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Two more minutes. Just two more minutes till two months of freedom. It was the last day of exams, and I was taking Science. I had spent the whole night revising and remembering all the facts, especially for Biology. Biology was the one that I had to do the more remembering, compared to Physics. Physics is more of applying the facts learned, just like Mathematics.

I looked up at the clock. The second hand inched its way around the clock. "Hurry up," I told the clock. "Hurry, so that I can quickly get over and done with this," I took one last glance through my papers. Then I spotted an error.

"One more minute, please check through your papers now." Yikes! I panicked as I hastily canceled my answer and wrote as fast as I could.
"Time's up, pens down and stop writing." No! I just had five more words to go! I was about to quickly scribble the lasts words when my father's words rang through my ears. "No point cheating. You are only lying to yourself."

Reluctantly, I handed up my paper to the teacher. "Well, maybe one mark was gone, but at least it's better than cheating." Then I remembered. Freedom! Two whole months of freedom! Pushing the bad thing that happened to the back of my mind, I skipped home, happy that at least the ordeal was over.

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Today, was one of the best days ever. Today, we were going out altogether as a class for golf. I was so excited as I have never tried this sport before. Three whole hours of fun! I couldn't wait to try it out!

When we reached there, the coach gave us an introduction about what golf was all about and told us the different types of clubs used in golf. He also taught us the proper technique about how to swing the club. After what seemed like years, we finally got to try hitting the ball itself. For the first try, I was very excited as it was the first time I got the chance to hit a far shot. But as I was so excited and nervous, I forgot about the technique of how to swing the club, so I totally missed. "Oops!" I tried again, more focused now. Plonk! The ball flew not too far away, but I would consider it a good shot for beginners.
After all the practicing, we did putting. Putting is basically trying to hit the ball into the hole from a short distance, using a putter to hit the ball in.

After the putting, we got to use the driver, the club that can hit the furthest. I aimed my shot. "3, 2, 1, Whack!" The ball flew really far, further than I expected.

All too soon, It was time to go. Although I was sad to leave, it was a memorable activity that I will never forget.

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Today was the start of the release of our Common Test results. I was excited, yet nervous about my results. To me, I honestly felt that I would do badly for some of my subjects, especially the languages. I felt that the Chinese papers were especially difficult, as there were 2 passages which I did not fully understand, so I thought I would not do well.

It turns out; I fared quite well for Chinese! I did surprisingly well, even for the open ended! My Paper 1 was also quite good.

Next up was Science. Oh no! I did not do that well for my Physics! I guess I spent too much time revising on Health Science instead of Physics. Hopefully, my Health Science can pull up my marks.

Then it was English. I felt that my Paper 2 was not really good. I should have practiced more on the Open Ended questions, knowing I was not so good in it.

Lastly, we had Mathematic. I was quite confident as Mathematics was my best subject and I did not have to worry too much. As expected, I did well for my Mathematics. I hope my Mathematics could help pull up my total average score.

Overall, I am of happy that I generally did well, yet sort of sad that I could have actually got better marks if I tried harder. Well, we can't change the past, but we can change the future. I will work harder for my next test so I can hopefully do better.

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It was the second day of the release of our Common test results. Today, I got back my Paper 1 of my English. I thought I would not do so well for my composition as I felt it was not really exciting. Well, it turns out that my teacher liked it! She even asked if the story was a real-life account! Well, it wasn't. It's just that I wrote this storyline many times in my primary school, and practice makes perfect. This was a great start to the day.

After recess, we got back our Health Science paper. Phew! Good that I did well for my Health Science. Otherwise, I would have done badly for Science.

Then came History. I had studied really hard for my History, so I expected to do quite well. Then I saw my paper. What? I barely passed?! I was devastated. I felt that all my efforts were wasted. "Invalid point? How can it be? Ms. Huang even told me this was the suggested answer!" I thought it was marked wrong, so I waited until the end of class to ask her. But many other people were waiting to ask her too. So I had to wait really long before I could ask her. Yes! It was wrongly marked! I was happy that I added 2 more marks to my score. But I just needed 1 more mark to get an A. Although Ms. Huang tried very hard to see if she could squeeze in any marks, she just couldn't. Oh well. But I was grateful that she tried.

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There weren't any exciting things that happened today because I already knew all my marks, and today was just going through papers, doing corrections...

