Drinking for experience

In the last month of 2015, it was Christmas and my family had planned for a trip to japan all year long. On one of the days in Osaka, we decided to go to a small restaurant at the end of the road. It was a pizza and pasta restaurant called "Pizza and Pasta Restaurant" as a joke so that tourists would know what was on the menu. We had a delicious dinner, very stuffing indeed, one of the best pizzas I've ever had. When everyone was done eating, I saw the drink section on the menu and saw that they served sake, a Japanese rice wine made by fermenting rice. As a joke I told my dad to get me a warm sake but he said that it wasn't a bad idea and ordered a glass. It was difficult to get it down my throat at first but after a few sips it was quite good for my first illegal alcoholic drink. However, I couldn't finish it so my father went ahead and chugged it all at once, Like a BOSS.

Today, my family and I took my brother out to an outdoor restaurant for his 18th birthday. We again, enjoyed the delightful barbecued ribs with a side of spicy BBQ chicken wings. Although, this was no ordinary restaurant, it is famous for their wide selection of 'Naughty drinks' which were basically alcoholic drinks. Father then said, "Hey, why not I order some pints for everyone!". My mother got herself a Mojito, my brother had a Martini, I got Budweiser and my father got a large pint of Hoegaarden beer. Budweiser is an American beer that has a little fizz in it. I shocked myself as I managed to drink the whole bottle quite fast. In return, my face started to get red and my chest got really warm. I guess you can say it's a Chinese thing. What really frightened me was that my father insisted on driving us home after drinking the entire pint of beer all by himself. Luckily, he wasn't drunk or anything as he was a heavyweight drinker in his late 20's. We all got home safely and went to bed quite early because we were absolutely wasted. I hope I don't get a hangover tomorrow....  

Good habits?

As someone who doesn't talk much, I always have the urge to observe others and secretly listen to their conversations. I usually do it when I have nothing important to do or just happened to have the opportunity to do it. Sometimes it's just an average chat between classmates and sometimes it's a secret that no one should know about or else it would ruin their lives. I guess you can say that it may be useful for particular situations. Besides, you never really know if it could help you in any way to just listen or watch. It could possibly let you know what to do or what not to do to when talking or working with someone who may or may not like the things you previously did to them. So far it certainly has helped me avoid pointless arguments and even solve someone's problem if I was listening long enough. 

Holidays in the middle of the week

As I jumped out of bed I was shot in the face with a ray of glistening sunlight through the curtains of my bedroom window. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, what more can a man ask for? Breakfast was on the table, a warm spaghetti sandwich and a glass of chocolate milk. My phone was fully charged, no notifications from Facebook and the wifi was working quite well too. My family was watching television in the living room with a bag of chips and salsa on the coffee table. "Hi guys, what's up?!", I shouted. "What's up Marcus, we're just watching a movie, come join us!", replied my family. "Hahah sorry guys, I have homework!", I shouted as I walked over to my bag. I took out all my homework, laid it neatly on my table, held a pen in my hand and started sobbing  quietly because I had just enough homework to waste my precious time on for the rest of the 'public holiday'. Bloody hell.

My wonderful brother

Ever since I was born, he was there for me. As an older brother it was his duty to protect me as well as teach me. Over the years, from the age of 4 to 12, we fought almost single day till someone admitted defeat. We were fighting over food at the dinner table, blaming each other on broken things in the house, or arguing over whose turn it was to watch television. Sometimes we would just not talk to each other for the sake of our egos. Fortunately, nothing lasts forever. The things we fought over wouldn't last longer than a week. Although we hated each other, there were times where we would forget the grudges to play together and have a good laugh, especially on holiday trips. Another couple years later, things were a lot different than they were, unfortunately for the worst. His exams were barely passing. This sooner or later led to him not finishing his homework and his depressing attitude. He gave up basketball classes just because he realized how useless he was in games and tournaments though in the past he won countless medals. He was lost in life, looking down on himself and wasn't outgoing at all. One day, our father had a long talk with him about what his problem was and how he could fix it all. He finally listened and before he took his SPM, he was given a lot of time to study, so he did. He was committed to his studies again and put in all his energy in order to ace the exam for our father. In the end, when the results came back, he accepted it even though it was a devastating sight. He scored an A for almost all his subjects and a F for history. When he got home, he was changed yet again. He left it all behind and enjoyed his graduation with his friends one last time. Nowadays, he's on the computer all day doing assignments and drawing with his beloved drawing tablet. He made new friends at college and got into dance club which he takes twice a week. He was finally happy and looked forward to getting his driving license too.

