I miss PJC.

(Someone said that my recent blog posts didn't sound like "me" anymore. Is that true?)

Can you even believe the title of this post?

I suddenly kinda miss PJC. This realisation is quite unbelievable, since I've always hated the school. I hated the system. I didn't like some of the teachers. (Those who were annoying, unreasonable and judgmental. They basically made JC life more difficult than it should be) I hated the culture. School hours were long. I hated studying. I was reluctant to go for consultations.

And yet, I miss school?

I guess it's because I'm still not used to university life. I don't like how big the campus is. Even though NUS is much smaller than NTU, I still don't like it. I like the fact that since primary school, we just go to this small school building. You can get from one end of the school to another in a few minutes. You don't have to wait around for buses, or walk under the hot sun just to get to some other faculty.

I don't like that uni life is more unpredictable. Back in school, we belonged to a class and we had a classroom. I liked that. In uni, I feel like a nomad. I mean, even though we also move from class to class in JC, but since the school is small it isn't so bad. And we could just use any empty classroom.

Also, back in JC, the teachers spoon fed us a lot. I guess I got used to it. But I mean, in uni, there are so many readings to do! And nobody is there to tell you what the important points are, what to look out for in the readings, or even how to write an essay. To me, it's more like independent learning. Which is fine, but really, I don't know whether I'm doing something right or whether I'm focusing on the wrong stuff.

So yeah. We have to be independent. There isn't a friend who would have the exact same timetable as you do. I guess I really liked the having a class. At least you'd see the same faces. In uni, you'd see one friend for an hour and then you'd have a different friend for the next two hours. Besides, how does one actually build a friendship with someone new when you spend most of that hour sitting together, side by side, listening to the professor?

Lessons in uni are most definitely interesting. But the workload is crazy. The stuff we have to do in uni is so much more than what was expected from us in JC. Not only that, but we also have to participate in class and also on the forum. I mean, jeez. Cut us some slack! We already have to write essays and get projects done. Contributing to the forum is like a mini essay/project as well, since people tend to sound smart and they always write so much. And other students love to fight for the chance to speak up, even when they don't sound smart in any way.

I went down for a run at the canal on Saturday, and it definitely brings back memories. We had lame walks (or were they actually runs?) at the canal as part of certain school events. We sometimes went for a run there during PE. The first time we visited the canal was during the very first lit lesson, and we went there to compose poetry.