philos
liberté
princeps
memoria

My dad just spent the whole drive home (not that I'm complaining) talking to me about social skills that he says I'm lacking. What he meant was that I'm lacking in the area where I am supposed to walk right up to strangers and strike up a conversation. My dad does that all the time, I think it's in his blood to have what he calls 'contacts'. But I don't think he realised it ain't exactly easy to strike up a conversation with a total stranger, who does that these days anyway. But I think my dad rocks so it doesn't matter. (:

Heard from a friend that all those sec3s in an integrated programme in any school are facing the same stress level as us. I can't believe it, but nobody does these type of things on purpose anyways, so I guess I got to take it all in my stride. One thing's for sure, I'm getting tired of taking so many strides, physically and mentally worn out. Especially with my concert and my terribly terrible (I'm so tired my vocab. is limited to this point) piano lesson today. I was zoning out constantly. Sigh.

I will end here so I can go to bed and catch sheep. My brain is reaching zero point, and there's nothing I can do about that.


[ Isingbecauseim t i r e d . ]


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Easter

It's Good Friday today, & it means so much to all those Christians out there.. Today is the day we are reminded- even more vividly- of our Saviour, our Redeemer, and our Rock.

Know what? Even when we forget or reject Jesus, He never shuns us. He loves us as we are- sins & all. Isn't that amazing? It's great to be able to praise and worship such a wonderful God!

The Story
Jesus knew that He was about to be cornered, arrested and taken away to be crucified. But why didn't He just escape from it all, & run away? Instead, despite being on the receiving end on rough treatment and 'death', Jesus never stopped loving those who betrayed Him and hurt Him. Even when He died on that cross, He prayed "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." He never let their rejection of Him affect His love for them.

Not only was Jesus set up by people, but also betrayed by one of His close friends- Judas. When Jesus chose Judas to be one of His disciples, He knew what Judas would do to Him. But did Jesus stop working closely with Judas for 3 years, or did He exclude Judas from the passover meal? No. Right up to the last moment Jesus left a way open for Judas to repent. Sadly, Judas betrayed Jesus, and led an armed gang to arrest the Friend whom had been so loyal to him.

They put Jesus on trial, and repeatedly tried to provoke Him by making up false accusations, and then started punching Him and spitting. Jesus didn't fight back. 'I [Jesus] offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from the mocking and spitting.' from Isaiah 50:6. In the heat of the moment Jesus didn't react in anger. He shames those who hit Him by not offering any resistance. Such meekness is not a weakness- it took enormous strength of character not to fight back. And when they hung Him up on that cross, when He rose again from the dead, He didn't go after those who hit Him to get His revenge. He took it all, forgiving those who betrayed Him.

Jesus died from a "broken heart"- literally, and in the sense that His heart was crushed by the weight of our sins. Jesus's death wasn't a defeat, but a victory. He rose again on the third day, showing all those who sneered at Him that He is the one true God. Hooray!! For Christians, death isn't necessarily something to be feared, and we know that Jesus has rescued us from the death penalty of sin!

Even though Jesus knew people would lie about Him, He still came to earth to die for them. He willingly took all that hurt so that we could be forgiven, and live forever.

And now, all I want to say is: Jesus is Alive! He lives! :D

Happy Easter friends.

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Today rocked. After school, me ming, sherlyn, javine, chay & pet went far east to 'walk-walk' (: And of course we took some neos. We went to the neon orange booth again, and cos there was three cameras to choose from, we kind of switched around and stuff. When we took the one closest to the ground, it was pretty cute! Everyone was screaming and shouting about, like "quick! get in the photo!!! Let me be seen! I can't see!!" that kind of thing. And the neos we took were pretty cool too. (: Bought turkish ice-cream, and although ming said it tastes more goo-y than the norm, I couldn't tell! :x oh well..

And today was the first time I met like, 5 choir people at the same recess break! At first it was me and loon, and we were like "hiiii!" cos usually I don't see her at all. Then Sooni joined in. (: And after that I sat with Xiumin & saw Hongyi & XinZi! Today was great. ;) Oh! On my way home I met Lee yang & Zee Hui (rv friends)! At first I couldn't recognize them, than I remembered! They sure have grown! :D And I saw clara and rachel ng [renng] too! At the same time.. Today rocked.

Tomorrow is Sports Day thing. Bishan Sports Complex at 12.30pm! Good! Waking up in the late morning is f.u.n..

Hmm.. Maybe now I'll have the time to address certain issues. Where should I start...

Life. Lots of people don't know what their life is all about. Like, what am I doing here. Why am I even here. What is the purpose of my existence. etc. Stuff like that. I thought about it last year, questioning the purpose of everthing, especially my mere existence. Initially I found that people have no purpose in this world, and now I think some people see it that way too. Think about it. We work our socks off for what? To get good grades.
And good grades for what? To get a great, well-paying job. And after that? To get a nice husband, live in some landed property, and get 3 children and 2 cars. And then? Just live lah, than we can all grow old.

And then?? When we get old enough, we'll die eventually.
It's really terribly bleak. It's sort of like, living to die, if you look at it in that light, which totally doesn't click very well.

I think I have found my purpose of existence, and everyone can find theirs too. People should have a goal or vision (ok, now I'm sounding like a principal) to work for, then won't life be so much more meaningful? Like for example, Mother Teresa. (Ok, now I'm sounding like a CME teacher.) She spent her life serving others who are in need, and she was happy doing that. That was what she lived for, worked for, breathed for. It's really cool isn't it? To work for the benefit and for common good, not just "for myself".

That's all I'm going to say, cos if I continue I'll really sound teacher-ish! :x Oh, and I know what I'm living for! No prizes for guessing.. I'm living for Jesus. (:

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Whooooo....! Still hyper from choir practice today! Mozart's opera The Magic Flute is really hard to sing, but the choir totally managed it today! haha! After singing Act 1 at this certain part of the opera, Mae, XinZi & myself were so hyped up because there is this certain part that makes you go whooooooosh! whenever you sing it! I'm not kidding! Those in choir will get what I mean, when you sing something either super high or super strong, then it makes you go waaaaa... Don't know whether I described it properly, but that's how I felt. It's like, a certain power and strength you feel when you're doing something you love.. I love that feeling so much I had to blog it down, least I forget..

Today was one of the most stressed-up days of my entire life. Had my geog. test today, and before that I was really freaked out cos my teacher was telling us how since we aren't doing Os, this test would be RP-ish and non-Os, about generalizations and stuff. That freaked us out pretty bad. And then she went on to talk about this web thingy, which I didn't get one bit. But hey, it isn't anyone's fault I'm slow.. :X And here comes the worst thing... Before I could study all my natural vegetation and climographs properly, I fell asleep on my comfy bed!! When I woke up you can't imagine the panic I felt! And rach has to pet my back a few times to get me to "lighten up". But it's over and done with, I just have to wait patiently for the results.

One of my friends is really upset about some stuff happening in her life right now, and if she's reading this (I think you'll know when you see this), I really want her to know that her recess mates are always by her side, supporting her even though she thinks we don't know what's happening, but we do know. So you can always turn to us when things get worse, cos we'll be there for you. We have always been! ;) So cheer up, and bear with stuff alright?

RGS Choir Concert at ASC(B) on 21st May. If you miss it you will be be making the mistake of the century! Soloists include some really good people singing some really high stuff (ah-hem.. also known as Y.L___ , so don't miss it yeah?

[ Isingbecauseim h a p p y. ]

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