12 year old Marcus

I was always a shy kid back in primary school. I had a handful of friends and did not like the teachers very much. Not to mention my mandarin was bad at the time, I did not understand most things in school. This obviously led to scolding due to unfinished homework. However, there was one teacher in particular from standard 5 to 6 that was the only memory that stayed with me. She would always yell at me first before telling me where I was wrong in a slightly calmer tone. She was probably the nicest teacher I have ever met in my 12 year old life.

 

A couple years later, it was a Saturday, my friends and I had planned to go out to watch a movie at a nearby mall. In the mall, we were waiting for a few more friends at the cinema area while deciding what movie we should watch. After we finally found each other, we eventually picked a movie and went window shopping before the movie began. When returning to the cinema, after purchasing absolutely nothing, two friends suddenly shouted the words 'Hwang Lao Shi' which directly translates to yellow teacher (lol). At first I didn't think much of it and just followed them to see the teacher. As I got closer, I slowly realized who 'Hwang' teacher was.

It was her. She hasn't aged a day since I last saw her. I then proceeded to happily greet her with a big smile. She seemed to recognize the two friends in an instant but gave me a confused gaze. She said that she could not recall who I was and asked for my name and my class. I told her and even showed her my library card from primary school that I kept in my wallet. She still couldn't quite picture it as she has been teaching for over 30 years. After she left, I thought about how anti-social I was and what I could have been if I had just talked to my teachers. Furthermore, I thought about how no one would remember me because of my attitude of solitude. From then on, I swore to make my presence as memorable as possible to my classmates and teachers so that I would be remembered as clearly as possible. You only have one life, one opportunity, so make it a memorable one.

The most difficult choice

The most difficult choice I have made this year is probably choosing which stream was best for me. The day I found out I succeeded in scoring high enough for a science stream was life changing. At the very moment I saw the stream I was in, I froze. My first reaction was obviously to check if I was looking at the correct results and to my surprise it was true. I couldn’t believe it, I was so happy until I saw what stream my best friend was in. I was with him at that time.  We were very close and always did everything together. He was the reason I didn’t quit most things I wouldn’t even try. His results were similar to mine and we both managed to get in the same stream while a year ago we were in one of the lowest classes. The only problem was that we were in different classes. There were zero chances of the school letting me transfer to his class and same goes to him. I immediately thought about how I would live without him. Knowing him since primary school, I would always ‘play’ with him during recess, pj and whenever the teacher wasn’t around. In secondary school, we got closer as we got older. Together we could do anything, learn anything, it was a big part of my life. Then, there were other things I worried about. What if I don’t like my class? What if biology and chemistry is too hard? Is the other classes better? I didn’t like this at all. Though, I had the chance to change streams. In the end, I chose to stay where I was. My friend chose to stay as well because he noticed his crush was in the same class as him. Though the first few months were regretful, I had missed my previous class. The school had also become more disciplinary in terms of curriculum activities. We couldn’t skip our activities like we used to do to hang out together. This was hard for me because it was the only time I could be with my group of friends. However, as I finally accepted my fate, I realized maybe things aren’t all that bad. I've met many new people as well as interact with really old friends.  My best friend was doing well with his life too. His grades were getting better every semester and we had our recess together all the time. Miraculously, it all turned out better than I expected. It was all possible thanks to my difficult decision making skills. No one can see the future, so my advice is to let go of things you can’t change and focus on things you can. In the words of Socrates, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new”.

