Freedom

Today has been a long day, so if you're reading this, expect it to be long.

Today started with a PW interview with a social worker at Bukit Ho Swee Social Centre (she wants to remain anonymous due to certain reasons). What was supposed to be a normal interview would be a commitment to the social centre in the end. We met her around 1pm and she brought along 2 youths that she is working with.

When I saw the 2 youths, which are both 14 year-olds, I can see that behind their eyes, lie a cautious mask that betrayed their innocent appearances. I bet the 2 kids must have experienced some events in their life that robbed them of their child-like innocence, and such is the cause of some juvenile delinquents. I don't think they are juvenile delinquents, but more of at-risk youths, as the social worker puts it. It made me realize the "clean and green" Singapore actually has some not-so-clean flaws.

The social worker was kind enough to let us interview her even though she doesn't know much about our project. We spent some time explaining to her the project and how it is based on the Freedom Writers. For those who doesn't know, Freedom Writers are a group of at-risk youths who managed to change their lives through diary writing. Yes, diary writing. This simple act made them reflect about their lives and made them realize the world around them. And this is what we plan to emulate.

She said our project is quite feasible, but we need to get to know the youths first before engaging them in this project. I can tell you this will not be an easy task. She said that some of them are not that open, and some of them are not good at expressing themselves. But first, we need to befriend them, which will take time, which in turn is what we don't have much. And she say that if we do this, we must commit at least 6 months. I think this is perfectly ok -- except for the fact that Promos is near and OSchool recital is at end of year.

After she left, my PW group took time to lay out our schedule for the coming weeks. As I was counting the weeks left to Promos, I realized how much things I need to study and revise. I need to juggle dance, work, play. At this rate, play will be replaced by more work. I got so stressed out by the fact that I need to get an average of C for Promos, lest my scholarship will be taken away. This sucks like shit. The promotional requirement was only 2 passes, but the MOE wants scholars to get an average of C, which is not easy in JC. If you get average of C, you are already considered above average in my school. I can't wait for Promos to end so that I can break free of this misery. After we created the schedule, I left for my hip hop lesson at OSchool.

Today's lesson was just putting together the formation for our dance group. I got to say that what me and Wang Yi came up with actually worked. Our instructor, Daniel, came over and gave us more ideas which improved our formation. I think our formation could have been better if Vivian could actually follow the dance. And some ppl are just lazy to think of formations.

If Vivian could actually follow the steps properly, I would have opt for a more challenging formation. Too bad she can't. So we need to stick to the easier formation, which admittedly, not that nice. But at least most of the ppl in my group can dance well, and we got praised for being synchronized, which I don't really think it is. Must be all the Kaba Modern and Jabbawockeez videos I have watched made me feel that way. I also cannot stand Yan Wei in my group. He's freaking irritating but he doesn't do much. How I wished I was not in this group. I can picture a group with Freddie, Bryan, Diana, Nik, Ie-Ching, Me, Hui Xian, and Wang Yi. I bet we can own the class. Haha.

I had dinner with Nik after class. We were talking about dance and school life, and how stressed up school life is. Again, we were talking about forming a crew. When I asked him whether he would join, he straight away answered yes. I didn't expect him to say so. In fact I didn't expect that so many ppl would be interested in forming a crew with me. I just casually mentioned the possibility through word of mouth and this blog, and i expect a hard time getting ppl. But apparently, it's the exact opposite. I feel happy to have ppl who are willing to form a crew with me. In fact, I am already in one, but I think I am going to quit if I can form my own crew.

But as Ie-Ching pointed out, we don't know each other that well yet to be forming a crew, so we should wait till after the OSchool Recital first before we really teamed up. A crew is supposed to be made up of ppl that are comfortable with one another. And so wait we shall. But I have high hopes for forming my own crew. I picture it to be forming somewhere EOY when the Recital is over.

With tons of tons of topics to be covered, dancing, PW project, Written Report, and remedial, things are set to be hectic in the following weeks. Everyone is hoping for freedom to come, so that we can be our happy selves. I know, because, we all are.