But some interesting and exciting things happened during CCA (I am in badminton CCA if you did not know). We had a friendly match with Clementi Town Secondary School (CTSS)! I was initially excited, but when I saw my competitors, I became a bit nervous. To me, they looked very calm and confident. And they looked as if they were pros.

Well, thankfully those who looked like they were superb in badminton were Secondary 2s, and I was only playing against the Secondary 1s. So The first game was Singles, and Joel (from our class) was first. It looked as if the match was quite easy. To me, honestly, Joel is a legend. It was impossible to beat him no matter how hard I tried. And besides, he was the best in our CCA. In the end, he won both matches. Next up was my friend Dee Ian, from another class. He was the next best in our CCA, after Joel of course. He too, beat his opponent with ease, winning both matches too.

Then it was my turn. Thankfully, my opponent did not look too intimidating, so I did not get so nervous. But surprisingly, he was quite good! The first match was really tough. At the start, I was winning, but after the 'warm up' he started to beat me. Although I tried to hit a far shot, the shuttle just did not fly far enough. I even attempted to do a cross-net but failed.

"15-20, matchpoint." the Umpire said. I knew it was hopeless. It would not be worth wasting my energy on this match. Otherwise, I would be too tired to play my next match. So, he won the first match.

"Chill, Joseph. Don't get too nervous," Dee Ian advised me. "Just now, at first I was very nervous, that's why I didn't do so well at first. But after a while, after I 'calmed' down, I could play better." Taking his advice, I was determined to play better in my second match.

True to his word, I did play better after I 'calmed' down and became more focused. But, my opponent was tiring me out as he kept making me run around the court, trying to catch the ball. But I was still winning.

I felt the last ball was one of the longest rally. If I am not wrong, the score was 20-15 (I can't really remember). I was exhausted, but I wanted to win this macth. But of course, my opponent was not so willing to let me go off so easily. I could see he tried his best to not lose this match to me.

Then, he did a dropshot. "NO!!" I couldn't lose this point to him! Mustering all the strength left in me, I lunged forward. What?! No! He was heading to the net! NO!!

Then, the shuttlecock just toppled over the net. And my opponent did not expect that and was too tired to try to get that ball. YES!! I won that match! Well, there wasn't any tie-breaker match due to lack of time. Even though it was a tie, I was happy that I had a good ending to my game.

(By the way, if you have read my common test composition before, so happened the storyline is the same as my competition today! :D XD )

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Today was the day that we finalized all our marks. Our teacher called us to check if all our scores were correct. I was looking through it when I spotted two errors. One of them was my History PT; another was my Mathematic. Well, it turns out that they did make a mistake for History, but for Mathematics they actually minus one mark off my score due to some presentation in my working. Oh well, it's still okay. At least it won't really affect my overall score that much. And at least I did quite well overall.

Then, we had a talk from the SCs about time management and how to have good time management. One of the key takeaways was that in order to handle my time, I had to put aside all distractions (for example LD, phone and other electronic devices etc.) and concentrate on my work.

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"RING!!! RING!!!" I was awoken by the sound of my alarm clock. I lazily pressed the 'snooze' button and was about to drift back to my comfortable sleep... Then I remembered. Today was our Annual Track and Field meet! I was excited as I would be able to see the finals for almost all the events, which were usually more intense and exciting to watch.

I quickly changed and ate my breakfast, rushing my family out of the door. I couldn't afford to be late! I soon arrived at the Clementi Stadium. There, we sang the national anthem, followed by the lighting of the torch. And finally, the competition started!

At first, the environment was filled with excitement, and everyone was cheering for their friends. But after a while, it began to get a little boring, because I had already finished my competitions long ago, and I could only spectate. So in the end, Ian and I decided to get some ice cream to 'entertain' ourselves.

The morning crawled by, and I was getting really bored as I could not go to my other friends at the other houses. I nearly drifted off to sleep when I heard cheering again. I looked up. I saw teachers lining up on the tracks. Yes! It was the teachers' turn to compete! I saw some of my teachers, including Mr. Liu, Ms. Neubronner, Mr. Lim... This was going to be exciting! I could not wait to see who would win!

Well, although the teachers I was cheering for did not win, at least they did not get the last place either.

Then came the relay races. At least this was a bit more exciting as it was a team event. "GO BLUE HOUSE, GO!!" My House, Blue House, cheered loudly for our friends. I should say our house did quite well for the relay races.

