GPS

I think that GPS Cebu has really helped me to grow.

Not just physically but mentally and spiritually. Through this journey in GPS I think I've discovered what I want to do in life and what I hope to pursue as a career. I am very drawn to the idea of going into academia and maybe becoming a teacher.

From my family upbringing, parents being Professors for years, I always knew that I wanted to go into an academic field. I've seen the passion and love my parents have for the fields that they are in and the willingness that they have to share that passion with others has always inspired me. But having to sit through education in a normal or as we like to call it in SOTA "mainstream" school, I found that this sort of passion was almost never embodied in any of my primary school teachers. Safe for a few english teachers that inspired me greatly to read and write in english, most of my other subject teachers treated the profession like any other 9 to 5 job. They would come in, teach, give homework and leave. They wouldn't get to know us as kids, much less as people, they wouldn't even interact with us outside of school. This was the same trend I witnessed when all of my other team-mates presented on their unhappy times in primary school. Which left me questioning the purpose and roles of a teacher, and when I was younger, I used to be very upset by it.

I've always felt that as teachers, it is not merely getting a job done, but they have the futures in the palms of their hands. It used to anger me when teachers would blatantly not care about the student's wellbeing when words are being said. Granted that sometimes students do try to step over the teachers, I think that kids, primary school kids in particular, should be treated with a lot more care. This, of course, isn't just limited to only the domain of teaching, but rather how we treat the people around us. We may want to get things done, and strive purely for the tangible results, but in a sense we ignore the people around us. We ignore that the people that we have around us are still people at the end of the day; and people should be treated with love and respect even when they sometimes do not deserve it.

I'm very glad to say that the disillusionment and perhaps even anger at teachers and friends has been quelled. During GPS Cebu, I've had the privilege to be a part of this team, but I am especially grateful to have been led by and taught by, very amazing teachers who have taught valuable lessons, very selflessly. To me, it was very heartening to see the same teachers, whom I felt very distant from share deeply with us. To know that they did trust us with some of their most personal memories and believed in us despite us failing and not being the best we possibly could be.

That is what I aspire to be, not a teacher specifically but someone who loves and can love as deeply as these people have. I want to be someone who shares ideas with others, teaching them as I learn from them too.

I found this comic on Tumblr that really encapsulates why I really respect teachers in their own right. I don't think that it should be limited to teachers alone but the passion for the profession is what I really want to have when I graduate and get a job. I don't want to be in a job that just pays well, but one that I am passionate about.

Because that is what I think is the most important at this point in time, not necessarily tangible material results, but the more important ones of care and love.

“Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy.” - Dean Koontz

I think that this quote from Dean Koontz summarizes my view on school right now. I know that I may not be the best academically, with the best grades or match up to the standards of a model student. But I ultimately want to be someone who loves other people and inspires that same love irregardless.

 

This is why I am very grateful for the opportunity that I have had to study in SOTA and have a different view of education than most Singaporeans. With the skills that I learn and the diploma that I am working towards, I hope that I can finish university and give back to the places that I have learnt from. Hopefully I can too inspire those around me too.