I was born into the Goh family, and have been there ever since.
Yeah, that's not telling much, eh? Yes, I'm not afraid to admit that I'm from one of those lower income families, where both my parents work early in the morning and come back home in the middle of the night. Shortly after some bad times and predicaments, I was sent to my maternal grandma's house a few weeks after my birth, where I would live in till today.
18 years have passed since then. My father set up a furniture business, via a lucky strike in lottery that won him a fortune. Life was good - my mom didn't have to work anymore. I was still in primary school then, and it was there and then my dad fell. He got set up and in a flash the business was gone and we started owing money to the other business partners, to the point where lawsuits were lodged against us. Thanks to my mom's diplomatic skills, they decided in the end to put those lawsuits off and my dad was spared. I was still in primary school then, and I didn't know what bankruptcy was.
But I soon came to know. Depressed, and desperate, my dad went to gamble, a big no-no for anyone who's just lost a huge load of money in business failure. And it was there and then that things between my maternal grandparents and uncles and aunts began to change for the worse. He had to borrow a large amount of money from them to be able to clear the loan sharks' debts. In a way, I thank him for doing this, because he showed me first-hand what happens when a person gambles. No Las Vegas living for me, I guess.
This probably had a toll on my impression of my father as well. Think about it - if a person hears negative comments about his or her own kin, sooner or later he would be inclined to believe it, much as he or she is not willing to.
Inspired later by a TV series of how a taxi driver brought up his son to university, he took our advice to stop lamenting over his own losses and study taxi theory and earn his own keep. He's driving a Mercedes cab, offering limousine services to foreign tourists of high status since then. However due to the recent recession, which actually took quite a big toll on our living expenses too, he's encountering some hard times with his taxi business as well. Hopefully with the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, he makes a comeback.
As for me, I'm just a kid who's grown up in a family, only being able to see my parents once a week, and I've been living like this since 6 years old. If not for my grandparents who were there for me during my formative years, I wouldn't have been who I am today.
If these psychoanalysts were right, I guess this had a toll on my primary school life. I was often bullied, and I was told I couldn't stand up for myself in a fight. Would it be possible, back then, to survive even primary school unscathed?
I did make it after all. Things were still better in primary school than in Secondary 2, where I was one of the "Fantastic Four" who were named as such out of sarcasm for being the bullied in class. Enough said about this, you had chicken bones thrown at you, you had nonsense done to you, and you were left out of most of the activities done by the class outside of school. If I ever survived any form of hell, this was it.
In Secondary 3 and 4, things changed for the better, probably because of the environment. I was lucky to be in a smarts-class where I really enjoyed myself in. Full of nonsense perhaps, but a far cry from the previous class environment. Sure, there were fights here and there, but with a class of only 10 guys and 30 girls, how could we not be more bonded? And these friends are still the ones I still value today, only that because of the A levels and time, and that everyone's into their own stuff, we haven't got a chance to meet together as a class for outing lately.
And oh yes, you wouldn't believe what I did - I set frogs free in the Guitar Ensemble room back in secondary school, and even brought a turtle that I caught elsewhere in as well. And it was also in secondary school that I picked up my passion for guitar - though because of priorities I can't really pick it up until after the big race.
And oh yes, you wouldn't believe what I did - I set frogs free in the Guitar Ensemble room back in secondary school, and even brought a turtle that I caught elsewhere in as well. And it was also in secondary school that I picked up my passion for guitar - though because of priorities I can't really pick it up until after the big race.
As for JC life, I shall update this one after the A levels, heh.
