what dreams may come

everytime i get together with mommy colleagues of my age we discuss the state of our kids' education, not the most interesting of topics but that's what the system does to us. makes us unduly anxious about their future beyond school.

there are two mommys on complete opposites of the continuum while i maintain somewhere in the middle. wendy is a mommy of a sec 1 boy who plagues him about his schoolwork every other day. mich has two teen boys, one of whom she encouraged strongly to go the poly route while the younger is on a tennis scholarship from STA. evidently the latter puts everything in her faith despite both being devout christians. when we chat i find myself being a bit of both, simply because i want them to thrive in this crazy society of hedonism. it's unwise to raise them as complete hippies much as i would like to throw caution to the wind.


so last night at dinner, jo raised the subject of jc life. she had showed up an average 14 lr15 score which i said would qualify for a lower-ranked jc which may possibly land her in a lower-ranked faculty.  on the flipside her art project reaped an A2 which to me only reveals her true aptitude academically. i said it would be wise to apply for my jc since it's across from home and with me as staff would garner her 2 points off her aggregate (to which she nobly replied was 'cheating' haha). i told her the qualifier was 8 or 10 for science and arts respectively. however i did also mention the wonderful offering for media studies in the poly also a stone's throw away. she mentioned much interest there and my gut tells me that would suit her better. i've seen too many students in my jc crash n burn or waste two years of their lives here only to opt for the alternatives. it isn't so bad if this weren't a country so unforgiving of failure,

anyway, jill's coping well with As n Bs, something i beamed and which she gawked at. i guess overachiever has been part of my DNA but tbh i've become so jaded both as student and teacher. i tell my students constantly to keep the faith and never lose their souls to the system. if anything, they should introspect on what really drives them to wake everyday. happiness or obligation? or is there a compromise somewhere which will not rob them of their dreams? i certainly hope the shrubs would discover themselves at their own pace without any regret or resentment, and maintain the virtues of simplicity they were raised on. well, discounting my material indulgences which granted were mostly unsolicited hehe


and exactly a year has passed, and i feel we're stronger as a family. and with baby in my life i think things can only get better.