#its 2 more years or 6 semesters 🙃

[pastelsicheng]

OMG FINISHED COLLEGE ? what degree if u wont mind ?! yeah, i heard applying for a job after school is hard from another friend of mine :(. NEVERTHELESS! lmk if you got the job or not to congratulate or say f u to the company who denied the amazing emmy 😾. and its ok if you reply late! i dont mind :] but omg i went through hell and back this past 2-3 years. i got a bf! and graduated hs! im a second year now! and my first sem what taking a toll on me ( like badly, i was like crying every night and refused to ask help bc yeah) which made me had a messy breakup with my bf well ex causing multiple messy friendship breakups.. LOL BUT ANYWAYSS no more depressing stuff, a month ago or so, I WENT TO JAPAN AND KOREA!! i already miss it! i also got my drivers license!! i was deathly terrified of driving earlier in the year 😭. and I GOT TO SEE NCT DREAM! no renjun rip but its okay. i dont really keep up with them anymore but theyre like my most favorite still! i think thats about it? WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? imyvm （╹◡╹）♡ -nini

I graduated uni almost 2 years ago (I did business) and then I immediately started college for baking & pastry arts lol so that’s the one I just finished. I actually finally got a job!! I start next week. Unfortunately no baking job (everyone that interviewed me ended up ghosting me 🙃) but the corporate job pays better and has much better benefits so there’s that at least. It’s a contract job tho so not permanent WHICH SUCKS but it’s the best I could get for now bc every other corporate place has given me rejections 😭😭

omg u really did go through so much wowowowowow. so sorry u had a terrible first semester :(( i hope youre doing much better now and have adjusted. i know the transition to uni from high school was tough for me too. and then covid hit before i could even finish first year 💀. like me and my friends say, all these experiences are just helping with character development. and its all those people's loss for ending their friendship with you. friends dont have to be your therapists but a good friend never leaves you when ur at your worst (unless of course ur a horrible person, but you are so obviously not). you'll find better people to keep as close friends <33

getting to go to japan and korea AND see NCT dream??? lol u definitely made up the bad experiences with even better ones. thats so fun!!! how long did u stay for? did u see dream in concert in korea or america? i also havent kept up with them, probably since mark came back actually. i think my interest in kpop faded a couple years ago but i'll occasionally check up on the groups i listened to and see whats up. i also still get kpop posts on my tiktok and insta feed so i'm still being updated on everything against my will LOL

honestly my life has been pretttyyyy boring in comparison. its just been school and work for the past 6 (ish?) years. i think the most exciting thing to happen is i got a cat last year. shes a cute little menace. i'll send u pics in messages if u wanna see her hehe

other than all that, how is 2nd year going for u so far? is it midterm season for you too? also what are u majoring in! i hope things arent too stressful for u rn!! and that youre taking care of urself <3 i miss u lots too <33

[filmbyjy]

ohh i do wanna know more about singapore’s education! i have an overseas friend currently studying architecture in nyp i believe! and she’s sooooo stressed and never has much time anymore and have basically isolated herself except for her bf and online :(( it’s really stressful for her in architecture but i hope you’re having fun in your current diploma! since your internship starts next month, you have a company assigned (?) for you already, right? not too sure but my friend told me she’s in the 2nd semester so hers has not been assigned yett

oh? your friend is also in nyp? I’m also in nyp!

well, they don’t assign the company to us. we have to email to company and get interviewed then from there we’ll see if we can get in or not. if you can’t then you just have to keep trying with other companies🙃

hmm, well. Singapore education system is quite simple (to a local) but they have changed since I graduated from secondary school💀

sit back, it’s gonna be a long read😪

we have preschool:

nursery then kindergarten. just simple stuff. we also have homework there but it’s simple.

they also have religious kindergartens here for Muslims who want to enrol their kids into it. I was in one but that school went bankrupt 💀 so I went to a normal kindergarten after that.

then we have primary school:

(7-12 years old) primary 1 to primary 6

At P6, PSLE which is like a major exam for you to get into secondary school. it used to follow grading of like points. let’s say you get A then it will be the range of like 75-90. hence, some people can have until 200 aggregate.

