Well… my life may not have been on the line, but my job certainly was, if I stayed in bed another minute. 

With the reluctance of an immigrant bidding farewell to her motherland, I left the warm embrace of my duvet. I had been dreaming, I think, though all that remained now were vague images, blurred by the heavy fog of my waking consciousness.

(to be continued...)

“So if you look here, we can see that Set B is a proper subset of Set A…” I was lost in the current. Everyone is understanding what Mr Muran is saying but my thoughts were drowning me, I could feel the remaining oxygen in me leaving my body. How could anyone understand this topic? I was in an open ocean, but still surrounded on all sides. Meanwhile, they were all on cloud nine, eagerly discussing their answers with each other as they start to discover the correct method.

Grabbing all the fishes I had around my head, I turned around to face my friend. “Sorry, could you help me with this question? I’m not sure how I should solve this.” As if she was a fairy that had descended from the sky, without a second to waste, she immediately started helping me, “Bippity Boppity Boo!”. With every word she says, I could feel the fishes around me swim away, and the bright sun is now shining onto me. I finally knew how to solve the question!

No matter how tired I was from that school day, I skipped across the soft clouds as I slowly reach the entrance of the golden gate. Problems and distractions are the water of our lives that sometimes flood our perfect world. However, the satisfaction we get when we emerge from the waters and lift our heads up to the sky is like the glimmer of a comet in the night blanket, as precious as the glass slippers given to my royal soul. 🌊⛅️

so that when I grow up, I can earn. 

Getting up at the crack of dawn and doing my morning routine, 

I keep thinking “Why must l wake up so early? I’m just a teen.” 

I would always rush like a stream of fire,

since reaching school early was always my desire. 

Learning is like climbing a mountain,

and the amount of work is an overflowing fountain. 

The loads of homework and revision left to do is overwhelming,

just look at the worksheets on my desk, it’s pretty telling. 

Finishing the assignments that were weighing on my mind and not allowing me to slack, 

it was like finding a needle in a haystack. 

I would spend so many hours on finishing it that when I’m done and I can finally flee,

a wave of relief would wash over me. 
Feeling quite tired from the work, it’s quite a lot, I cannot disagree,
I watch some YouTube and feel as calm as the midnight sea. 
As the time ticks to night from afternoon, 
I know I’ll need to wind down soon. 

Feeling tired from the work and play, 

I would see the light at the end of the tunnel when I finally go to sleep and wait for the next day . 

8.00am. The school day starts. The tsunami is approaching, wave after wave. There's no time to breathe and I'm drowning in confusion. My battery is draining rapidly during classes, listening to the Siris talk. They talk in different voices but one thing is common - they talk even when you aren’t in the right mental state to listen and when you don’t even understand what they are saying. 

At the end of school, my battery level is at 1%. I quickly leave. Obviously, I need to recharge but how am I going to do that when the destruction caused by the tsunamis has to be dealt with? 

At home, I begin climbing the gargantuan mountain. It is steep and tall. I almost fall multiple times but I hold on. I’m almost at the peak. The climb is tiring but when I have succeeded in reaching the top, satisfaction bubbles in me. I then immerse myself in the virtual world - YouTube. The slow tides of videos caress me. When my eyes are drooping, I lie in my coffin. A few minutes later, I am dead to the world.

As I slowly sync up with the system, and regain my senses, I hear them play the National Anthem and Pledge, a sign that the battles are about to begin. I look behind me, 27 other warriors to face the threat with me. I smile, happy that at least I have friends to face the enemy with.

I hear footsteps, my instincts take over, I get ready for the fight and watch as that familiar enemy they call “Science” prepares to attack. The bell rings, and the enemy launches a powerful pincer attack. I think to myself “how could I possibly survive 1 hour and 20 minutes of this?” We exchange blows and at long last the first battle ends, it's a draw.

As much as I wanted to rest, I could hear the signs signifying the start of the next battle. The enemy this time was an S ranked beast, known as “Math”. Another hour goes by and the fight ends in another draw.

2 more battles later, draw after draw, at long last the battles are over. Just as I was about to log out, I remembered that at the end of every day a new quest pops up “practice sets, worksheets and sls packages” but the reward? Another day without punishment. All these difficult compulsory quests yet there is nothing to gain but everything to lose.

This is the warzone that I fight in, the frightening place they call school.

I traverse through the dark stage, making it to the main setting of the play, labelled TA32. I look around as the lights start shining onto the platform. I say hi to the others, them being the only source of interaction. I look towards the window. The mechanical wooden models of the trees and animals make up the scenery I wished to be in, but alas, I have been confined to a single room, putting on a show for a non-existent audience. 

