Friday, March 2, 2012
bad habit #1
I have this really bad habit of only doing work at night. It has become permanent – hardly anything gets done unless the skies are pitch black. I have officially become a night owl, or a night person.
One who has known me for a few years might think this issue stems from Sec 3 or 4, when school always ended late, so I could only do work late at night. But when you look beyond the surface, you'd see that the roots of this problem are actually from Sec 1... No, probably when I started being a student.
Maybe because I was always stuck in my own world, but when we first started primary school, I honestly believed that homework was something you did only if you really wanted to, and not mandatory. This culminated in a lot of late submissions and ear pulls from Mrs Tien (my form teacher lol) in P1. Clearly etched in my mind is one of the days we had to hand in our Math worksheet. Obviously, I did not do it. It's not that I didn't want to, but the moment I got home... I genuinely forgot that I had homework. It's like school was one country, home was another, and my head was another planet altogether. I don't know if that analogy makes sense (but it does to me ;) ).
Anyway, so on that day, Mrs Tien strolled into class, pulling her trolley behind her as usual. It was a warm summer afternoon (pfffsh who am I kidding, almost all Singaporean afternoons are warm and summer-ish hahaha) and as she sashayed into class in that tai-tai manner and cheongsam-like dress of hers, she called out, "Hand in your Math worksheets to your group leaders now!"
On a side note, I remember Mrs Tien's full name: Tien Fook Say. HAHAHAHHAA
I frantically fished through my bag for the worksheet and found it, completely E M P T Y & U N D O N E. Three cheers for six year old me, rebel since such a young age!
As sneakily as possible, I copied down as many answers as I could from the girl next to me but of course they had to hand in their worksheets so I was left to my own devices. While all the group leaders passed the worksheets to Mrs Tien and she compiled them and counted them, I was left to my own devices, using my fingers to try and figure out the answer to 18 + 36 was. (Obviously, I now know 18 + 36 = 54. HA TAKE THAT MRS TIEN!)
I can't remember the actual proceedings but naturally, she found out I didn't hand in the worksheet. I think she did this through the "everyone-stand-up-and-sit-down-after-I-call-your-name-and-if-you-are-left-standing-it-means-you-did-not-hand-in" method. After she started to avert her attention to me (realising I have yet to hand in the worksheet, unlike all the other goody-two-shoes in class), I crushed the worksheet into a paper ball and hid it behind my bag (which was on my chair) hiak hiak.
I lied and said I couldn't find the worksheet. I didn't want her to announce to the whole class that I was lazy and did not complete my homework. Yes, appearances mattered to me, even at such a tender young age. How terrible, right? But I'm glad I don't care that much about what people think of me anymore.
I did as many questions as I could as I searched for my "missing" worksheet. I seriously put up an act of going through all the documents in my bag, as meticulously and slowly as I could of course (this tactic was to buy time LOL). After she chastised me for a while and decided to start class, I started doing the worksheet as quickly as I could. In the middle of class I handed it to her, crumpled, some questions blank (my explanation: "I don't know how to do, I tried already"). She stood up, called for everyone's attention and waved my worksheet high up in the air. "Do you all know what this is? This," she paused before saying, "Is called kiam chai."
My 6/7 year old peers obviously found that hilarious and all laughed. I was so mortifiedddd. To top it off, she pulled my ear and asked me "Why don't you listen to instructionsss" (she always enunciated her s's very clearly).
In P2 I finally realised homework was something that had to be done. That did not stop me from procrastinating and doing my work at night (after the 9PM Channel 8 prime time TV drama!) or next morning before school started (this being only applicable to P3, where I attended the afternoon session).
From Sec 1 onwards, I could stay up later so the habit got worse. All through secondary school, I have had the habit of copying homework. When I got too lazy to do all of my homework at home, I would look at my timetable and devise which assignments can be copied before morning assembly, recess, or during "slack" periods available before the lesson in which the particular assignment was due.
From Sec 2 onwards, because I always studied at the last minute before a test/exam, I developed the habit of sleeping early and waking up earlier (4.30 AM or 5 AM) to get in some studying.
Everything was done at night, hardly any work is done in the day :( Even now as I am writing this... It is nearly 3 AM.
Abrupt end of post because I need to sleep or else I will grow fat/ugly/unhealthy.
P/S Suddenly remembered that Ms Yoong (or Yang Meh Meh/瘦羊/Yang laoshi, as we used to call her) is pregnant. She got married last year. It was such a surprise seeing her huge tummy at Fuhua's CNY Celebration (January) this year!
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