But they are changing it to if you have A, you get 1 point so the lowest you can get is 6 points as there is only 6 subjects you’ll learn in primary school.

secondary school:

(13-17/18 years old) secondary 1-4 or 5.

based on my time for secondary school, we are split into 3 ‘categories’ Express, Normal Academic (NA) and Normal Technical (NT). Express is usually for the fast-paced learners and those who got high scores for PSLE. NA is just for the normal ones scores. NT is for the slower ones. what we usually say, don’t quote me on this Singaporeans who were in NT🙏🏻

It also depends on like your score that you got for PSLE and also on the school’s PSLE range for last year. They usually give like a booklet of the school’s past aggregate scores that students enrolled in. like legit a range.

For example, let’s say I have score of 160 (ehem I did actually get that. I was not smart in school) then you look through the booklet and you see the lowest aggregate score for Express is 180. oops, you can go in Express. so you look at NA and the lowest 140. yay, you can go into that school as an NA student. Overall, I think you can fill up your list to 6 schools. 1 being the most you wanna go in.

At Sec 1-2, you’ll be learning everything. From doing Home Economics (cooking basically) to Design and Technology(DNT) and Art. Science is just science. You learn history, geography and social studies.

At Sec 3, you’ll split classes based on which elective you’d like. There is Additional Math (A Math), Principles of Accounting (POA), Art, DNT and Home Economics. You can choose Biology, Chemistry, Physics. There is options of taking Purely just one science subject. There is also combined science where you take Bio + Chem or Physics + Chem or Physics + Bio. Oh and you can also pick to do either Geography or History but have to take Social Studies along with it as it is a must.

At Sec 4, we have ‘N’ Levels. this is mainly for the NA and NT students only. For Express, they have ‘O’ Levels. After this, they can choose to go ITE or Polytechnic (based on your scores)

For NA Students, if you do well in your ‘N’ Levels and get a score lower than 11 points. You can go direct to polytechnic. If not then ITE or move forward to Sec 5 where you basically just study for another year and then do ‘O’ Levels bc you’ll be learning what the Express learnt just a year later.

as far as I know now, I think they are like abolishing this whole Express, NA and NT thing and just putting everyone with the same learning speed and interest into one study group. i have zero idea about this since i already graduated a long time ago before this thing happened. my sister’s age group is like getting experimented on.

If you go ITE:

no age range. I was like 18-19 when I went ITE🙃

if you didn’t do well, you have to go through ITE. Mostly are NA and NT. idk about Express students though🤔 my Express friend went to Polytechnic straight so idk.

there are 3 ITE Colleges; East, West and Central.

the locals here usually say if you go ITE that means you aren’t good at studying or you’re lazy. However, that doesn’t essentially mean it. Maybe you didn’t do well in secondary school and are wanting to do better for a change so you do better in ITE then further your studies.

there are actually a lot diplomas in ITE. Business Schools, Art Schools, Social Service, Beauty and Wellness. You even have the option to do Work & Study. Basically, you get a job and also study at the same time. So like basically college💀

there is a nitec and higher nitec. nitec is basically 4 years, like starting from the bottom cause you’re fresh out of secondary school as an NA or NT student. Higher Nitec is usually for Sec 5 students or if you do well but not well enough to go directly to Polytechnic after ‘N’ Levels (I believe so💀)

For Polytechnic (or as I call it poly):

again no age range. I am literally like 22 and in poly when everyone in my class are like 19-20 years old. I am also 1 out of the 2 other 02’liner in the class. The rest are 03, 04 and 05 liners. Mostly 05 liners💀

besides the route of directly going to poly, you can also go from ITE to poly. it’s a longer route but it works. That’s what I did.

Many diplomas and various schools. Like design and other ones.

There is 5 polytechnics; Singapore Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Republic Polytechnic.

If you go from NA to Poly, it’s called ‘Polytechnic Foundation Programme’ (PFP, for short). This will be 1 year of just learning basic stuff about your course. After that, you move onto Year 1. Total you will have 4 years in poly

For normal umm, times. It’s 3 years of poly. Year 1-2 is just studying, learning about your course. Year 3 consists of internship and final year project (FYP). Each is 6 months. Then you graduate.

For internship there is two groups, the lecturers or teachers split your cohort into 2. There is Cohort A and Cohort B. If you’re in A, you’ll go to internship first for 6 months before coming back and doing your FYP. As Cohort A is doing their FYP, Cohort B will go out for their internship as they did their FYP first.

After all of this, yay graduation!!!

You can also further your studies 😍 but I’m not doing that. I am done.