“The concentration of the solution is the mass of the solute…” I listen as I process word by word. My brain is a laggy school computer on which the google chrome icon had been spammed, only for 31 tabs to open, 17 of them not responding and music blasting out of an unidentifiable tab. After barely an hour the computer is stuck on the blue screen of death as the system tries to restart itself, only to crash and make the situation worse. 

The grey, lifeless theatre slowly begins to gain vitality as school ends. The people rushing by, the bright sun and the breeze blowing by brings me comfort. I move back to the first setting, where I finish a stack of work, and rest until the next day arrives. The papers I receive leave my mind in a mess as I desperately try to comprehend the content. After struggling to finish as my puppeteer fumbles with my wooden bars, I go backstage. I watch as my strings slowly fall and my consciousness fades, knowing full well that this is the only show I was destined to put up, as my amateur marionettist struggles to memorise a different script. 

The torturous blare blast into my ears. I jolted out of bed, sweat falling off my forehead as my chest raised up and down, panting as if I were to explode. I turned to see my bed, which like a wet rag in the sea, was soaked in my sweat. Getting up, I start up my engine and briefly stumble into the bathroom. Cold water pierces through my skin, the dim light on the ceiling gently caresses the dark room as i stare into the mirror while scrubbing my teeth. My reflection stares back at me smirking “another day huh, same old loop heh?” it says. Ignoring it I finish my icy cleanse and dress into my white shirt splattered with red.

I finish my routine, skipping my usual consumables.  Exiting the house, everything passes in a blur. The sky is still dark and the cacophony of sounds surround me. Unbothered, I put in my earpieces and listen to the same music I listen to everyday. Stepping into the giant motor beast, I sit slouched against its windows as I begin my journey to the concrete asylum.

Another day, another cycle. I brush past my lessons, barely remembering the brief concept that the blindingly optimistic figures stuff into my memory space. Figures all around me mumbling, chatting, whispering. All this noise swirls around me as I shrink into the empty cavern of my mind. “Daniel!” A voice calls out to me. I know who it is but as if I was in a trance I stare back blankly. I understand what she says but so what if I respond, I think to myself. Listen, respond, laugh, follow instructions, like a robot I carry out these activities like clockwork.  

Finally as day breathes its final breath, I lie back onto my spring loaded sleep spot as I stare into the window. My reflection faintly shows in the mirror. It turns to look at me and says “look who’s back! How was your day? Oh I forgot, it was the same as every other day wasn’t it?”. Grinning tauntingly at me is ask “you know this too dont you? living like a lifeless machine. Is this really worth living for?”. I close my eyes and mutter “well, I’ve been in this loop for pretty long now so it has to be…right?”. “I’ll just answer that question tomorrow” I tell myself as my consciousness slowly slips away and I fall into sweet slumber.

(To continue, read it from the top again.)

Within moments I was on my way to get my daily dose of laugh, plugging in my earpiece, I closed my eyes as I let the audiobook drown out the frustration from the vehicles. 

“how to do””wait what””I don’t get it” has became a reply to problems and confusions in the classroom as I looked towards my friend beside me, only to get the reflection of the same confusion. Shrugging it off, the clouds in me began to turn into rain and every drop got heavier and heavier as seconds ticked by. Puddles became rivers and rivers flow out to sea. The sounds around me started drowning out as I emerged myself into my own lalaland.

Problems are grains of sands that fill up and becomes a beach and frustrations are what we write on them. As easy as written, we should also learn how to wash them off with every interval wave.

Every day runs like clockwork. I go to the same place. I eat the same food. I meet the same people and I wear the same clothes. 

Every morning I head to the giant building that looms over us people call school. Kids around my age wear the same red and grey clothing that would swallow us in utter discomfort , With hair pulled back into slick ponytails or cut to a style hanging right above their eyebrows. We walk through these cold metal gates that run shivers down my spine up till this day. What are these gates? Metal detectors? Are we robots? Maybe we are. Is the conclusion I usually end up with. 

It’s like we were programmed to enter this building every morning. Listen to people shove information into our systems. Be evaluated with a test every few months. Maybe we are all just test subjects. 

School begins with the national anthem and pledge. What is this song anyways? Are we worshiping a God in this foreign language? Who are we pledging allegiance to? Questions like such subconsciously flood my mind. 

It’s lesson time. Each kid sits at our designated seat which was ice cold to the touch. These strange creatures walk into our classes by the hour. They look just like us. two arms, two feet and one nose. But something about them boomed with authority. they were allowed to reprimand us and nobody would dare to object. They looked over everything we did. Watched us like a hawk, and loomed over us like a tall tower. 

They would walk in one by one. Coming in as another one exited. They would write things on the board with squeaky markers that pierced our ears and asked questions as if we were programmed to know the answers to. What was the point? How would we apply this when we get out of here? Would we even get out?

