Term 2 in P4 was probably the most stressful period in the entire year, as I had to prepare for a musical concert at the Esplanade organized by my violin teacher, prepare for my Violin Grade 8 Exams, study for the imminent SA1 exams as well as prepare for robotics, competition which was First Lego League (FLL), held in Norway. Each of these four things took quite a lot of my time.
At times, I really felt like backing away from all those challenges and getting a mental breakdown, but I kept telling myself that in order for me to succeed in life; I must persevere and overcome those challenges. First, it was the music concert. During that period, I practiced violin like mad everyday as I knew that it would be extremely embarrassing to play a wrong note on stage, in front of everyone, and be the irritating person who spoiled everything for the concert. Finally, I managed to perfect the piece which I was playing. That was the first step. The second step was to find Sun Ning Jing (a girl, also a student under my violin teacher who is from Nanhua and also studies both violin and piano) and a piano teacher who was playing the accompaniment as the violin piece was a duet played by two violins and a piano as the accompaniment for the violinists. The trainings were really torturous and tiring. But on the actual day of performance, when we received a thundering applause from the audience after we had finished playing, I really felt a sense of pride and accomplishment and realised that all my efforts were well worth it and was extremely glad that I was actually able to play such a difficult piece in front of everyone well, without making any mistakes or getting nervous.
Then, the second challenge which I faced was the FLL which was an international competition held in Norway. The competition itself was already stressful enough, as there were many things we had to do, such as researching information on the topic stated in the competition and building as well as programming the robots. Often, I had to miss lessons and leave schools at very late hours as the trainings were extremely intense. Being a very ‘kiasu” person, I was naturally very worried for my results in SA1 as I was afraid that I would greatly lose out to my classmates who attended a full session of lessons and had much more time to do homework and revise their work than I had. Besides, during the trainings, there was still Klement, Yu Xiang and Dany who made fun of me on a daily basis and enjoyed finding faults with everything I did as well as accused me of things which I did not even do. It was already challenging enough to juggle both the competition and the studies, but with the additional mental and emotional hurt that the boys enjoyed giving me, I had more than enough and at times, I really wanted to quit the entire competition, but I knew that Mdm Chia would definitely be very disappointed in me. Hence, I stayed on and tried my best to ignore the pointed remarks that they made as well as manage my time to the best of my ability and use every single moment of it wisely. Finally, it was day we left Singapore and started on our flight to Norway to participate in the competition. There, I did many things like helping with booth designs and practicing the skit with the boys for the competition even though they were extremely irritating. On the last day, it was announced that our group had won the 1st runner up in the research award. We were exhilarated! As for me, I was both happy for the fact that I had managed to overcome this challenge to win an award as well as glad that I did not give up even when I was on the verge of doing so.
The next worry I had was the SA1, in which the results would have already been announced to all the parents. Therefore, the first question I asked my parent when we arrived at the Changi Airport was, “What did I get for SA1?” Fortunately, despite the little time I had for studies and revision, I still managed to get 2nd in class, which I was quite satisfied with, given the situation at that time. By the end of P4, I had overcome many other challenges as well, as such passing my violin Grade 8 exams and getting first in class.
It was then I realised that I had managed to overcome many challenges by focusing on whatever I am doing and not getting easily distracted, doing things on time so that they do not pile up into a huge mountain, as well as spending my time wisely by not having any bad habits such as playing computer games and watching television at all. Since then, the many challenges which I faced in P4 have made me a better person who has more perseverance, resilience and tenacity than before. At the same time, I have learnt to be able to complete things that are of higher quality but in a shorter time and in a more efficient way. Sure, challenges are tough. But after going through these challenges, you will learn that you have benefitted a lot from them. As for me, I have also learnt to be a multi-tasker and study as well as go for other exams and competitions at the same time.
As for now, the challenges which I have to overcome are getting top in SA1, SA2 and most importantly, in PSLE. In order to do so, I must pay full attention in class, do every single piece of work to my best of my ability and revise my work daily.
