A brief Memoir Part I

Seem to have taken an unplanned hiatus on blogging...

Have just run out of material I guess...or out of enthusiasm...

But anyway here I am - appreciating another day when I don't need to think about school stuff. Guess that's why I like to get away so much. Like in another country, one's not tied down to anything and can simply cast aside all worrisome thoughts to really live in the present (and Taiwan beckons...=)).

Been contemplating a lot lately...about my state of life, about what could lie ahead. I mean, I'm fast approaching the big 25. Nice time to do a review of what I've accomplished in a quarter of a century here in this world. What to include in case I do manage to get my memoirs written (haha). So here goes...i'm just gonna write whatever comes to mind...

Part I - The childhood years

An unfortunate aspect of this segment is that I really can't recall much of my childhood years. I'm not like some friends who can remember with startling clarity incidents in primary school or even early childhood. All I have are brief snatches of certain events that have somehow embedded themselves in my substandard memory bank. I can remember being in the total control of a classmate while in kindergarten - following whatever she did and whatever she commanded me to do. Vaguely remember meeting her a few years after that and scarcely greeting each other. Guess we were not what you would call friends.

My mum, like so many other moms, took me to drawing and piano classes. The latter I gave up after a short while coz I didn't like the other student whom I envied endlessly for being better than me. I progressed better with drawing, even winning second prize in a drawing competition in some mall and getting this set of Polly Pocket toys which are still in my possession. I can't draw stuff from scratch but I think I copy rather well.

Primary school was where I was being, in common parlance, an overachiever (have never identified with this term really, I mean, if they say that the human potential is limitless, then why are there such terms in existence? Me thinks it's just sour grapes). I got good grades and had no problems pushing myself to do well or to do better than my peers. So I did everything under the sun but steered clear of outdoor stuff, a feat which I repeated in secondary school. Memorable events include winning a Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Award for this wooden structure known as the "Super Duper Wet-Shoe Hanger". Hahaha. It was my mother's idea, actually, but the kids got the credit.

I thrived on entering competitions back then. Storytelling, poetry recitation, essay writing, drawing, skits, performances. I think I needed that kind of affirmation to assure myself of my self-worth among my peers. I was, you see, an insecure kind of person who suffered from an incurable inferiority complex which still surfaces now and then.

To be continued...