2) Favouritism.

Laughter and merry conversations filled the dining room as everyone was waiting for the food to be served. While her most of her daughter-in-laws were in the kitchen, busy preparing the last dish, my aunt was fussing over every little detail.

“Don’t be a fool,” yelled the matriarch. “Who would serve the soup in such a plain bowl on this important occasion?”

Nodding their heads as they hastily correct their mistake, my cousin-in-laws did not dare to look at my aunt in the eye. After a minute of checking the food, my aunt nodded her head with approval. As their mother-in-law was out of kitchen, my cousin-in-laws heaved a sigh of relief.

The sight of my cousin-in-laws rushing to serve the food to the rest of the family made my heart ache. Smiling while the food was served, my aunt turned and asked her daughter-in-law, Ying, “Is everything to your liking?”

Obviously contented by the amount of attention my aunt had given to her, Ying returned a picture perfect smile.

Everyone had gathered to celebrate the first month of Ying’s baby boy. Unlike my other cousin-in-laws, Ying was the first to deliver a male child – the family jewel.

As my aunt kept placing the best bits of every dish in Ying’s bowl, the expressions on the rest of my cousin-in-laws darkened. This sight made me feel uneasy. Oblivious of the fact that the rest of my cousin-in-laws hated her and my aunt, Ying ate the food placed on her bowl delightfully.

Throughout the meal, the dark expressions across the table made me wonder about my aunt’s actions.

“When will favouritism tear the family apart?”

5) DISAPPOINTMENT

It was three o'clock in the afternoon. I woke up and I realised that I was running late for my lessons in school. I quickly dressed up and rushed to school. When I reached school, history lesson has already started. I was punished by my history teacher for being late for class. He sent me out of the class and told me to copy the whole textbook. I was very upset of this punishment as I was only late for a minute. My classmates were laughing at me for being punished. I was often bullied by my classmates. For the one hour lesson, I was busy copying the history textbook. Soon the history lesson ended, I handed up my work and went for my recess.

I was walking to the canteen. I was walking through the school’s garden. My school was famous of its garden because it was beautifully decorated with plants and it also had a very large pond with fishes living in it. I quickly walked through. Suddenly, I felt a force from the back, I lost my balance and fell into the pond. I was struggling to stand up as the pond was very deep. I could see fishes and tadpoles swimming beside me. I finally stood up, I saw hundred pairs of eyes looking at me. Some were laughing at me and some was worried about me. I was very angry, I was suspecting that the person that pushed me could be still in the crowd. I looked around and I saw the bullies from my class. I was sure that it was them that pushed me into the pond as they were laughing extremely loudly. I went to the toilet to get myself washed and dried.

After that I went to the general office to make a complaint of the bully incident, I told the principal what happened to me and he promised that he would punish the bullies. But the principal did not seem to care about the bully case. He told me that he was still investigating the case. But weeks after weeks, I did not see anybody getting punished and I was not informed of any updates of the case. I went to ask the principal to see what he had done. To my disappointment, he was not able to find out who were the students that pushed me into the pond. I was very disappointed and upset about the incident. Other students were still laughing at me for falling into the pond.

Success

Alot of times, when we hear that someone has been successful in life, we often think in business terms, thst he or she has probably attained a big form of wealth, or honours or positions. Yet, materialistic things are not nearly as important when it comes to gauging your level of success. To be successful in life, one needs to be happy to the extent that there is no obstacle that one cannot overcome, and is willing to spread his or her happiness to as many people as possible. there are so many 'successful' people in life nowadays, yet they all seem either unhappy or selfish or both, and all their hard earned materialism their only source of comfort. For example, Man United striker Wayne Rooney caused his wife so much distress when it became publicly known that he cheated on her. While he may have been a successful footballer, he has failed as a husband. Thus, even if one has been successful in one part of their lives, is does not equate to success in life. So, what is the secret to success?

Firstly, we must strive for excellence in all areas of our life. Be it working life, academics, or health, we must try to do the best we can. And to do this, we must adopt the mentality that excellence is not an act, it is a habit. Even if we fail, we cannot stop trying until we succeed. A great man once said: " We are what we repeatedly do." And indeed, many of the great successes you see today have gone through repeated failures and still come out of it strong. For example, Steve Jobs, king of Apple, was a school drop out, and was fired.Yet he is now a multi millionaire today because he has never stopped striving for excellence.

