Now that the O-Levels results are out, many of my ex-students (and potentially future JC students) have been asking the golden question: JC or Poly?Which JC? Some potentially ‘life-altering’ factors being considered include:
“I thought JC more prestigious!?”
“But all of my friends are going to this JC/Poly!”
“I heard JC very stressed – I wonder if I can cope?”
“My father say die die must choose JC because Poly got no future!”
“Poly more relaxed and no need to wear uniform! Yeah!”
“My friend tell me this Poly/JC got more chiobus … “
… and many other similarly ‘grave’ concerns were raised.
I want to say the cliche “It really depends.. On you! Your results, Your dreams, your aspirations, your abilities and most importantly, where you stay..
I quote the article below from exampapers.com.sg :
“ Pretty Daughter with Miss Hong Kong face: “Pa, I very the confused! I dunno whether I should be with him or not? How?”
Father with wise sagely voice: “Dun worry, just make your decision and stick with it.”
Pretty Daughter with Miss Hong Kong face: “But I scared I choose wrongly then regret later!
Father with wise sagely voice: “Once you made your decision, never ever regret it! … “
Father with wise sagely voice: ” … You will never regret because you made this decision after much careful consideration. In this world there is never a right or wrong answer, so when you’ve made up your mind, trust yourself and move on from there …”
The important point here is making informed decisions. Unfortunately at your tender age of 16-18, this is easier said than done as your mindset and outlook are often shaped through peer pressure. In Singapore, these could come in the forms of your friends, your education, newspapers & mainstream media, or even your well-meaning parents.
Many of you (or your parents) will tend to think that you must:
Study hard > Get good grades >
Go to uni > Get good grades >
Join a big company > Get good salary >
Get married > Get cute babies >
[Start Loop]
Get promoted > Get pay rise >
[End Loop]
Retire rich > Play with grandchildren >
Go china tour > Go to heaven (hopefully).
Miss Loi does not dispute the above, and actually many have experienced and found that to be the definition of a successful life. However Miss Loi would like to remind you that the world is always changing (and at shorter cycles too) – what you see now will not be what you think it will be in 10-20 years time. For e.g. do you think your parents could have predicted the rise of blogging and the internet? Or the mass retrenchments of middle-age workers?
On the other hand, Miss Loi believes that each and every one of you is unique, and will absolutely rox in some area – an area which you may not yet be aware of. Let’s call this your ‘calling’.
Given the current environment, it is not easy to discover your ‘calling’. For the sake of some generalizing: you could be very sociable (sales), like to help people (medical, teaching, social work), talk too much (consulting, lawyer – haha), like to dismember toys (engineer, IT), full of ideas (entrepreneur, marketing), creative (media, design), weird (media, design – haha), can’t sit still (anything but office life), vain/attention-seeking (model/artiste), fussy (audit), like to stack/organize your notes neatly (civil service – haha), always never return money you owe your friend (businessman – haha) or … better stop here lest more people get offended 
So how to find your ‘calling’?
From now on (if you’ve not already done so), Miss Loi urges you to make it your top priority to find your ‘calling’. At 16-18, you are still young and time is on your side. Whether you’re already in JC or Poly or ITE or haven’t choose yet, take this time to experience as much as you can, do different part-time work to see different industries (if you’re not the slack kind), party as hard as you can to know more people (if you’re the social kind), read as widely as you can (if you’re the not-so-social kind), try out some business idea (if you’re the anyhow ‘whack’ kind – high chance you will fail but that’s the point!), backpack and travel as far as you can and learn to be independent and experience the world beyond our little Singapore (if you’re the garang kind), or just try out anything you feel like trying (don’t scared this scared that scared parents not happy etc. – but please don’t go take drugs or get anyone pregnant!!!!)
The idea is to experience as many hits and misses (i.e. find out what you really like and what you don’t) while you are still young and eventually you will discover your ‘calling’ by the time it matters. If it’s indeed your ‘calling’, you will definitely excel in it through your passion regardless of what you choose. It is always better to be tops amongst your cahort instead of being another faceless lemming amongst the masses.
So hopefully this long post will help you a little the next time you are faced with a ‘life-altering’ decision. Just FYI, some of Miss Loi’s richest friends have never completed their respective Uni/Poly/Sec/Pri education. Drugs and pregnancies aside, there is never a right or wrong decision. If you think you’ve just screwed-up big time, just remember Miss Loi always says that the next step you take is always more important than the previous step you left behind.
“
Well, it really depends on individual and this lady has given very sound advice. As for which JC to go, talk to me personally. Tell me your grades, what you want to do in future, where you want to live, what rumours you hear about each JC. There is no such thing as XJC has better teachers because every school has their fair share of good and not so suited to your learning or attention grabbing in lectures teachers. MOE just allocates the teachers accordingly. So don’t let these rumours decide your faith. Because you won’t know what tutor you will have when you go JC and it really depends alot on yourself. Most importantly. Are you willing to work very hard because JC is a test of your discipline and ability to go beyond working hard. So if you do need help, feel free to sms me or call me or email me at
Wish you all the best and hope you make the right decision.
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