11 March 2011

A Song I'm listening to


Glee Cast - Hello Lyrics
I’ve been alone with you inside my mind
And in my dreams I’ve kissed your lips a thousand times
I sometimes see you pass outside my door
Hello, is it me you’re looking for?
I can see it in your eyes
I can see it in your smile
You’re all I’ve ever wanted, (and) my arms are open wide
Cause you know just what to say
And you know just what to do

And I want to tell you so much, I love you …
I long to see the sunlight in your hair
And tell you time and time again how much I care
Sometimes I feel my heart will overflow
Hello, I’ve just got to let you know
‘Cause I wonder where you are
And I wonder what you do
Are you somewhere feeling lonely, or is someone loving you?
Tell me how to win your heart
For I haven’t got a clue
But let me start by saying, I love you …
Hello, is it me you’re looking for?
‘Cause I wonder where you are
And I wonder what you do
Are you somewhere feeling lonely or is someone loving you?
Tell me how to win your heart
For I haven’t got a clue
But let me start by saying … I love you <3

-Jennifer-110311

10 March 2011

Things I learn from Staying in Singapore (part 1)

Last Sunday I got a chance to be one of the speakers for a talkshow held by my previous school in Indonesia. My ex-schoolmates came to singapore on an International Exposure programme and last sunday, I felt honored to be able to share my thoughts to them. The talk was an informal one just for a few friends and I to tell them about the studying environment in Singapore.
This made me think about the positive side of studying in Singapore. 

Normally I would only criticize about how the Singapore education system made me suffer under stress and all those kind of negative impacts I felt after moving here. However that night I thought that it was about time to tell the world about the other side of the system, it was important to present an unbiased opinion that night. So I thought over it before the talk and I got this:

Studying in Singapore taught me to tolerate other people's imperfections

Moving to Singapore is like going out of my comfort zone, moving to a new environment where everyone is new to me. I meet a lot of friends of different nationalities here, ranging from PRCs, Thais, Malaysians, Myanmarese, to Koreans and of course Indonesians. I realised after a while that all people have their own uniqueness. Each people from different nationalities have their own habits just like how Indonesians have the habit of being late (we seriously have to change this habit)

Staying with different people of a different background and traditions wakes me up from my deep sleep in Indonesia that not all people have the same way of living. In Indonesia, I only meet non-family members outside my house, making me not able to know them deeper. But here, I stay in the hostel where everything you do is seen by the public. Everything that you do will bring an impact to a lot of people.

Staying with strangers is not an easy and fun thing to do. It may cause lots of problems between two good friends. There will be some things that your roommate or hostel mates do that you don't think it's appropriate. There'll be some things that you do that they won't approve of either. Staying with someone besides your family exposes you to a more private and personal level of life of the one you're staying with. Since different nationals have different upbringings, simple things like wearing your shoes into the room may cause conflict between roommates. 

Because of this I learned that to prevent conflicts from happening, I need to learn to accept and tolerate or even better, work things out, these small imperfections in other people. I learned not to deduce that everyone has the same standards of living and not everyone have the same way of solving things. 

Here's a short clip on imperfections, totally love this ad! It's really touching..


Be blessed :)
GBu

-Jennifer-
100311

14 February 2011

Happy Valentine's Day

Today is the day where people around the world celebrates Valentine's day
A day when people show love and care, also gratefulness, for their family and friends.
A question raised yesterday in church :
"Is love that rare now that people have to celebrate Valentine's day in a special way?"

The fact is, love and care for others should be shown everyday, 
valentine's day is not only on the 14th of February but everyday..
It is true that people don't normally give chocolates and flowers to each other everyday
but at least show a tinch of love to them every day and imagine what a wonderful world we'd live in :) 


Last but not least, I would like to wish all of this blog's readers a very happy valentine's day..
Special thanks to God for showing me so much love and care throughout my 17 years of life..
to my parents and sister in Indonesia, thank you for being there always, for me :) Love you :)
to my beloved friends and big bros and sis, Maai, c fesia, k hansen, k terrence, k coby, k ferry, k reggie,k deny, dinar and others who are here in Singapore.. Thanks for giving me the moral support that keeps me from quitting the fight here and made me keep holding on..
For my roommate, Jia Yan, thanks for listening to my complains and thoughts in the room.. also thanks for telling me that I sometimes talk in my sleep LOL
For my dear friends in Indo, Austin, Dicky, Teguh, Sisca, Fano, Bernard thanks for being an awesome friend although we rarely meet now :(
Thank you all for being my friend, for making me feel very loved :D


140211
Jennifer

03 February 2011

the Power of Beliefs

"Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve" - Napoleon Hill


The quote says it all..


you choose what you want to believe and you live with it..
what you think of yourself will determine your way of thinking, your actions and eventually your future..


but how? 
When you believe in yourself, your belief will serve as a drive to push you to take actions to achieve what you believe in..
Focus on what you believe in, write it down if you must and let it inspire you to strive for excellence..


