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 )

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)!

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

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.

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.

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