rafflesian
after reading Gwenda's post on the RJ t-shirt, i couldn't help but nod fervently at her words.
having been in raffles schools for 6 years, i'm always getting remarks from people like "oh. raffles! you must be really smart!" or "i'm sure you raffles people will get your 4As just fine". not that i'm not flattered by these comments, because sometimes i am. i'm proud of my school and all, but i just find it so annoying that people think we're all high and mighty and infallible. well in my schools there were people who were outrageously smart kids who never needed to study much, but i suppose most of us were also just slightly-above-average students who were struggling to keep up with our studies. when we say we're really not that smart, people think we're pretending to be modest. seriously. why can't they just let it go? why give us so much hell just for being in a particular school? people laud us for achieving a 75% rate of scoring 3As and above, but no one sees the 25% that didn't do well. everyone thinks we're so smart we have it easy, but no one sees the effort that we put in, or the struggles that we face. everyone thinks we're paranoid when we say things like "what if i fail this paper?", because the general assumption is, "you're rafflesian! you're smart, you WON'T fail." the worst part is,when we screw up, people give us that incredulous look and go, "what happened?", and when we do well, people just assume "of course you'd do well, you're from raffles!" we put in a lot of effort too. i dislike it when people undermine my efforts, because i do take pride in my work. it's sad that people only see me for the grades on my certificate, but fail to acknowledge the hard work that i've put in to get those grades. typical singaporean mentality-- expectations, expectations, expectations. but let me tell you, raffles or not, people DO fail, and we work as hard as you do. we are only human. we may come from a highly-ranked school, and maybe some people think that we're atas and all, but mostly, we also think and feel like everyone else.
above all else, i love my raffles t-shirt. it IS the best shirt to sleep in because it's so soft and comfy. and yes, like gwenda, i'm going to stock up when i get back. :P
having been in raffles schools for 6 years, i'm always getting remarks from people like "oh. raffles! you must be really smart!" or "i'm sure you raffles people will get your 4As just fine". not that i'm not flattered by these comments, because sometimes i am. i'm proud of my school and all, but i just find it so annoying that people think we're all high and mighty and infallible. well in my schools there were people who were outrageously smart kids who never needed to study much, but i suppose most of us were also just slightly-above-average students who were struggling to keep up with our studies. when we say we're really not that smart, people think we're pretending to be modest. seriously. why can't they just let it go? why give us so much hell just for being in a particular school? people laud us for achieving a 75% rate of scoring 3As and above, but no one sees the 25% that didn't do well. everyone thinks we're so smart we have it easy, but no one sees the effort that we put in, or the struggles that we face. everyone thinks we're paranoid when we say things like "what if i fail this paper?", because the general assumption is, "you're rafflesian! you're smart, you WON'T fail." the worst part is,when we screw up, people give us that incredulous look and go, "what happened?", and when we do well, people just assume "of course you'd do well, you're from raffles!" we put in a lot of effort too. i dislike it when people undermine my efforts, because i do take pride in my work. it's sad that people only see me for the grades on my certificate, but fail to acknowledge the hard work that i've put in to get those grades. typical singaporean mentality-- expectations, expectations, expectations. but let me tell you, raffles or not, people DO fail, and we work as hard as you do. we are only human. we may come from a highly-ranked school, and maybe some people think that we're atas and all, but mostly, we also think and feel like everyone else.
above all else, i love my raffles t-shirt. it IS the best shirt to sleep in because it's so soft and comfy. and yes, like gwenda, i'm going to stock up when i get back. :P
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