Have you read part 1 of my educational journey?

After talking to my friends, "K" decided that she would not continue to study as her parents felt that for her to study in ITE is a very shameful thing for them and if their relatives come to know of it, she would feel very ashamed. She mentioned that she might find a job instead.

Decision made by Me & my friend "I"

For myself and "I", we decided to pick up whichever course we could in ITE. I took up the 2 year Secretarial course and "I" took up the E-commerce course. During my first year in school, I had very friendly teachers and I quickly made friends with them, although I was highly not popular in class. I had few close friends. People quickly distant themselves from me, either because I had good grades or because someone in class just didn't like it that they were being close to me. I don't know.. I start to think that maybe in my ITE life, I can just survive all alone by myself. I often had problems forming project groups and I would just take the "left-over"slots.

I taught myself how to be independent. The image of ITE students were so bad those days that we would often either hide away from the eyes of the public, or bring spare clothes to change. We didn't want to be seen in our uniforms.



Knowing my goals
I worked really hard, bearing in mind my goals (To get into a polytechnic) and I was very motivated to go into the Polytechnic. I did what ever additional CCAs, took up whichever volunteer work etc, so long as that would help me to boost my grades. I knew deep in my heart, that if I did well in ITE, I could still get a chance to study in the Polytechnic and I could even get into the Business Course. This was something I wanted very much and at that point in time. I knew that I had made a right decision to study in ITE. If I didn't choose to study in ITE and go through this additional 2 years, I would never have a chance to get into the Business Course because of the very low cut off points. My goal then was to get a good GPA, so that I could get into the Business Course and to complete the course in 2.5 years, instead of 3 years. ITE provided me a second chance. A chance to get into my dream course, and to prove that I can do well and that I am not stupid.

In ITE, I did very well in all my subjects and for every semester I was one of the tops in class. I was also offered several opportunities to be mentors in both of my CCAs. I do not see myself as a failure. I was seen by my classmates as someone who is hardworking and studious. I fought back strong and i graduated with a good score that allowed me to enter into my dream course for 2.5 years. It was a birthday wish come true, I got my admission letter on my birthday.



Have a thankful heart and never give up
I am extremely thankful for all the opportunities and guidance that my teachers had given to me in during my ITE days and the support that they had rendered me in my ITE educational journey.  They taught me to be more vocal, they trained me in my presentation skills and gave me the confidence whenever I did well in something. They inspired me to work for what I want. It turned out to be the best decision I have ever made.

Today, I have completed my ITE, my Polytechinc Studies and I am proud to be even a University graduate. All these doesn't come easy, but I am thankful for that I once failed, so that I can be successful in my life later. Without bitterness, one can never know what sweetness taste like. Those 2.5 years in the Polytechnic didn't come easy too, but they made me a better person and with all the decisions  I've got to make for myself, it mould me into a person who knows what she wanted in life.

The life skills which I gathered during my days in ITE has taught me to be a risk taker. I am now an independent woman with her own views and thoughts. I do not fear the decisions I've made but am able to survive through tough times with confidence.



★Do not feel dismay or upset if you fall down along your life journey.
★Cry, be upset and unhappy only for a short moment.
★Pick yourself up quickly, and make the right decisions that would help you.
★What others say is not important, the most important thing is how you see yourself.
★People may try all means to pull you down, they cannot succeed as long as you won't let them.
★The journey to success may be a long and lonely one but remember you'll always have your loved ones with you.

I hope my little educational story have inspired you this Vesak Day! Here's wishing all my readers a Happy Vesak Day and happy holidays!

Some time back, I saw an article link posted by a fellow blogger friend regarding a Mediacorp artist whom had became successful today despite that she was once from ITE. I wish to take this opportunity to share my very own story. You can read the artist's story here.



Background:
Most of you would not know me well enough to know my background, in particularly my educational background. Many friends look at me today in awe and admired me because of my life achievement. But they failed to see my struggles and the hardship i went through back in school. It is not by sheer luck, neither do I have the clever brains that I am, who I am today. It is a whole lot of hard work and knowing what I want, picking myself up from where I fell. From then on, it was a whole lot of planning and making major life changing decisions. 



Primary School:
To begin my story, let me share with you my background. Right from the start, I left Primary 6 with reasonable grades and an average PSLE result that gave me 2 choices. I could go to a better school and go into a 5 years normal academy stream or I could opt for an average neighborhood school with a 4 years express stream. I choose the later, thinking that its better to finish school in 4 years, rather than 5 years. 

Secondary School:
When in Secondary School, I did very poorly with my Mathematics, Science and Accounting subjects. It must be partly due to the fact that I was often bullied in school, either because of my family background (not rich and affluent), or my looks (I had lots of pimples and very bad skin then) that made it hard for me to concentrate in school. In fact, I didn't do well in most of my studying subjects. I realized that those which I performed better (my languages) was because I had a friendly and encouraging teacher. For those subject that I get either a teacher whom I could hardly understand what they were saying the whole time, or scolded us "Stupid" or played favoritism to top students, I would totally let go of the subject. My mind seems to wander off somewhere else whenever they were teaching in class. No matter how hard I tried, went for remedial classes, tuition classes etc... I never seem to do well.

By the time I reached Secondary 4, I knew that I am going to fail a few subjects for my "O" Levels Examination. I briefly calculated the points that I would require to end up in a course that I would totally not be interested in, but still be in a local polytechnic. I knew that no matter what, I need to pass my English, Mathematics and Science. I worked hard and I fight strong, my Science teacher said that I was never going to make it with my Science, but i proved him wrong. I passed! But I failed my Mathematics. Remember this thou, "O" levels is not just about passing, its about doing it well. Even if you get an average C or D for the subject, you'll end up with too many points to get into a good course.

The day I received my "O" level results, I cried like hell. I didn't know what to do. On my slip, there was only one option =ITE=> Was it the end for me..... ? I even had silly suicidal thoughts. I talked to my 2 other good friends "K"& "I", like me... they didn't make it to the Polytechnic either.



Tough decisions:

I knew right there and then that I only had a few choices, but because of the highly negative vibes and the branding of being "stupid" was so strong those times, I told myself to avoid going into ITE. I spoke to my mother about it and she answered me " If you don't wish to continue studying, what do you wish to do?." She totally left the decision making to me.

Now, I had several options.
1) Retake my "O" Levels privately within the next year for my Mathematics, if I passed, I can appeal to get into Polytechnic to do a normal course with high cut off points. The ones with the highest points were either a Nursing course, OR an Engineering course (Lower points was better if you are wondering).

2) Go to ITE, I could only opt for the 2 years Secretarial course (the one and only course that appeared on my result slip). The positive side was that ITE was a government school and you'll get your certificate recognized after you graduate. If you do well, you can get a chance to advance into a polytechnic to continue your studies. But whatever course you do in ITE, it has to be linked to the course which you are going to do in the Polytechnic. (E.g - Secretarial to Business, Nursing to Nursing, Engineer to Engineer etc)

3) Find a private institution and take up some computing course. As far as I could remember, in our days, there was only Informatics, TMIS, and some other less popular business schools available.

4) Discontinue my educational journey, find a job and perhaps find a chance to upgrade my skills later on. 
 
Make a guess where I ended and what happened next.... Stay tuned to part 2 of My Educational Journey.

We are now in the year of 2016! What does this meant to you? Have you thought about how you would like to enhance your relationship with your loved ones? Have you made any new communication goals that you would like to talk more with your spouse, perhaps share more about your lives as a couple or get excited about that vacation place that you would like to go in 2016?

Recently I came across two Facebook articles that sets me thinking about the negative impacts of social media, perhaps I can share my thoughts about them and get us thinking about our future generations.

What has Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blogs and other social media done to our lives? As an influencer, are you spreading the right message to your readers?











We used to live in a world without our smartphones, back then we only had a phone that we could only use to call somebody. That was the main intention isn't it?
Our old but trusty phones that could fulfill the minimum needs of connecting people.

With the invention of smartphones, we can now play a game, search for information, shoot a picture and get connected to our social media channels. There are so many things you can do on your smartphone that one may seem so lost without bringing the phone with them for a day. It also changes the way we eat, live and lead our lives.