 

as the grass dances to the wind

A voice whispers from beyond the clouds -

“WAKE UP!” 

I open my eyes 

and the wonderland is gone

In its place is my dull room

with no golden sun and no dancing grass

I am no longer a bunny in the meadow

I am a girl who has to get ready for school

I pull myself out of bed

and brush my teeth

I stare blankly at my reflection in the mirror 

and i wonder 

What if I was born as someone else?

Who would I be? 

What if I was born as a washing machine?

Is it possible to become a washing machine?

But my string of thoughts is cut 

as my brother yells at me to hurry up 

So I take my time 

I eat my breakfast

On today’s menu is peanut buttered bricks 

how appetising 

“I am so tired today”

is what I say to try to get my dad to chauffeur me to school 

And it works 

so I get into the car 

I listen to my playlist 

and it takes on a rollercoaster of emotions 

But soon I see the cold school building 

and I am flung off the rollercoaster 

and thrown into an ocean

a deep dark ocean 

School is a scary ocean 

and I am a lost and drowning fish

Can fish drown?

I am definitely drowning 

I swim to class 

and I see my classmates 

My classmates are sharks 

attacking task after task 

And I watch them in awe as a struggling fish 

a struggling fish with thalassophobia  

My gills nearly stop functioning as I inhale gallons of information 

Did you know that babies have around 100 more bones than adults?

That’s what I learnt in biology today 

I would love to be a baby 

I almost fade off to sleep 

but I see the clock hand five minutes away from dismissal 

and I become a dolphin 

Dolphins are apparently the happiest underwater creatures 

The end of the school day finally comes 

and I swim home 

I am a sailfish 

heading straight home at 70mph

When I am home I am a bear

I crawl into my cave and hibernate 

I sleep

and sleep 

and sleep 

And once again I am with the dancing grass,

basking in the sunlight.

  As the day progresses, I get noticeably less energetic, and a lot hungrier. My thoughts blur together, and even the occasional coherent thought makes less sense than a shark and a zebra playing chess in a refrigerator. From around 11am to 1pm, my energy levels are at their lowest and the chances of me falling asleep in class rise exponentially. The classes aren’t even boring, I’m just losing energy like an orange loses juice in a blender. The energy loss increases in speed when it’s windy or raining. At this point, I am helpless as the vacuum of life sucks up the dust bunnies of my energy from the old floor that I am. All of a sudden, school ends. It’s as if it never happened in the first place. And yet, so much time has passed. Sometimes I go home with my friends, sometimes I don’t. Either way, my mind goes wild, full of dreams, wonder, torment, and cursing my senior from CCA, whom I choose to believe is the main cause of my seemingly eternal back pain. I arrive at my home, the one place on Earth where I don’t have to worry about acting like a normal person. 

  

  After several hours of procrastinating while knowing full well that I’ll end up sleeping at 2am again if I procrastinate, I reluctantly open up my bag, put my papers and writing materials on my desk, and half-heartedly do my homework (and also procrastinate some more.) I am simply a fish, tangled up in the confusion and chaos that is Chemistry. Somewhere from 10pm to 2am, I finally finish my homework and pack my bag. I lay in bed after setting my alarm for 5.40am the next day, waiting for slumber to overcome my tired, restless mind, having accepted the fact that I would only get 3 hours of sleep that night and that my eye bags would likely forever remain darker than the night sky. As I finally begin to fall asleep, a tiny burst of energy sparks in my brain for one final thought.

  “Ah dang, I’ve got PE tomorrow.”

by Eunice

Upon entering the bus, I am met with a sea of unfamiliar faces. More often than not,  I will come across some “aunties” who use their bags to hog with seats. I glance around, scrambling to find a seat but to no avail. I sigh. Another endurance test is about to come. 

After standing for half an hour straight, my knees finally had some legroom to budge. As I moved it the slightest bit, it felt as if a thousand needles were mercilessly poking it. The more I walked, the more it felt as if my legs were giving up on me. I am a fighter, a warrior. I must push on. With all my might, I continued limping home. I was met with more rude stares. 

As I continued the journey, thousands of thoughts started racing through my mind. “Did I do anything wrong today? Did I hurt anyone’s feelings? What do my classmates think of me?” Sometimes I just wished my thoughts could understand that they did not have to compete with one another…

When I arrive at school, I walk into the classroom only to be greeted by an overly energetic atmosphere and the surface of the sun. But nevertheless the shadow following me doesn’t change its mood. The periods following the event of my arrival at school seem to be a brick wall except maybe recess, the atmosphere remains unchanged due to many factors such as how the classroom is basically one big sauna. I barely get over the day without causing trouble only to be met with the anxiety of finishing my homework.

