Welcome.

HAHA time to revive my dead blog, though I am not sure hw many people will actually notice. But well, the point of a blog ain't exactly for people to read right?

One of the main reasons why I decided to post again is really because of the influence from my dad. I think that we don't express or share our ideas often enough, such that we limit the development of our minds. I am glad my that classmates, especially John and Sundheep, share interesting points of views that often challenge conventional thinking. For example, how Sundheep would fight for the rights of rich people when it is much more popular to fight on the side of the poor. And John, he is always questioning the rationale behind why we do things. I think the girls in my class can attest to that.

I don't know how much people actually care about the other things that happen in life, other than just about academics and the people that matter to them. Like how many people care deeply enough about class unity, school spirit and even patriotism that they would strive to make an impact, to change things for the better. A case in point is really my class, of which around half are foreigners. I am sure any socially aware classmate of mine can feel the gulf between them and us, the locals. But who has stepped up to take concrete action to integrate them with our social groups? I can remember myself trying to do that once, during the class chalet, where I had asked some of the foreigners to come help barbecue instead of just sitting around in their own groups.

That is definitely not sufficient, and I admit that I have not done enough too. My father actually suggested that someone should actually take up the role of the leader of the group of locals in our class and work together closely with the leader of the group of foreigners so that our groups can be more closely bonded. This would be way better than the few discrete efforts that we would have put up, but I doubt we have the motivation to make it work.

On the other hand, if someone whom we all respect recognises and takes on this problem seriously, there might be a chance that we would become more bonded as a class. The one person that I am thinking of is our mentor. I disagree with some of his actions because they show that he either doesn't bother to include the foreigners more, or he doesn't have the vision to create a more united class. When he was pleading with our class to buy tickets for the combined performing arts concert, he only arrowed at the Singaporeans, sparing the foreigners the guilt trip that we were put through. Won't this reinforce the idea that the foreigners don't need to care about school life or class unity?

But that is not to say that my mentor isn't a good and nice person. In fact, I really appreciate how he has handled our testimonials and personal statements. In expecting to develop leaders and thinkers however, exemplary role models must exist. Role models with a strong sense of justice, who display their idealism and personality vividly, will inspire many students to strive to emulate them. Being surrounded by people who are just decent, people who lack ambitions and ideas, will only influence us to be good, but not great, people. Now in integrating the foreigners with the rest of our class, who is our role model?

Some might deride me, saying that if I can think of all this, why don't I do it myself? I frequently find that in this kind of situations, I need to be enabled somehow, mostly by people agreeing and supporting me. It's really far from the ideal case where one steps up for whatever he believes in, but I guess that I am just not daring enough (yet). I wonder what the rest of my classmates think about this issue, but then again we are going to have our second last day as a class tomorrow.