Then, the moment everyone had been waiting for had finally come. The announcement of the ranking of the houses!

"In fifth place... We have... Red House! In fourth place... We Have... Yellow House!" Yes! Blue house is in top 3!

"In third place..." they announced. I hope it wasn't us. It can't be us. "We have... Green House!" This was exciting. There was a chance we could get first place! "Please, please let us win," I thought. "So that we can finally get to go to the auditorium!"

"And in second place, we have..." the suspense made it even more exciting. Hurry tell us! "We have... Black House!" YES! We had gotten first place for the first time in history (I think...)! "YAY! We can finally enjoy the auditorium!" We cheered. I had never been so happy. After all the hard work we had put in, we had finally won the coveted golden trophy (as well as winning the spot in the auditorium)!

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Today was our Celebration of Learning (COL) and as well as the School Parent Meeting (SPM). For my COL, I was presenting History. Since my shift was was at 10.30 a.m., it was another day that I could sleep in again.

I woke up at around 8 a.m. to find the house empty. My whole family had already left the house, except for me. I decided to have my breakfast, followed by the last minute touch-ups on my slides.

I reached school quite early since there wasn't much to do at home. I decided to walk around and look at my friends' booth. So far, they seemed quite good, with a few parents who went to their booth. The time flew by, and next up was my group's turn.

Well, apparently there was only one parent who came to our booth. But my friends were somewhat happy because we just needed to present once, and not so many times. XD

Then there was SPM. Initially, I thought it was not compulsory to go together with my parents to SPM, so I stayed in the canteen to eat my lunch. I was just about to eat when some of my friends came running to me. "Joseph, please go to the ISH for SPM now." They told me. Oops! I quickly rushed there to join my mother.

I was quite happy with my overall results, and that my teachers gave good comments about me! :D

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Today was the start of our service learning. We began our day with lots of ice-breakers. One of the games I remembered was "Splat Bang". Another game I would not forget was "All Aboard". This was the most challenging game because we have to get all our feets on the mat, which was getting smaller and smaller. Well, after some time, we realised that we did not need to stand on the mat, and we just had to place our legs on the mat. We had loads of fun playing the games.

Soon after, we went back to class where we did a case study. For my group, we did a case study and the elderly. We were appalled to find out that many elders are bored and lonely because they are either neglected by their children or even forgotten. We are sad to know that after all the elders and seniors citizens have done to us and the society, they don't even get a single bit of respect or attention. From here, we learnt that we must treasure all our family members regardless of their age.

Overall, I think the workshop is quite good because we learn many meaningful things, and yet they kept us entertain with all the games we played.

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Today was the second day of our service learning. First up in the morning, we had a 'Tallest Structure' competition. Using just straws and masking tape, we had to build the tallest structure possible. Our team decided to make a pyramid-like tower because it had a big base and would be more stable. We did not have any other supports in the tower except for one balloon, as we wanted that when they tried to blow our tower off, the wind will just pass through our tower and will not affect our tower much. And we succeeded! Although our structure did not win the tallest structure, we were happy that at least our tower did not fall.

Next, we did our planning for the tomorrow as we would be heading out to West Coast Park to help clean the park. We settled all the logistics, like the groupings, our assigned jobs and so on. And because we finished planning ahead of time, our facilitators let us have 15 minutes of free time! :D

Well, today during my CCA, I had another friendly match against Presbyterian High School (PHS). Well, they were quite humorous! We even overheard them saying, "Why are there so many people in SST wearing specs?" (I guess they thought that we were all quite 'nerdy'-looking XD). Well, PHS may not be as good as CTSS (Clementi Town Secondary School), but they sure did put up a good fight.

Joel was first up, playing singles. Once again, Joel thrashed his opponent quite badly (as expected). I somewhat pitied Joel's opponent because he was losing quite badly, yet no one was cheering for him.

Dee Ian played the next singles match. As Dee Ian too, was thrashing his opponent, Ms. Huang actually gave our opponent advice on how to play better! XD (and his opponent really improved!) But well, Dee Ian still won his match due to his professional skills (and I mean it!).

Finally, It was my turn. Rather, Sean and my turn. We were playing doubles. We started off quite badly. I guess we were too nervous then, so we kept hitting out. I even made mistakes in my service! Then, Dee Ian's words rang through my head. "Calm down, and focus," I repeated to myself.

We continued playing as well as we could, and I managed to smash the shuttlecock a few times. But I guess my chemistry with Sean wasn't so good, resulting in us banging into each other at times.

Well, our opponent wasn't that good either. He didn't exactly know the rules of badminton though he knew how to play it. Well, although we tried our best, we lost 18-21. But at least it was a close fight. And besides, it was my first time pairing up with Sean for doubles, so I would consider our performance as not too bad, but we have lots of room for improvement.

Well, at least it this was a good experience for us to learn and improve, and to get a feel of how competition will be like.

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Today, we had a somewhat exciting 'excursion'. Today, we went to West Coast Park! Well, of course not to play, but to help to clean up the park as part of our service learning.

We assembled at the MPH for a short briefing before we left for WCP. When we reached there, we immediately got into action and started the cleaning. To our surprise, WCP was a lot more cleaner than we expected! Probably because there are park cleaners who ensures the place is clean, so there wasn't much trash when we arrived.

Well, whenever we found trash, it was normally half hidden in the bushes or grass. Maybe why there was so much trash in the bushes is because people are too lazy to throw their rubbish into the rubbish bin, either because:

1)The rubbish bins are too "far" away.
2) They can't be bothered to throw it away.

And so, they throw it in the bushes where people cannot see. And because people do not see it, the cleaners will not know its there and clean it up, resulting in a lot of trash.

We also found a lot of broken toys in the playground, half-hidden in the sand. Why there might be so many broken toys is because the children bring the toys to the park and play. Then, they break the toys but do not know what to do with it, so they just leave it there. I think we should educate the younger children about this issue so that they will understand why they should throw it away and not leave it there.

Through this experience, I learnt the importance of service learning, and that we should not be so selfish and think of others. Although I am sad to say Good Bye to our facilitators for service learning, it was a memorable experience that I will never forget.

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Today was Tea with PSB! Yay! We could get to see our PSL again! I was quite excited as I haven't seen them in a while.

First up in the morning, we had a mass activity. We played this game (I forgot the name :P) where there were the 'tree' and the 'squirrel'. So the 'squirrel' had to sit under 2 'trees' while the trees will put their hands out as if acting as a 'shelter' for the squirrel.

Then, there will be one person who gives all the commands. If the person shouts "Hunter!", All the 'squirrels' have to run out of their hiding places and find another hiding place. If the person shouts, "Fire!" all the trees have to run away to another squirrel and find another 'tree' to protect the squirrel. If the person shouts, "Earthquake!" everybody must run, and the can swap places from a squirrel to a tree vice versa. Then they must find another tree and another squirrel as fast a possible.

And after shouting whichever command, the person will countdown to zero. If the person finishes the countdown and there are still people who have not formed a 'group', they will be out of the game. I had fun playing this game and was one of the last ones to get kicked out of the game.

Next up, we played dodgeball at the field! They split us up into 2 teams, S101 - S104 as Team A, S105 - S108 as Team B. There were a total of 10 balls only, so I rarely got the ball. I decided to stay at the back for the earlier part of the game so that I would not get hit by the ball and would not get out of the game. But as more and more people went out of the game, there was nowhere else to hide, so I had to be alert and on the lookout for balls to not get hit. And since many people left the game, I got the ball more often and even managed to hit some people.

Once, I nearly got hit as I didn't see the ball coming until the last second.
I managed to dodge the bash just is time, with the ball brushing past my shirt. Phew! That was close! In the end, I was one of the last ones standing when the game ended. And it was a tie between Team A and Team B! So we had one representative from each team to play "Scissors Paper Stone". Unfortunately, we lost. Oh well. But at least we tried our best.

Afterward, we had 'tea' with our PSLs. They gave us Milo as our "tea break". Well, at least that was better than nothing. And besides, who doesn't like Milo? Anyways, they also conducted a survey of our life in SST so far, and how much we enjoyed it.

Honestly, I felt that life in SST was great, and I had loads of fun in SST. The teachers teaching me now are great, and I should say I made quite a few friends. With the last day of our school in Semester 1 coming to an end, I would say that I am somewhat surprised that time flew by so fast, and it was only like yesterday that we had our orientation day. All those good days... Well, I can't wait to see what even better things are waiting for us in Semester 2!

And for now, bye to all of you, my friends, and have a great holiday ahead! See you next term! :D XD