Should I go for interest or long term investment?

Till date, I could vividly remember that I used to write in my essays during JC days that changes are inevitable and we should learn to adapt in this ever changing world. For those dissidents, they are simply living in the utopian world. Recently, I found out that I do not execute what I used to preach. Thus, this begins to perturb me for a while. That is, I began to wonder if I should be persistent in achieving my dream job position that I have longing for or should I go for a job that reap greater benefit in my near future especially for my University Education?

In the first place, I have been longing to teach A Maths to a class of 40 students ever since my enlistment to National Service. In my perspective, this is an unique experience as compared to one – one tutoring. Moreover, I may not have the chance to be an A Maths teacher in future since my future education route forbids me from doing so. However, such fate could be changed if I change my universary course now. Well, I shall prepare to hear rants from my parent due to the rise in universary fees over the 2 years since I am at a disadvantage end if I do so.  Basically, I am weighing my opportunity costs here.

The most annoying issue is that I have been assuming that I will be able to get my long term relief teaching position immediately after my ORD. This is indeed an myopic thought as I fail to consider the possible pitfalls for the  economic growth in Singapore.  That is, lesser teachers will go on leave or medical leave during times of recession. In return, there will a reduction in the demand of relief teachers. On another perspective, recession would initiate the MOE to create more part time jobs to the mature working adults in the effort of reducing unemployment. In this case, this would mean that ORDing personnel like me would be left behind. In addition, I have failed to consider the existence of barriers to entry (which I have learnt in Econs) in schools. That is, the school would give priority to those relief teachers in school for the permanent relief teaching positions.  ARGH!!! I am none on the list now!

Worst of all, I have sent application letters via email to various Secondary schools that are near my house. However, I have received no positive reply till date. In view of this, I feel dejected as I have completely devoted myself to relief teaching for my 6 months of break prior to the start of my university life. Moreover, I began to wonder if I have ORD on the wrong phase. That is, I am often at the losing end in securing permanent relief teaching position in Secondary  School since I could not do relief teaching in Jan which is the start of the academic year.   However, this does not mean that I would extend my ORD.

As saying goes, ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. I may have some glimpse of hope if I choose to do permanent relief teaching for Econs in JC since the start of academic year for JC1 is 2 Feb 09.  That would mean that I could teach Econs to the JC1 students after my ORD  since they would have completed their orientation and completed their subject combinition selection by then. In addition, I could seize my relief teaching period to refresh my JC Econs since I have been ‘forced’ to teach and learn.

Should I follow my heart or go for my long term pursuit?  ARGH!!!

Spotted a new traits of me

In this entry, I shall blog about the recent discovery of the new traits about me. That is, I have realised that I have become so dumb that I could not even solve an A level statistics question posted on http://www.exampapers.com.sg which I used to be proficient in it. Worst of all, I have even reached a stage where I could not solve some O level Prelim trigo identities.  Thus, I felt dejected when I was defeated by the easy solutions  posted in the forum. Well, I am a truthful person. Hence, I  admit to the people out in the forum that I could solve these questions in the forum by posting it. At this juncture, I begin to wonder how am I going to thrive in the university? As a result, I did not enrol into special term in NUS as I feel that I could not sustain the hectic academic life  as I used to be. In view of this, I began my soul searching and conclude that I need to revise my JC work before I step into university. I have even taken my first step. I enrolled into Statistics module (e-prep course  which is jointly provided by MINDEF and NTU) today which I hope that I could utilise my precious 1 week leave to revise my statistics skills. Sadly to say, it will take days to activate the module. (ARGH!!!)

Anyway, I have done something unique today. I ran 3.6 km within my house vicinity. For once in the 2 years of NS stint, I was the conducting, supervising and the safety officer for this run (Hehe…). Well, I will strive to run more in my cilvilan days ahead especially after my ORD date as I believe in keeping fit. 🙂

A waiting game

It would be a platitude if I keep whining about my ORD date.  Sadly to say,  I guess such whining incidents will continue for the next 2 -3 months as I felt that this waiting game has been too long for an impatient me. This is all attributed to the fact that I have witnessed batches of friends within or outside my unit ORD ahead of him. Worst of all, there are too many unduly concerned people in my unit who keep asking me when is my understudy undertaking my job. SIGH!!! To be frank, I have tried to intoxicate myself with work in order to eliminate this ORD thought. Yet, people have been using ways (without them knowing) to foil my plans.  However, dissidents may argue that all these whines goes down to reflect my personality. That is, I succumb to people’s words. In my perspective, I would say that most people born in this world have the evil ‘chemical’ in them. He would not bear to see his friends leaving the service fast (even though he understand  that they conscripted early) while he is left in the drudgery. Oops, this entry seems to unravel the evil side of me. (Hehe…)  In addition, it is inevitable to see ORD personnels writing on their walls in the facebook to announce their entry to freedom. Well, I do not blame them for their ‘annoyance’  as it is all human nature.  It is just that I feel tired to see all this. On a flipside, I would like to quote one phrase written by the ORD personnels.  That is, there is nothing spectacular about the ORD date. It is just the waiting period that is exciting. At that juncture, I began to awake myself with this phrase and wonder if I have been disillusioned. I guess I am wrong all these while. The date of release is nothing significant. It is the waiting  period that I am going through now that is indeed insightful – the mixed emotion stage. Although I am longing to ORD, I am still reminded of BMT days, first day in my unit. Worst of all, I have an instinct that the NS experience flew fast. For instance, I have just been told that Chee Seang is enlisting tomorrow. At that glance, memories flew back to BMT days where I share my BMT experience to him. It seems that this sharing session was done in a few years back.

In any case, I sincerely wish Chee Seang all the best in his enlistment to NS tomorrow. Do take care of yourself!