This is my 10th year at UWCSEA and I have been here since Kindergarten 2. After a decade of being at this school it is time for me to reflect on the past 10 years of my life. These past 10 years have been one heck of a year with the 10 first days of school. From the very first day at UWC, to the first day of middle school and this year, the first day of highschool. I have learnt many lessons which helped me grow as a person. Through the many bad decisions I have made and how I have learnt from them and the bad choices I will make in the future with some being irrelevant and some teaching me life lessons. Going to a school with a strict set rule of values which is still hard to adapt to even after 10 years. I am still young and still growing up which means I still need time to mature and learn from the many things I have done.
So far in my grade 9 year, I have gotten involved in some things which I deeply regret. Through the many talks I have had with teachers, I want to be able to grow into a better person. At the start of the year, to me it was another year like always but when the pressure comes on when it comes to exams and coursework it feels different. Something which I am not used to which really stressed me out and made me make bad choices which eventually lead to talks with teachers. Though this is due to my own time management and this will be used as a learning opportunity. Using these experiences, I am able to learn from my mistakes which will make me a better person and a true UWC student. The 9 years before I moved on to highschool, I stayed out of trouble. Did my best to not to do anything which would negatively impact me and others but somehow this year I just was not thinking.
After multiple talks with teachers, I have been reflecting a lot on the actions I have taken throughout the year. To change I have chosen to tone down the things I say. I always think about what I am going to say and how it will affect others. I have also learnt not to be a bystander when it comes to actions such as bullying, becoming an advocate against bullying. I have instead started to focus on revision to keep my mind off bad things which could potentially spark something negative. I haven’t revised much for any type of test before as I never really had to revise as often as I do for other tests. But I would say this is good practice for future exams. With exams which last up to 2 hours, I would not know how to manage my time with the amount of questions we will have for a 2 hour math exam and the thought of how long to spend on a question with answering it with confidence whilst using my time efficiently. For example, finish the easier questions quickly so I would have time on the harder, longer questions. Due to the fact that this is my first exam, there is a lot of pressure on my shoulder to do well. With my parents expecting results and myself wanting to do well.
Overall, transitioning into a blue shirt from a green shirt was pretty smooth. Though this year has been a real learning experience for me. I remember when the Tampines campus first opened up, I was in third grade with my small light blue shirt. I looked up to the blue shirts and thought to myself ‘I will be there one day.’ Now, where it is almost the end of my grade 9 year, I am still shocked that I have been here for this long. Soon moving on to grade 10 which will be the year of my IGCSE exams. Before I know it I will be wearing a white UWC polo shirt doing my IB exams. Though this is still my first year of highschool, I will be able to learn more from my future mistakes throughout the last 3 years of highschool.