The Summer Holidays 2012 review

School has finally started, and it is ironic to say that it could perhaps be my high level of motivation which could bring my learning career to a standstill. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as "Over-studying", which is what I have done for the past few days. The school doesn't release much homework and the student therefore relies on their own self-motivation to study. As a result, there is a huge gap in my year group of highly motivated pupils and poorly motivated students. However, I am fortunate enough to be in participation with a year group very highly motivated and competitive. Knowing that this school is child's play compared to Singapore, I knew that I had to study hard to even compare with the students found in Singapore. And Singapore isn't even on top of the world in terms of education! I knew that I had to study hard to be able to at least get into a decent school or university course of my desire. However, my endless studying has led me to the deterioration of the other aspects of this life that I used to enjoy such as sports and friendships. I know that I must be able to balance these aspects out eventually, however at the moment, this is the conflict that I am facing that I will have to resolve; to be able to manage my time accordingly and to not just re-allocate my time into studying. (Time-onomics?) Anyway I digress...

Hopefully the impression I am implying onto you from reading my blog posts weekly is that I am considered by many as an individual characterised by great knowledge and one of which all should look upon. However, this is merely the picture which I wish to display onto my readers. I am not always so. I am only human my dear readers, and as such I do make mistakes and do have my faults. One of which is not being able to keep up with my promises (as you can see if you keep up with my "Updated Every Tuesday!" promise which I try my best to fulfill, much to my disappointment). What one promise that I am about to fulfill today is the task of evaluating the objectives that I have set myself for the duration of the summer holidays. I am about to go through these now. I hope that I have completed, at the very least, half of what I have decided to do, although I remain skeptical.

• Swim regularly,

I should really have tried to be more specific on this case. Me, being more of a rational thinker and more of an analyst compared to the writer of the past (I hope most of you realise that with every second that passes, you start to learn more things and start to think more critically. As a result, 8 weeks has allowed me to be of more knowledge than my 8 week younger self), I am able to find a loophole in this resolution. What does "regularly" imply? My younger self has also failed to consider the possibilities that I will be leaving the country, of which swimming will be not possible due to the climate or due to the fact that there is no area to swim at all. However, I have accomplish this objective, despite the overly vague language used, as I have only swam a total of 3 times during the holidays.

• Trying my luck at tennis,

This I have managed to do, with at least 5 lessons during the holidays. I have, in this sense "tried my luck at tennis". Whether or not I will continue participating in the sport is another matter altogether.

• Going to the Gym more often,

This I have not done due to fears of growth abnormalities due to prolonged workouts at the gym. However, I do work out at home in the form of push-ups, which unfortunately only strengthen a certain area of the body and not the rest.

• Finishing the non-fiction book that I have been neglecting for a long time, 

Failed. Time constraints.

• Reading all of the Sherlock Holmes book series, unaltered and the series originally written by Arthur Conan Doyle,

This I have done part of, as I have finished half of his works. I will have to find the book containing the other half of a combination of his works. However, I remember specially that I had only implied that I wish to finish the first edition of the book holding HALF the collections of his works, although I seemed to have expressed it wrongly. Therefore in this case, I have accomplished this.

• Selling back all the Xbox games that I have finished at the best price possible,

Done, best price or not is subjective.

• To start running more regularly and

Failed due to my everlasting laziness.

• Checking with the news more regularly to keep up with current affairs.

This I have done, although some of the news featured during the holidays were boring enough to put you to sleep, with perhaps the exception of the potential discovery of the Higgs Boson Particle.

Therefore as you can see, I am not half the man I paint when I write in this blog. I too have my faults and these are only the small things that I have which are wrong with me. What wrong I have done on a more profound level I will keep to myself. Hopefully this will give you a slight insight as to the imperfect person I really am, despite how perfect we all try to be in this society.

Cheers,
Matthew Tan