Saturday, March 30, 2013
Here it Goes Again
So today I opened my mail to find (surprise surprise) more rejection letters! - Like 5 of them. (YAY)
Anyway I must admit this whole rejection thing starts to get a little easier after a while.
Which is not to say that I actually feel good about it now. But at least after struggling for so many months simply waiting for the universities to get back to me it allows me to have (i guess) closure in the sense. I no longer need to harbor hope for a particular spot in that particular school. Still it's kind of a sucky feeling.
You know what's the funny thing? I'm starting to realize rejection letters all tell you the same thing:
This year we have had a record number of applicants - the highest we've ever had - and so we have had the difficult choice of turning away thousands of worthy if not capable young individuals.
Really now? One Uni telling me that okay maybe I'll still believe you but to have every single university say that it's starting to come off a little fake to me. RECORD NUMBER? It's like a freaking baby boom happened in my year over the entire planet or something. (okay, calm down)
Then there's always the second bit which goes like :
Please do not take this as a judgement of your ability or potential but rather of the great pool of talent we have had this year. Which if you think about it, actually makes you feel a whole lot better. Yeah, right.
My mother was extremely sympathetic about this. She told me to trust that these people have been doing it for years and they would should know what kind of students would be suitable to that particular course. I always feel that they're looking out for the same kind of students though - those with straight As. Hey take them in surely if they can do everything well, they'll be able to do the course well too. (i'm starting to sound like a grumpy old man here) But in all truth I really hope my mum is right in that.
Maybe our education system isn't a single goal. Maybe it's merely a means to an end. Often I've got so caught up in school that I forget that school is a part of my life as opposed to school being my life. Think of it as a sift. And we're like...flour if you will. We use it so separate the bad parts of flour out (lumps, etc) but in the end you realize you'll still use the whole batch of flour. It's just that some needs extra moulding such that they fit through the sift to be as useful as the others who have already passed through. (Geez, i feel so deep sometimes) That's of course assuming that everyone conforms to the system - which they don't.
So I can genuinely say I am proud to be a part of Singapore education system. I may not be at the top of it but at least I know there are nets to catch me when I do slip-up. I'm not made like the creme de la creme of Singapore. I can't push out information at the right time and I often do not write on things that many find interesting or even thought-provoking enough. I'm average in that sense. But what Singapore offers me is a chance to be the best average person I can be. (Admittedly, that sounded a lot better in my head.) I mean, come to think of it, I applaud the government for being brave enough to set up a sports school, an arts school, branching students into different streams to better suit their interests and pace (JC/Poly, N(A), N(T), Express, Special). I used to think that dividing a society based on their ability to excel academically was the dumbest thing one could do. I've finally seen it now.
They do this so that we will have the chance to excel at what we can do best at. (Geez, that was a mouthful) So really when it comes down to it, though I sometimes detest the education system, I am grateful for what it offers all the same.
Mona ♥
Saturday, March 30, 2013
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