School comes to an end with many wearing the same smile they had in the morning, seemingly completely unfazed by the brick wall. I head home and make the most out of this period of freedom. 

..ian 

notes: watching inside out is highly recommended before reading this, but I’ll give a quick recap. 

You open your eyes and groan before quickly realising something was wrong. “I’m not usually feeling like this,” you mutter as the chronic fatigue overtakes you and you want to go back to dreamland again. Your eyes start to droop, and your body instinctively goes to check the time. It’s 0954, in the middle of a math lesson, and you should concentrate.Yet despite the circumstances, you don’t feel worried, or rather, you don’t feel anything. All you know is that the funny-looking colorful people in inside out aren’t pressing any of your buttons, which is odd. You look around, only to be met with an unfamiliar room. You look at yourself, confused. “This… isn’t my body?” Purple starts going off and your chest starts rising and dropping at an alarming rate. You start racking back and forth, the intrusive thoughts charging in. Blue hides behind Red as Red joins on the piano keys, blue occasionally playing a note here and there. “Why are you always like this. You mess up at every given opportunity, you don’t deserve to be here! You should just leave, nobody will miss you either way.” “Kill them all.” “See? You’re nothing but a monster!” “Everyone probably hates you. Oh my god, oh my god, I’m freaking out, I can’t breathe.” Green has taken over the wheel. “You’re disgusting. I can see why people would treat you like crap.” The voices grow louder, hollering. They grow faster, overlapping. The buzzing in your head intensifies, and you feel like biting your arm off and tearing your hair. Breathing takes every ounce of strength you have in you and you feel an anvil weighing you down. You wait for it to stop, hoping you seem normal as you’re in a semi-public space and you don’t want to disrupt the lesson. The colours continue though, and you wonder how the owner of the body is still alive with what they have to experience everyday. You’re about to cry but you realize in this body you can’t. There is a firm dam which the waterworks are supposed to lie behind, but it’s empty. It doesn’t rain, and it’s grey. Afterwards, you ask a friend of the body’s original owner if they noticed anything amiss with you during class. “No, why?” they reply, slightly perplexed. You could only spit out a few words dumbly. “It’s nothing,” you laugh politely. Deep down though, you were weary. “Oh,” you thought. The grey islands got you again.

But, laziness has its perks. I can laze around and do whatever i like, without a care in the world.it’s super nice, and um i just play genshin as well. Sometimes i do work in the morning, but that’s besides the point. 

Anyways, moral lesson of the story is that ‘laziness has its perks’

I reached my kitchen, and saw that no one was awake yet, “everyone is still asleep?” I thought to myself. Ignoring the sound I heard just now, I walked to the fridge to grab a drink before going back up to bed. As soon as I opened the fridge, a cool breeze blew into my face and it was as though there was air-con coming out of the fridge. 

I quickly grabbed the first drink I saw, bolted up the stairs and in the blink of an eye, I was here again, back to the place where I was a few minutes ago. I looked outside my window, taking a sip from my drink and realised, “why is it so quiet outside, they should be up by now.” I looked over to my neighbour’s house, and saw the door wide open. My eyes widen and suddenly, my memory gets fuzzy again. I close my eyes and the next thing I knew I...

I was dragged out of my bed at 6:45am in the morning by a pair of burly men known as Discipline and Responsibility. Reluctantly I made my way to the dining table for breakfast, however lazy I may be, I knew that if I had skipped it the wolves of hunger would be growling at my feet long before I had another chance to eat. I scarfed down my breakfast, knowing that if I missed my bus, I would risk not making it to school on time. As I made my way down to the bus stop, I saw the two buses I could take pulling out of the bus stop. I sighed in resignation. Even though the same thing had happened every day for the past two months, it still did not take the sting off having just missed the buses and needing to wait five minutes for the next one. Once I got on the bus, I relaxed a little, passing the time by reading a book. I barely get to school on time. The next few hours would be a mixture of extreme boredom and slight interest depending on whether the class was on things I had yet to understand or things I had learned long ago. And with me my two constant companions from earlier this morning tug at my ears, trying to get me to concentrate on the lesson. I could say it worked, and that I was the perfect focused student, but I wouldn’t want to lie. As the school day finally ends, I get on the bus home, similarly passing the time reading, reaching home around 2:30pm. After all, it is a deplorable habit. I spend the rest of the day getting ripped to pieces. Our dear friends Discipline and Responsibility pulling me to do my homework and the *instant gratification monkey dragging me away. Finally dinner arrives, and I help clear the table. The talk is of current events, complaints of classmates, and a few insults from sibling rivalry. After dinner, I go back to the tug-of-war. The day ends with my mom pestering me to go to sleep while I desperately scrabble to finish the homework I had not finished. As I collapse into bed, I feel the first sense of relief throughout the entire day.

*https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator