New Year, New Beginnings

Dear 2021,

I hope that you will be extra friendly to me especially since I am entering junior college this year and I want this year to be a smooth sailing and a memorable one. While it may be a roller coaster ride and I might have to face numerous obstacles, I hope that I am equipped with sufficient determination and perseverance to overcome them and benefit from the learning outcomes. This year will definitely bring a lot of changes to my life journey as I have recently moved house so I need to adjust to this new environment, travelling routes, neighbours and much more. In addition to this change, I am also entering junior college this year. Even though studying in the integrated programme will reduce the number of changes i need to adapt to as my secondary school is where I will also be studying for the next two years(jc) and even though there isn't a change in the campus or the familiar faces I might see, I still feel that junior college will be extremely different from secondary school. Firstly, there will be more new faces as our cohort size will be doubled, there will be a new department of teachers tutoring us, there will be a different learning style which we would need to master and the academic rigour and the number of commitments we would need to take on will be vastly different. For orientation this year where will be introduced to our new cohort mates and our new class for the next 2 months, I hope to form new relationships that will ease me into my new journey. Orientation will open the doors to my new journey and I really hope that I can start on the right footing. Hopefully, this orientation journey will allow me to get to know more people and form good ties with them; be portrayed for who I really am; start my junior college journey with enthusiasm and hope. Hopefully, my wishes come true.

Thank you.

Cheers,

Ishvaryaa.

Well, I was quite anxious about orientation a few weeks ago because I had to be separated from my close friends and had to mingle with a bunch of new peers whom I was not very close to. Wanting to set a good impression and form stronger ties, I mustered the courage and set foot into the new classroom. A wave of memories of my old class surged upon me and I started to feel nostalgic and started to miss my kakis. Escaping from that tsunami of memories was in fact really difficult but with the constant reminder, to socialise with my new peers, ringing in my head, it was possible. Getting to know more people in my orientation group allowed me to feel more confident and gave me the courage to start expressing myself freely. The hesitation to socialise had disappeared and I started to thoroughly enjoy myself.  We had a lot of activities and games in line for us and excitement never failed to fuel me everyday. Learning more about the various backgrounds my peers had come from and embarking on the orientation journey with them was truly a memorable one. A big thank you to the orientation leaders who helped to break the ice and allowed us to have such an unforgettable orientation experience. It was evident that a lot of effort and time had been put into our orientation as every activity had been meticulously planned in order to keep in line with the COVID-19 safe management measures. Moreover, even though there were such restrictions, all the activities really allowed us to bond further and have a whale of fun. 

I felt that both my orientation group mates and my orientation leaders really matched my personality as we were all enthusiastic and very determined. The high energy levels kept me going and lifted my spirit. I am sure that many of my group mates felt this way too and I am glad that we had such a good start to this short yet vigorous junior college journey. Moreover, it is really a boon that I can spend more time with my group mates as we are all posted to the same class for the next few weeks until we have been allocated our form classes. This orientation has also boosted my confidence and I am sure that easing into the new form class, which we will be posted to soon, will be much easier.

Once again, a big thank you to everyone who made this orientation a truly memorable one and I hope to pass it on:)

And I would like to end off with a quote that I strongly believe in...

No matter what comes your way, you can overcome it - for you are capable.