without panicking. A 16 marks-worth of the essay question was fully and well-substantiated with examples after examples from the cyclone frances of 2004 to cyclone katrina of 2005 and to the recent cyclone nargis. I'm satisfied with the process! Many assume that papers done with such ease would almost certainly guarantee a decent grade, but frankly I'm not hoping much! I've learnt that expectations are bad, even though sometimes one needs to be tough on self. Instances like these had happened before, where the papers deemed to be doable and easy only managed to clinch a barely passable grade. Disappointment was a hard feeling. Thus, I'm not expecting much. Fact is I enjoyed doing the paper, and I certainly felt accomplished after overcoming it!

All in all, I know all these have only been possible because of You, Lord! Thank you so much, and I pray that You will continue to watch over me, as I continue on this walk with You. =) Hallelujah!