Not good enough

I've always wanted to do my best in things that the majority of people can do. Unfortunately, I have an abnormal tendency to screw up simple things such as making careless mistakes in an exam even though I checked it over and over again. Even though I learn from my mistakes, there will always be a problem that didn't exist the previous time. Furthermore, sometimes I forget even the simplest of things and sometimes the most important things of all. This usually leads to misunderstandings about my attitude and losing  the trust and loyalty from people I care about. I choose not to volunteer myself in things a normal human being would be able to do because of the fear of not being good enough and making mistakes that could have been avoided very easily. I guess you can say that I care about what others think about me more than what I think of myself. I often do this to prevent arguments or when meeting new people. I try to fit in as perfect as possible so that I can ensure peace and prevent even a speck of casualties. Sometimes I pretend so much that I forget to be myself again even if nobody is watching. I try so hard to ensure that everyone sees me as their light in the dark, the cure for their pain and, most of all, the person who did their best no matter the consequences. In my perspective, happiness is knowing that you did your best, straight down to the limit. I am waiting for the day that I can finally say "I did my best".

Educational camp

After the exams I had 2 weeks of holiday for the taking. It was finally time to kick back and relax in bed all day within the confinements of my room. Surprisingly, I had forgotten about the plans I made for the holiday. I had signed up for leadership camp with a couple of friends for the holidays. The camp was held for 4 days and 3 nights and was fortunately on the last few days of the final week. The camp took place in Fo Guang Shan Temple in Kuala Selangor. I had to go through 4 days of speaking mandarin for the sake of convenience and also because I wanted to speak my native language once more.

On the first day, I followed one of my classmates to the camp due to some transport problems. The trip was originally 1 hour if the traffic was good, sadly this wasn’t one of those days. When we finally got to the temple we took our luggage and went to collect our tags that had our respective groups written on it. We were put into our groups and separated till the final day. I was shocked to see that the temple was much bigger than I had imagined. The first activity of the day was portrayed in the main hall. They talked about the history of the temple and what not to do as well as when to do it. The thing about camps is that the first day is always the most boring. After a lot of speeches and activities, it was time for a lunch break in the canteen. The rules stated that it is disrespectful to speak when eating a meal. Also, leaving unfinished food to waste is rude because the workers who wash the dishes have to wash over 600 plates after every meal. The rest of the day was spent in the hall where the organizer of the camp talked about leadership in our lives and why it’s so important. At the end of the day, I was mentally tired but learned some things worth knowing. Everyone got mattresses to sleep on as well as a blanket and pillow. 

(Second day was very similar to the first)

The Second last day was where the holiday had finally began! After the morning prayers, the activities included a few motivational talkers and a grand feast that had an interesting twist. Everyone was given 4 seeds as currency to order various foods displayed all around the temple. In order to obtain more beans a person has to complete a game. Games such as dancing challenges, singing challenges, strength challenges and luck challenges were not as easy as they seemed. I was not a very good singer but the strength challenges were my type of challenge. The luck challenge was the hardest to complete. In fact, not one person was able to get even close to completing it. During the challenges, I finally got to interact with new people and work together to complete the challenges. A girl named Xin Yi was my partner for most of the challenges. We were quite good in the challenges even though we were complete strangers a few days ago. We became good friends and exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch. Anyway, I won just enough seeds to order a meal that was suitable with my appetite along with some lemonade. It was a good day and an even better evening for me. The night was chilling and quiet, perfect for sleeping.

Finally, the last day of camp is always the most memorable. It was time to say goodbye to everyone and hope to see each other in the future. There was a lot of kindness for a brief moment in the temple. People were taking pictures with one another, hugging each other goodbye and even planning for the next outing. I managed to find almost all the people I had met to greet them farewell. A while later when most of the participants went home, me and my classmates were waiting for transport at the entrance of the temple. I had forgotten to collect my certificate so quickly ran back into the hall to collect it. To my surprise, I saw Xin Yi with her friend there walking around as if they were looking for me. They were the only ones that I left out. As we said goodbye I shook her hand and hope that we may meet again someday. 

In my opinion, this camp wasn't all that bad but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that enjoys outdoor activities more than indoor ones.