My high school in one post

This is a reflection of my high school life in one post. I always think it’s quite dangerous to ruminate the past coz you don’t want to get EMO-ed too much about past events. E.g. did I get the most out of it? Is there things I regret doing/ not doing? How did certain events in that period shape the next couple of years etc. But this post contains some of the key memories of my high school anyway.

Math Olympiad boy

One thing I could quite remember is I used to enjoy and good at MATH (NO JOKE). I have this 1 hour Math Olympiad class every Saturday ever since I was primary school (with 1-2 years break in between) and I actually quite enjoy it (and I missed it)! There was one time I got a first-prize in the inter-school mathematics competition in F4 (which I still think it was a marking mistake, coz I am pretty sure I didn’t know most of the Qs that competition) which was my highlight of my Math career.

Now that I think of it - I prob used to get this dopamine hit from solving a Math Qs in a test and exam or sth lmao. I actually got A* in both Maths and A-level Maths in A-levels and I am very well suited to study Maths or Computer Sciences in Uni and I actually did think about that.

I think the main reason I didn’t go for it is I knew I am good at Math but I am not that good - I will never be able to compete with other people who are much smarter than me. Math and CS is a field that actually requires a bit of talent if you want to reach higher etc. Did I make the wrong choice? or am I just stupid. Guess I will never find out.

Cocky boy

I am definitely a super cocky/ over-confident/ annoying guy back in high school. If you ask me in Year 1/2 in uni I would def say I fking hated my high school self soooo much. But now that I am Year 4 and honestly I don’t remember much now and I have already forgiven myself. Good job me. Time heals.

Boring summer

One thing I always remember is that summer is always boring AF. There is quite an age/ generation gap between me and my parents (I am the youngest child in the family and my oldest sister is already married), my parents are one of those older generation types and they never fking travel. Each summer I am usually just boring AF and play video games/ watch anime till midnight. I wish I had a more energetic summer mate (now that I’ll never have summer again).

Fun fact I haven’t been to taiwan/ japan/ South Korea before, thanks mum.

5AM period

During a period of F5 I suddenly become very motivated (Prob bc I realised I couldn’t continue to waster my life anymore). There was a period I actually wake up at 5AM or sth everyday intentionally and go running and do a bit of reading everyday. I think that was the period when I read some good books that really shaped my life as it is today (Good job me). I started to get curious essentially, which is a really important trait. One memorial book is a book called Mindset - which basically teaches me not to beat myself up (too much). If there is anything that I am not good at I can be better at it practicing. I read mostly non-friction about personal growth around that time (which I still do today).

Crazy boy

I have to say YWC curriculum SUCKS back then when I was F5. We were doing the AS syllabus (Paper 1 to 3) in F5 but were supposedly to take the A-level exams (Paper 1 to 6) in F6 summer instead (Bro what?). I was super rebellious back then and recruited a few of my classmates to take classes in CEC Macau in F5, and we fking take leaves to sit the AS exams in F5 in other center in Macau. I think the school was pissed bc YWC is one of the A-levels center in Macau and we were taking load of leaves in May/ June and go to other school and take the exams lmao. I was also super crazy as to take extra sick-leaves to just study for the AS exams (shout out to my mum for being my partner-in-crime, although very reluctantly). In the end I got 99.7% full marks on 4 A-levels or sth I was super proud of myself.

Rebellious nature is in my BLOOD.

Fun fact YWC opened the F5 AS level exams after we left. YWC students should thank me for being the pioneer in this revolution.

Brave boy

Perhaps I can’t stand YWC anymore (F6 teachers was notoriously not-good back in my period), and various reasons probably, I decided to leave YWC and study in cskphc for my F6 year (Mum was pissed, very). It’s not particular easy for loads of reasons, but it was kinda a “step outside comfort zone thingy” and I would say this period was def a catalyst for growth for the next few years to come.

Struggle in family.

I have to say my mum isn’t supportive at ALL, half of the time, especially in those early periods. She is one of the old fashioned traditional Chinese Mum (I am not blaming her) and i think ALL she fking wanted is me going to Tsinghua University (THU) or Peking University (PKU) to make her proud. She was fucking very PISSED when I first said I wanna go to ICL. We then have prob around 1.5 years of daily arguments it was a really harsh period (Daily fuck you in cantonese - literally say it, is a usual thing). It’s also during the AS level as well so I have to not let emotion get to me too much. I was also so pissed that I said fuck off and stayed in Macau alone with my whole family was going back China for the Chinese New Year - just an example of that revolution period.

She started to relax (and prob started to understand I don’t always follow what she wants me to do etc) after a while. Honestly I think I have forgiven her now. Revolution is worth sometime yay.

In a nutshell

Like I said I try not to evaluate my high school life too much coz there’s not really any meaning to do so now. I think my condition does teaches me to be rebellious (in a good way, higher risk tolerance etc), me starting the reading habit was also very beneficial. I don’t think I have a “normal” Macau family which might be both a bliss and cult, and has direct consequences to the years to come - There are loads of annoying family/ Chinese family thing/ ideas/ self-limitations etc that I need to try very hard to wash away in my Uni (Prob one reasons why I got loads of tattoos now, another post maybe).

It is impossible to write everything that has happened so I’ll just stop here for now .. Is there things that I wished I had done/ not done? Loads of them .. But at the same time I was also proud of myself .. It was an OK period ..