Secondly, we must learn to be modest. Very often, successful people are in awe of their own successes and start taking things for granted. By being modest, we learn to not be swallowed up by our own success and thus learn to cherish the things that are important to us.

Thirdly, we must find the time to do the things we like and enjoy ourselves. This is to counterbalance the negative effects of striving for excellence. There are many people out there who lose time for themselves because they are constantly pushing for materialistic things. Long working hours, overseas business ventures, all this stop people from truly taking time out for themselves and their loved ones.

Question 5 :dissapointment

Life has never been easy. Just when you thought that you have had enough, life pours and rain down on you. even  more. Nelson Mandela had once quoted,"After climbing great hills, one only finds that there are many more great hills to climb." All of us have gone through ups and downs in life. More often than not, through all the ups and downs, we encounter many disappointing and heartbreaking moments. I came to realised this fact when I tried my hardest to achieve a particular goal and ended up still being disappointed.

One of the example could be taken from my school Co-Curricular Activity (CCA). My friend and I hold a high post in our CCA, and with greater power comes greater responsibility. In addition, both my friend and I adore the CCA that we are in. Hence, we set high standards for the members and expect them to meet the standards. Although we know that humans are not perfect and never will be, we still get heartaches and disappointments when they just refuse to meet the expectations set for them. Many would say that the expectations that we set for them are too high. However, we disagree as it is to prepare the members for greater future challenges and to bring the cca group to greater heights.

Another example could also be taken from our studies. Have you ever tried studying so hard for a test or exam, staying up late at night to burn the midnight oil? However, when you get back you test or exam paper, you get a stab of annoyance and defeat? I'm sure many of us have experienced it before. I, for one have tasted the bitter pill. We are not the only one setting the standards for ourselves and others, our parents and teachers are also doing the same. When we fail to match up to their expectations, we disappoint them and a wave of discouragement just washes over us.

Although all the above disappointments are mentioned, it can also be a good thing to experience them. Through all the setbacks that people and life throw at us, we may break down and cry. But tears are said to be sharpening tools that shape and make us wiser and stronger. As we grow stronger, we would be able to move pass all the setbacks and continue learning and persevering till we reach our other goals.

1)Rivalry.

We had been good friends. We grew up together, going through everything that mattered to us most at that time. We had confided in our problems to each other, never hiding any secrets from the other. However, everything changed after we entered secondary school.

At the start of the school year, we had remained good friends, always sticking to the other, never going anywhere with anyone else. Before the start of the exams, we studied together, asking each other questions when in doubt. After the exam, when the results came out, I saw that I scored a grade lower than her for every single subject.

I was disappointed.

I had laughed it off as something that did not matter. However, I was burning with determination inside for I possessed a competitive streak by nature and refused to acknowledge my loss. I had never scored lower than her in any subject. It was alright if I scored lower than anyone else; she was the only one that mattered.

Before the end-of-year examinations, I studied harder than ever, determined to score higher than her. When the results came out, I was euphoric. I was ranked the second in my class. I went to her and asked excitedly about her results, only to find out that she was ranked first. My smile dropped instantaneously.

I had tried harder than ever in the next exam, driven by the thought of scoring better than her. I succeeded. I had gotten a better grade than her. However, I had let the thought of my success overrule my common sense, making me irrational enough to gloat about my results to her, totally disregarding her feelings. Over the past year, I had my life focused wholly on scoring higher than her, causing the friendship that we have built up over the years to deteriorate rapidly in the span of months. My words had triggered the breakdown of our already extremely fragile relationship, becoming a catalyst in the transition of our friendship to rivalry.

We had been good friends. I had truly believed that we would remain as such for the rest of our lives. I had never thought that a moment of folly of mine would eventually lead to our current love-hate relationship. I would see her unhappy sometimes, wanting to comfort her, my body would unconsciously move towards her, only to have a hateful glare thrown back at me. I would ask myself, ' Was it really worth it?'

