Today i went to visit Auntie Jennifer, my ex English tuition teacher from P5-Sec4. Hahaha i realized that sounds really long. HURHUR wah man 看着我长大 leh.

I still remember there was one year when classes were on Sunday mornings (different timings for different levels) and i really hated to have to wake up early for English tuition, of all things. I got to know Auntie Jennifer through Qianwen, and after starting in P5 i just never stopped, haha.

Anyway, apparently last week my sister went and told her that i got 3As and 1B for my A levels HAHAHAHAHA so today she was heartily congratulating me "WOW YOU HAVE DONE SO WELL!! I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU! :D:D:D" and i was like :| "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Then when i cheerfully corrected her that i got 1A and 3Cs, her face was like :O :| "WHAT HAPPENED?"

Haha wah lau eh actually i think this is the worst thing anyone can ask. "What happened?" It's as if NOT getting 4As is the most impossible thing in the world, and you're eternally condemned after you're certified non-4As.

Note to self: I will not respond with a "What happened?" when i encounter such a situation with someone else. Instead, i shall ask, quoting my grandiloquent pachyderm of a GP teacher, "Are you happy?" As of now, i think that's the best (in all sense) response i can fathom.

So she asked the customary where are you applying to, have you decided what course, etc. And i said "Ah, arts and social sciences! :D" and her face was like :| "WHAT?!" Haii the immediate balking at the notion of "arts and social science" was enough disapproval. HAII. Then i said i am considering philosophy or psychology, and immediately she said "PSYCHOLOGY! Forget about Philosophy please. You can come to my church for philosophy." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA i immediately said "WAH LAU EH!!! *MAKES AN X IN FRONT OF MY CHEST USING MY ARMS* NONONO!" then she ended up laughing at it herself HAHAHA.

But anyway. Haii really, in the eyes of The Adults, philosophy is really that worthless?! Sianz.

Anyway nonetheless i enjoyed talking to her, and today's the first time i'm seeing her in almost 2 years. I went to see her once after Os, and after that even though i sometimes pass downstairs when we drop my sister off for tuition, i never went up.

HAHAHA when i first went into her house today, she was backfacing me so i was walking around trying to get into her sight, and she saw me across the living room, and HAHAHA her face was so... nicely and heartwarming-ly surprised. It was like
Me: :):):) *waves*
Her: :O :D:D:D:D:D
Then she brought that tooth-shaped container which had a hole in the cover, so it looks like a decayed tooth (QW: YES SHE IS STILL USING THAT HAHAHAHA!) which she uses to hold sweets (GREAT PUN) which are meant for sleepy students, and offered me sweets in congratulations for my results. At that time she hadnt realized i got 3Cs instead of 3As.

I was like "HAHAHA wah lau you offer me sweets only?!" then she said "Reminds you of the good old days, right!" Which was very true. Aw...

Stepping into her house again this evening, at 18-coming-to-19 years of age, 2 years since the last time i set foot on her parquet floor and look at her collection of oddities in her display shelves,
and thinking about the 6 years i had spent, 2 hours a week, slogging/discussing/arguing/listening/learning, around that big marble table sitting on her supposedly expensive designer chairs which she will always chide us for rocking/scratching against the table - it was such a wonderfully amazing and fantastic feeling. Somehow at 18 years old, it's still awfully young to reminisce and be all oh-the-good-old-days! But i do really feel like that.

And today looking at my sister's class (Sec 3) and coincidentally i saw my sister take her seat at the usual spot where i used to sit (she wouldnt know where i sat) (HAHA fate? :) ) i really marvel at the work Auntie Jennifer is doing here. Ok admittedly it's still a tuition place basically, but all her stories and philosophies and lecturing and reproaching (she really can scold until people cry ;_;) and subsequently, our experience and growth, are beyond plain tuition.

I wholly agree with this thing that she said today (though, the context in which she said it was to encourage me to take Social Work as my major. Which i have no idea what it is about.) which is something like "It is very meaningful to work with people/lives" Which yah, ok that's true, but EVERYDAY YOU ARE WORKING WITH PEOPLE/INVOLVING YOURSELF IN OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES! Right? Why restrict it to just "Social Work" or "Psychology (she meant it as helping depressed/troubled people)"?

Anyway in retrospect, i wonder if she wondered about the influence she had on her students. She probably did.

Haii teaching... We also briefly talked about it, but (as many people did) she said it like my results were so bad, then "Ok, just go to NIE,"
I raise 2 points in contention-
1) WHY IS TEACHING SUCH A BAD THING?!
2) it's ironic that Bad Results -> go NIE -> BE A TEACHER -> teach students
-> students with Good Results -> be lawyer/doctor
-> students with Bad Results -> GO NIE
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Anyway i did ask her outright "You say it as if teaching is such a bad thing! *looks pointedly at her, the Tuition Teacher*" and she replied "Yah! It is! But i enjoy doing it," Hm is there a deeper meaning in here somewhere?

Hai anyway wow i've written much longer than i anticipated. But i write in a very messy and incoherent manner, right. Shit it. This is so not helpful for Uni Apps Essay standard.

All in all, it's scary but at the same time amazing, to think about the infinite number of choices and paths in our lives, and how with 1 decision/choice, affect the cascade of consequences and how at that amazing fateful tangential point, you cross path with someone else. And when you enter someone's life and reciprocally them into yours, both of you are changed, forever.

Actually the infinite opportunities with eternal possibilities are scaring the shit out of me.

No one can make "The Right Choice", because there isnt one.