When was the last time you didn't took a photo of what you ate and show the world what you were eating, where you were eating and with whom you were with? 
I've witness for myself how everyone get obsessed and occupied with their smartphones during a family gathering than playing games, catching up and talking to each other. Why not consider a game of monopoly, a card game or even chatting up?


Consider getting everyone to surrender their phones the next time you have a gathering!

There was also times when I was in the MRT that I witness parents passing their children, some as young as an infant of merely a few months old, their smart phones or smart devices to play with or mingle with in an effort to stop them from throwing a tantrum or making a scene. Is this where our society is heading? Why don't you play a simple game, read a book or give them a toy to play with instead?

We lived our lives based on how "well-liked" we are on our Facebook and Instagram. We are judged on our popularity and ability to influence by an agency or company based on how many followers and fans we have on our social media accounts rather than how much effort, time and dedication we took to craft our post and take amazing shots. Such things are disappointing. As you and I know, likes, fans and followers can all be bought by money, yet this is still the base on how companies judge most of us.

There are even people so obsessed with getting likes that they will be keeping veil by their phones and monitoring the number of likes they get for a particular post/picture which they have posted. Some go all the way to renting branded goods, just for that moment of fame where they get to post the photo online to show off to their friends and perhaps gain a new follower.
On a side note, I was also amazed by how simply my friends can post photographs of children in their school uniforms and other personal information online. Sometimes it is way too much that I choose to "unfriend them" as I get too overwhelmed by their feeds. You don't have to tell everything to the world and show everything to the world.

Watch these 2 videos which reveals how much information people are sharing online. It is guaranteed to freak you out.



This is part 1 of the video showing how an amazing fortune teller reveals information from random strangers they find on the streets. He is 100% accurate. Watch to find out how he knows so much, you can be a fortune teller too.


Watch part 2 of the video showing how one man imposes to be another person, takes over his life and "money".

I will leave you to read about these 2 articles and start thinking about how you would like to reconnect with the society by disconnecting or limiting your relationship with your social channels and smart devices.1. A man who was once a social media "addict" deleted his social media account.

In summary, this man logged out of his Facebook and deleted his twitter app on his mobile phone because of 2 reasons:

1. He was sharing his life on them, wanting to get likes even till he hit an addiction.
2. He was in Singapore and while traveling on the Metro, everyone (about 30 persons) were on their smart phones, the only ones out of it was his girlfriend and himself.

You can read more and in details via:
https://vulcanpost.com/5114/ive-seen-future-singapore-basically-stopped-using-social-media/

2.  A child wrote in an essay topic titled "My Wish" that he wanted to be a smart phone
A teacher after the dinner started checking homework done by the students. Her husband is strolling around with a smart phone playing his favourite game ‘Candy Crush Saga’.

As my site gains more popularity, views and readers, i hope to make more blogger friends, media friends and people from not only the beauty line, food industry and hopefully later even pet industry.

...and counting...

This may be a small number for many, but for a small blogger like me, this is some great acheivement.

I know that running my own business is not easy, especially with so many existing competitiors out there, just like having this beauty and lifestyle blog. I need to dedicate so much time into building something brand new, promoting my business, going for continuous training and upgrading my skills, building both an online and offline presense all over again, which also means sacrifices for time with family, time with friends and time with my blogger friends and fans. This is no joke.. this is hardwork. But, being able to give something back to the society in my very own way, this is worth all my time and effort even if it means no salary for the first few years.


If you have noticed, many online companies have also blossomed in the recent years, one such company is Zalora.sg which I believe many of you are not strangers to. Check out their SK-II beauty kit which they are always having promotion for. You will be pleased to know that they have a 30 days free return policy, offers free delivery for orders above $40 and collects your cash upon delivery, so if you are uncomfortable with a credit card transaction, this is somewhere which you would love to shop. I'll be also collaborating with the popular china websites which I will share with you more later.



Regardless what you are doing now, be it schooling, be it aspiring to be the top in your organization or even being your own boss, I urge you to be daring and chase your dreams.
I am not sure what and how my business will turn out eventually, but I know I have tried my best and I will have no regrets.

I have given up my 8-5 job, and a decent salary for my dreams. I hope that one day i will make it there and be able to share with you my success story.

Be confident,
Be yourself.
Pearly