Ang Sue Li -4A

Disappointment

I buttoned up my jacket and looked myself in the mirror for the last time. I was satisfied with what I saw. The day had finally arrived. Even within the confines of the dressing room, I could hear the faint roar of the audience each time the contestants stepped on the stage. Then, I took a sip of water and left the dressing room.

Standing behind the curtains, I could feel the excitement building up inside me. After hearing another round of applause and the ear piercing screams, I heard the host announcing my name. It was my turn to perform. I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the curtain.

Half of the audience stood up, screamed and cheered for me. I was overjoyed with the audiences’ response; thus, I greeted them, thanked them for their support and waved my arm vigorously at them.

Suddenly, I felt the beginnings of a nervousness that I had never felt before and when I stroked the first note of the song on my guitar, my hands began trembling. My entire body was breaking out in sweat and this was the worst case of stage fright that ever happened to anyone. I had forgotten on what to play on my guitar and I got no choice but to back away from this Talentime competition.

I was utterly disappointed in myself as I had spent much time preparing this competition and just because of my stage fright, I had to back out from the competition. I got nobody to blame but myself.

success

Study, study, study. These words flashed through the mind of the sixteen year-old Adrinna. She had taken up the triple science combination ever since she was secondary 3, since then she has been studying day and night. She dreamed of being like her mother who got 9 A1s in secondary school and went on to an elite Junior College where she was invited to study in Cambridge University. She wanted to be as successful as her mother.

Adrinna had locked herself away from society, she had no friends in school. Long gone were the days where she would spend time with her friends after school hours and mingle around in the canteen. Now she would always be rushing home in order to revise on the subjects for the next day. It was 4 months away from her O levels and she had already finished revising on all her subjects, however this was not enough for her, she wanted to study every single resource she was able to lay her hands on. She wanted to be the top in her whole cohort, she wanted to be flashed all over news as one of the top o level students. Hooked on studying, she sunk her head into the book every night till an ungodly hour. Eye bags had shaded the bottom of her eyes causing all the students in her school to be frightened by her looks.

It was 3 months away from her o levels when adrinna was in full gear, burning all her holidays in order to brush up and remove any loopholes in her studies. The teachers in her school were all frightened by her. She would often beg the teacher to give more homework in order that she could revise more, sometimes even kneeling on the floor as though she was going to die if she did not receive any work. She normally skipped meals in order to replace with study time. This caused her to grow skinnier by day and by the end of the 3rd month she had reduced herself to skin and bones.

2 more months were left before her examination. Adrinna had found out a solution in order to be able to counter the problem of wasting time. She now stayed up every night, studying non stop, having only little intervals of sleep. She had now neglected the very source of her daily energy and was on the road to being anorexia. Her mother would often leave food outside her bedroom door waiting for her to consume her meal. However only once a week would she then open her door in order to eat her food before slamming the door and continue with hours of study.

1 month was all that stood between her and her dreams now. Sleep deprived and malnourished, she still continued with her constant hours of mugging. She had also found a further solution to her time wastage. she would now skip trips to the lavatory in order to help her safe more time to study, her room was filled with the smell of shit and pee. Her parents did not dare to go near her as she would normally shout at them for wasting her time, instead they stored a camera in her room in order to monitor her. Whenever her parents talked to her, she would go into a fit and started smashing furniture. By 3 weeks she never appeared outside her house. By 2 weeks she never stepped out of her room. By 1 week she went mentally crazy.

Adrinna was successful in the end, she scored straight A1s for all her subjects and now even entered an even better Junior college than her mother went to. She finally was successful in being able to achieve the goal of going to Cambridge University.Adrinna had tasted the sweetness of success, but the road to success had also taken it's toll on her. There she was, lying on the bed in a ward between the walls of singapore general hospital. She was admitted in as she was too overly food deprived and mentally unstable. Adrinna had not seen this coming towards her, she now had to stay admitted for the next six months. This meant that she would not be able to attend school. Adrinna was so indulged in being successful that she neglected her body, hence this caused her to suffer even more. Now all that flashed through her mind was: was it worth it all?