If you say to yourself everyday that you only want a pass in your exams because you can't possibly achieve better grades than your friends, you will only put in that much effort just to pass..
On the other hand, when you believe that you can surpass your friends in school and you'll be on the top, you will also, unconsciously put in that much effort to do so..
I proved it myself..


When I was younger, I went to a private primary school where there are 3 classes of 24-26 in a cohort. I consider my cohort as a quite brilliant one as there was really a lot of my school mates who won loads of competitions, achieved very high grades in their academics and at the same time, develop their talents like singing and playing the piano. Being a young girl and not knowing myself well, I always assumed I was only an average student and I just stopped competing with the rest for excellence. I didn't study much, did only what I think I can, barely made effort and until the end of my 6 years there, I graduated as only an average student.


Knowing that I'm an average student, I decided to not go to a middle school with a lot of students and that's why I ended up in another school with only 24 people in the cohort (it was the first cohort in the school). I knew I believed that I couldn't do well so going to a school with no competition (small amount of students), wouldn't make any difference and it would at least make me less depressed by not knowing the fact that others are better than me in all ways.
Sounds lame yeah.. but never mind, I'm grateful that I moved to that school as it shaped me into who I am now..
Anyway, as I enter middle school I did what I did in primary school, maybe with a little more effort since it's a start of the new chapter in my life. After a while,tests and results are just the part and parcel of life there. BUT, as the days past in that school, I started to realise what I can do. It became known to me that i can get good grades, I can be the best if I want to believe and to do something about it. 


What happened was, my econs test paper was handed back to me and I got full marks, then in other subjects, too, I started to move up.. Maybe you could say that the test papers were easy so I could easily get full marks but to me, what matters is the realisation after I got back my marks that I can do it if I put in more effort, I can make it if I believe and if I started focusing. That was the turning point. I started to focus more and I made it. At the end of my 3 years in that school, I surpassed my expectations by getting a 38.2 out if 40 mark for my national exam and getting above 85 for most of my subjects. I gained more confidence and got into another huge school with 9 classes in a cohort and did perfectly fine and because of that belief I have in myself now, I can sit down here today in Singapore fully paid by the government. 


I don't mean to show off what I have achieved or to look down at those in my previous school (In contrary, I really am grateful to them and to the school. Can't be here without them) 
but my point is, know that you can, give in a little bit more of your effort, and you will reap what you deserve to get :) 


Having a high self esteem is good, having a low self esteem is not good neither is having one that is too high 


God Bless


-Jennifer-
030211


17 January 2011

IMAGE - Impacting All Generation


Me in the school blazer and court shoes

A few days ago (Saturday, 15th Jan 11), I was given a chance to be involved in River Valley's 55th anniversary celebration
A few principals from other schools, including my beloved school principal,
and the Minister of Education and Second Minister of Defence-Dr Ng Eng Hen- were invited to celebrate River Valley's joy.
A few other hostel committee members and I were asked to great those VIPs who's gonna visit our hostel as a part of their tour around the RV's new campus. 
We got to wear or school's blazer (making me feel smart) and court shoes for the short meet-greet-talk-with-the-VIPs session.
Although my duty only took 30 minutes, it was a good exposure and experience for me 
to meet and talk to one of the Ministers of Singapore within such a close distance.
Not to forget, I also talked to my school principal and apparently she doesn't know me haha

Anyways, during the short discussion, the Minister touched on "being an impact to others"
A point that he highlighted was something like this :
"You may be very rich, handsome or pretty and smart 
but if you use it for your own benefit, there's no meaning to it
Be an impact on others"

We may be blessed in many ways in our life 
but how are we gonna use our blessings to bless others?

It said in the Bible that we are the salt and the light of the world
what a light does is to shine and share their brightness with others who are in need
with others who could not see in the darkness of this world
with man who needs warmth from someone who cares.
Similar to light, salt has its own impact in its environment.
It gives taste to your food even though you could not see it.
Without it your food will be tasteless and you would want to eat anymore.
When the salt is not salty what's the use of it? 
When the light is there but it's off, why even bother to put there in the first place?
Our presence in this world without an impact on others, what's the purpose then?
God sent us here to be an impact on others,
to fulfill His purpose..
So show some love and share you blessings!

