Day Tripper:

(written at 1401hours)

"I'm on the bus, alone. Thinking about college and grades and my utter lack of motivation to ameliorate my current academic standing. I really do not have the drive.

Now, I'm not sure if I'm finally evolving into one of them apathetic Singaporean teenagers. I'm afraid I might be. And that word is just one letter away from what might become if I go on at this rate.

There is a boy across the aisle from Tao Nan primary. There is something distinctly striking about the way he swaggered down the aisle looking for a seat despite being roughly 1.3metres tall. He, like me, is alone and proud owner of a schoolbag twice his body size. He, unlike me, is having an animated chat with the empty seat beside him.

Unless its an encounter with the supernatural, I do believe he is lamenting about school life to himself.

He proves to be an entertaining distraction. I watch him as he rambles to himself about the new English teacher reprimanding him for undone homework. He even mimics her at one point! Bordering on insanity, this poor poor boy.

So I'm wondering, is this really what education does to you? On one hand you have me, the stoic college student incapable of feeling for anything that doesn't pertain directly to myself. On the other land, him, the young and overly-stressed, so much such that he'd probably land up in a mental asylum by thirteen having clearly already lost his marbles at ten.

"THIS IS SO MUCH WORK TO DO..." he declares, causing a ripple of head-turning in his direction. And he trails off sighing while flipping the page of a battered science textbook with contempt in his young, bespectacled, hopelessly Singaporean face.

I'm not being discrimatory. It's just that typical Singaporeans have a Face, especially in bad situations. The look basically screams 'I'M KIASU AND IM STRESSED AND I'M DYING FROM MY TROUBLES IN LIFE THAT INCLUDE THE GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION AND HOW OUR COUNTRY IS SO BORING'. Yes, that is the face.

Passing Marine Parade road. I'm sad and amused. But at least he's a worthy interruption from my reflecting about grades. This is the problem with being in a class full of brilliant people. You can't help but feel insignificantly backward and an academic joke.

We just passed a banner that hung on a roadside fence, saying 'SELLERY'. I sincerely hope that it was meant to be a bad pun. Ha, ha."