So there I was in my new secondary school, Victoria School. Remember the KFC restaurant my Primary 4 teacher brought me to? Well, the restaurant is right in front of the bus stop near my school! I made it a point to save enough to buy a small mashed potato every Friday before boarding the bus home. Yes, saving for a simple mashed potato. Yes, simple yet satisfying for me. Gratitude was just that simple for me. You would realize soon that finance stability was still an issue in the family.
Anyway, let me just share with you more about my new school. Although I was posted to Victoria, my aggregate was one of the lowest in my cohort. I was just 4 points above the cut off point. Therefore, you could imagine my struggle in Victoria, competing with the smarter peers.
However, it was not the academic excellence that I achieved in Victoria. It was the character that I was developed and becoming a stronger person and leader. I even became stronger physically. What I did not mention in my earlier chapters was the fact that I was severely asthmatic and had to see a doctor very frequently. I was even admitted into hospital once when I was in Primary One. However, I was eventually cured after going through routine swimming lessons in school since Primary 4. So finally, there I was in my secondary school ready to get myself roughen up in sports.
My Secondary 1 Form Teacher was a Physical Education teacher. So naturally, he was very concern about our physical health. He was also a teacher who took our character development very seriously. I remembered that there was once when he kept the whole class back after dismissal to reprimand us for leaving the classroom in a mess after our last period. For not leaving the matter till the next day, it speaks a lot about his concern with our character development.
During one PE lesson, he made us run a few rounds and timed us. He then selected 20 of us to represent the school in the Inter-Class Cross Country Run. Wow! I was selected to represent my class in a run? That was never in my imagination. My teacher then told us to meet him at MacRitchie Reservoir every Sunday morning to train for the competition. His training method was really unorthodox. He would help us to safe-keep our wallets while we ran the competition route. He would also "threaten" us that if we did not reach the finishing point before his stipulated time, he would leave with our wallets. We would then have to walk home! Of course that never happened and he was always there waiting for us.
Finally, the day arrived for us to compete against the other 9 classes. My objective was quite simple, run my best and complete the race. With the sounding of the horn, we were off. Cross country run was tough as it was not only about your stamina but also your mental strength to keep telling yourself not to give up during the run. I must admit that my stamina was definitely not as good as others. My canvas shoes were not even close to many branded sports shoes other runners were wearing. However, mental strength was what I have. So I kept running. After overtaking one runner, I tried to focus overtaking the next one. Eventually, I reached the finishing line, coming in 58th out of the 200 runners. Our class came in overall 2nd and I received my first team sports medal of my life!
Just to fast forward a little, this little achievement motivated me to train even harder the following year. Although our Form Teacher was not around to train us anymore, I was trying my best to lead my Secondary 2 class (in my capacity as the class monitor) to try our very best in the run. Although we did not win any team award, I improved to 27th individually! Hey! If I were to train even harder, I might even squeeze into Top 20!
So I trained even harder in Secondary 3. I ran around my neighborhood 3 times a week. Yes, you guessed it, I came in 18th individually and I received my 1st individual sports medal!
Looking back, this really showed the meaning behind our school motto "Nil Sine Labore", a Latin phrase for "Nothing Without Labour". It also taught me that mental strength was so powerful that it would help me achieve many challenges ahead of me.
Nil Sine Labore
YOU ARE READING
Nothing To Lose
Non-FictionIf we realise that we came to this world with nothing, then perhaps every gain would be sweet and every loss would not be so painful.perhaps that's the secret to happiness.