Matthew 5:13-16 (New International Version)

Salt and Light
    13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
   14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.


-Jennifer-
170111

15 January 2011

My Post after 2 months

Hei all :) It's been super duper long since my last post, 
so even though I know it's super late, Happy New Year 2011 Guys :D


I had an awesome holiday last december so I kinda abandoned my blog
on the 5th of December after my choir concert I flew back to Surabaya 
and stayed there for 3 weeks before coming back here (Singapore)


Spent my new year here with my Mom and sister and MDC singapore
I had a blast during our BBQ party on the 31st and enjoyed watching
fireworks from the balcony of Anchorage during the first seconds of 2011


Anyways, here is my 2011 revolution list


1. Improve my EL and get a distinction for O level (A1 if possible) :D
2. Do my best during O level, get 10A1s (With God, everything is achievable) 
3. Become less lazy and stop being complacent
4. Lose weight (2-3kg) :D


Of course there are other thing that I would love to achieve
but I'll focus more on these 4 points :D 


This year is an important year for me
2 major events are happening :
1. O Level - An exam that will determine my next two years in Singapore. It's happening in 9 months and I need to build a stronger foundation for my languages.
2. SYF (Singapore Youth Festival) - most important event for choir members, this will eat up A LOT of my time IF i decided to join. It's a tough decision considering that O level is coming.


I'm also considering to join Hostel Com this year to improve pn my leadership skills. It's also gonna take some of my time but most probably I'll go for it.


So those are the things i'm gonna face this year, 
A giant is approaching, the only thing I can do is try my best and pray :)


GBu :)
-Jennifer-

18 November 2010

A Meaningful Month

Hei all!


I just realized that it's been a long long time since my last post in this blog (as if i had another one)
So since I have nothing to do while I'm waiting for my dinner, I decided to update my blog on my exciting experiences that happened this past month. :D


1. I turned 17, 13 days ago ! 
well that's exciting since 17 is the legal age in Indonesia (my home country) although not the legal age here (Singapore). 
I feel so old.....
They came to my birthday after all ! :D
Ok nvm, the point is, I had a great birthday this year unlike my birthday last year (I will remember that day forever - It was my second day in Singapore LOL) 
For my birthday celebration, my mom came here since the 5th of November coincides with Deepavali holiday in Singapore (public Holiday - Indian Celebration)
I invited a few close friends to join me and my family for dinner on that day however almost all of them said that they couldn't come.
One said that he had to extend his stay in Jakarta for work, the other said he had to go to his office that night and another said she had to study for her arts O level exam !
At first I didn't suspect anything but things got fishy and fishier as the day pass, so I started investigating :D
and I found out that my mom asked them to pretend to be unable to come when actually they can come ! So everything was uncovered even before they came into the restaurant and surprised me HAHA


Group photo after dinner - I was very paranoid, scared they would throw me
into the water fountain near there aft the pic was taken LOL :D


2. I am now officially a senior ! :D
My juniors (the Indonesian ASEAN scholar Batch 20) came on the 11th and I was lucky enough to be excused from my maths lesson on that day to pick them up in the airport! :D 
That day I met a lot of Indonesian ASEAN seniors and batch-mates and since I rarely (never) go to the events organized for all of us to meet, I don't know most (maybe 90%) of them LOL
It was an enjoyable but tiring day. We got a free ride back to our hostel from Chang-I and because of the hostel's inconvenient location, the bus ride took 3 hours - they sent back those scholars whose hostels are nearer to chang-I 


3. This year's report book has been given out and the school year has ended, so now it is holiday time ! (although there's no such thing as a holiday here LOL) 
I thank Him for His blessings this past year and only because of Him that I can get those awesome results :D
Although I still have to go to school occasionally for choir, I can wake up late and sleep late now! :D 
I am, unfortunately, one of the scholars here to go back the last. 
All my other friends went back either last week or latest, this week. 
However I have to stay in this fine city, Singapore because of the school's choir concert held on the first week of December !
Even though I have to sacrifice my precious time in Indo, I think that staying back for a while isn't that bad because I can get more CCA points. So yeah nvm.


I think that's all for this post, I'll try to update my blog (again) soon. Now I have to start packing up all my mess in my room that's starting to get out of control D:
So, stay blessed readers!


Jennifer
181110