Shannon Today

Haha, I have been scrolling down to see my old posts and they were funny and immature but they do remind me of who I was. I wrote about wanting to join Krav Maga in year 1(but didn't) and interestingly I briefly joined it for a few months in year 3. I wrote about attending the 1st funeral of someone close to me but now I have had a couple more experiences. I wrote about missing Happy Lemon and R Burger but unfortunately even Wendy's closed down in Singapore, what more of my youth is left behind? Well I did not write that "electric hermit" comic and I did not make any posts in 2014. Now it is nearing the end of 2015 and I'm 19 years old.

So so so many things happened and so so so many things changed. I just had my Napfa yesterday and thankfully I passed. I did much worse for my pushups and situps than I usually do, 34 and 32 respectively. The instructor was super strict and keep minusing my points and i thought about giving up and doing it another day after these bad results. However I prayed a lot and thank God I ran much better than my usual timing, my best timing in the past month was 12:30+ but my timing for Napfa was 12:16, this saved me as I passed the standard of 61 points by getting 63 points. I am saved from extra 2 months in NS!

Wow since the last post, I did a lot alot of things, I met my Mentor and did a whole bunch of industry work and with my FYP I plan to master western design. And one day perhaps I can be the best in balancing western and eastern design. One day my struggles of shooting everyday and having restricted freedom would pass and I would become a more mature and a more tough designer, maybe as strong as a cactus.

The reason why nothing was written in 2014 was because it was my busiest year, it was very very tough but I pulled through and this bring a tiny tear in my heart as I am alittle proud of myself for surviving through it. Was I human? I had 5 hours of Japanese class, 4 hours of theatre classes, freelance work, early internship work and like 5-6 modules with some SPOT modules that are harder than average students and on top of that I spent alot of time as the committee member in Japanese Cultural Club and planning activities for the low income kids.
Sometimes when you want something so bad you do not get it and once you let go slightly it comes to you. Despite being so busy, I obtained grades good enough to be the top student, receiving an award for it. I am super thankful and this has to be with the help of God's blessings and divine intervention.

There are still some things that I really want so badly but I can only be patient and try my best. These days I am losing motivation despite it being my FYP. I should cheer myself on so that I will be inspired when I read this in the future, perhaps I should even read it out every morning:
Beat your seniors and be the true hip hop design soul!! Keep your nails clean and exercise a lot, remember to eat a lot of protein and take weights!! Be calm and confident and eloquent like Kururuni Yuni and Leon Jay Willilams!!! Wow I am reading out of motivational words... Be that man Shannon!!Wow, this is like my diary..

It was such a memorable exeperience even though it had been so cringeworthy, I guess I was too confident about myself and I didnt act like I should I need to learn more..It was a scary event, my 1st one actually. Haha I guess I went pass my first hurdle in that aspect.

There are so many little mini memories here and there that are mildy sweet like my time in the Summer festival and meeting great Japanese classmates like Amos.

Well recently I was nominated to try out for the SP Model student award but that is not important, the important thing is that they made me write some snippets of my life and I should include it below as it is still a part of my memory, it is written in 3rd person cause I am supposed to do that:

Snippet 1:
Shannon is the CIP-in-charge for his CCA, SP Japanese Cultural club where they plan and conduct activities with children from low-income and single parent families. There were a group of 3 boys who were very active, rowdy and badly-behaved and caused a lot of trouble and cries from each session. Shannon consistently would take them out, squat down, hold their hands and try to explain to them what is right, however it was still very difficult to get them to change their behaviour long-term. At the end of the year, special prizes was prepared and given to the most well-behaved children, however Shannon went to prepare packs of special edition paper airplane sets for the 3 boys since they mentioned about it previously before, and he also hand-wrote a letter to each of them about "how a real man should not be easily get angry". Surprisingly, the 3 boys had specific improvements in behaviour and whether or not it is because of the letter, Shannon was glad about their improvements. He still regularly attends and teach the next generation of CIP-in-charge about how to run the program despite completing his time as a committee member and already achieving Gold with Honours for his CCA points.

Snippet 2:
Shannon has participated in a competition held jointly by the Japan Embassy in Singapore and the Singapore Embassy in Japan. He effectively put his Japanese knowledge he obtained from his CCA and languages classes to use in creating a meaningful logo to celebrate the 50 years of diplomatic relations with Japan. After being chosen as the finalist, he had the honour to attend the award ceremony which was attended by the other finalists, the Ambassador of Japan and other important people such as the CEO of Canon. He managed to boldly attempt to hold a conversation in Japanese with the Japan Ambassador, putting his skills to use and practicing his confidence.

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Well thats about it, what more can I say? The next time I post something may be years later, I hope I dont forget my burning dreams of my youth. The Shannon at the stage loved Hip Hop, loved Design, has little bit ego(really needs to be humble), and is a little bit lonely.