We still have universities🧍🏻‍♀️ oh and you can also go private schools but I am not explaining that💀 too complicated and I didn’t go to a private school besides the kindergarten I went to.

we also have SOTA/NAFA/LASALLE – art school/performing arts or anything art related.

and many more🧍🏻‍♀️ I can’t even think of anymore. I tried my best to explain it but good lord, there is a lot. It’s even worse because they decided to change the educational system when I already graduated. Now, I really could say “back in my day, this was like this.” MAN IM OLD💀

[celestialarcade]

reviewing this list now that it’s january 1st 2021 !

under a readmore bc its long and no one rly cares lmao

in order:

-LMAO nope shoutout to coronavirus for cancelling all my 2020 travel plans (like i’m obviously very thankful no one i’m close to has gotten coronavirus though and i’d much rather spend a year or two not travelling than someone get the virus)

-ahh kinda? my summer co-op wasn’t that great, my fall co-op was good ! both of them were at a company within driving distance of my mom’s house so i was living at home for. 8.5 months 🙃 which has made me slightly crazy lmao but i saved sm money not having to pay rent somewhere so it was worth it i think

-uhh well i only really had 2 months of in person class in 2020 between coronavirus and my co-ops so idk i didn’t really make friends in terms of classes but i’ve been actively trying to meet people online and i’ve joined discord servers and stuff and also finally worked up the courage to start using dating apps lmao so i’ve met some people through there and also i met eva through tumblr ! which is a bit wild bc i think we started talking like a week before the pandemic really kinda exploded in march but i’m so happy she and i are friends now !! like she’s definitely the closest friend i made in 2020

-no he didn’t get into his dream school but he did get into a bunch of good schools and i think he really likes where he’s going to college now and him and i talk about sustainable engineering a lot since thats what both of us want to do our master’s degrees in so i’m happy for him 😊

-yes and no? she had hip replacement surgery and it was really successful so she’s able to get around mostly without a walker now but i think mentally she still feels like she can’t do a lot which like makes her sad but all the family zoom meetings we’ve had this year have cheered her up a lot also she’s 82 and like idk is so fucking strong

-yes !! i was kinda late on this one lmao but i’ve been journaling consistently since early november !!

- yes ! i’ve been kind of on and off with working out this whole year but my mom getting a treadmill at the beginning of december like for whatever reason made it so much easier for me to consistently work out so now i run 2 miles on it 5-6 times a week

- yeah ! i started seeing a new therapist in june and i really like her, i’ve been up and down with therapy since like 2018 but hopefully this will be good

- nah, i was on a few different medications at the beginning of the year but none of them really worked out for me but i’m still hopeful i’ll find something that works!

- no but only because i misunderstood when i’m supposed to apply for it lmao, turns out i’m only allowed to apply for it this spring semester which i will definitely be doing and i rly hope i get in 🤞🏾

- yes and no? again it’s been on and off throughout the year but i think overall i played a lot more in 2020 than in 2019

- i’m working on it ! turns out i had a lot more makeup than i thought and also especially with staying at home sm this year because of covid i also wore a lot less makeup than i normally do, but everything i’ve haad to replace i’m obviously replacing with vegan and cruelty free products of which i have a lot more in my collection now!

- YES !!! i got my driver’s license on valentine’s day lmao i was so excited and like i’m not the best driver ever but i’m okay to drive on local roads for the most part (learning to drive on the highway is the next goal lmao)

- yeah lmao i think i got over this one very quickly once i turned 20 although lowkey highkey i’m still afraid of the passage of time 😬

- idk really what i meant by this but i think overall i had a relatively good year considering the circumstances and i’m hopeful for what 2021 brings ! 🥰

okey doke so i skipped doing this for 2019 but i wanna keep it going for 2020 so

2020 goals/hopes (i'm just gonna combine both into one list this year):

-going to croatia and/or india

-getting a good co-op that i like

-actively trying to make friends in my classes/at college in general

-my younger cousin getting to go to his dream school

-my grandma continuing to improve and be happy

-trying to journal more (lol this has been my goal for like 10 years but)

-trying to work out at least semi regularly like 2x a week-ish

-finding a therapist that works for me and getting back into therapy

-maybe finally getting things under control medication wise??

-applying for (and hopefully getting into!!) the dual degree program

-picking up guitar again

-getting rid of all the last few bits of nonvegan makeup/skincare/etc. that i have

-finally getting my fucking drivers license

-accepting the fact that i will no longer be a teenager anymore

-idk just like. generally being better and doing better than i did this year

shit idk a whole new decade man. i hope its good