A Page of Me: Top 5 Events of 2019
Believe it or not, we are a few more days away until the end of 2019. It seems like yesterday writing the blog for the Top 4 Events of 2018, and now we are here. And for some of us, 2019 has been rough, tough and a whole lotta ass-whooping that life can't give you a break from. For me, 2019 has been one of my toughest years so far. I had to do a lot of mental battles at times just do overcome things that I thought I couldn't do. And as this chapter of 2019 closes, a new one in 2020 would open, filled with so many new and exciting things that I am looking really forward to do. But for now, let's take a look back at the Top 5 moments in my life that I've been through this year to see what actually went down.
#5: I scalded my leg with boiling water (a lot of it) - February 2019:
Before you are like... WTF is this? Is this even a huge event? Yes, it is!!!
So basically I was in my hall during thing the time of this incident. It was about an hour before my CS tutorial (YES! This CS1010) and I was rushing for a quick meal because I pretty much studied the entire time and forgot about lunch. It was about 1pm and I boiled water for some cup noodles; Kimchi flavour to be exact. After boiling the water, I poured the hot water into the noodle cup, which was on my desk. Finding absolutely nothing around me suitable to cover the top to let it cook, I used the HALL RECEIPT BOOK to cover the top. That was the first shitty mistake I did because this receipt book was really too important for me to be using it as a cover to cook my noodles. The last thing I wanted to do was to get it wet and dirty if I spill my noodles, but I did not anticipate what was gonna come next.
The second shitty mistake I made was not holding the base of the cup noodles before removing the cover. Maybe I was in a rush and was flustered by the time and the work I was doing... That part I'm not too clear of, but I just lifted the receipt book up without holding the base. Little had I know, the paper cover of the cup noodles was stuck to the receipt book. So when I removed the receipt book, the cup noodles just tilted, tilting more and more as I removed the book. And obviously, I wasn't aware of it. Alas, the cup noodles eventually splashed on my pants and the entire back of my left leg. For that 30 seconds of horror, I have been pretty much helpless as the water or soup, as you can say, running down my leg and burning its way through. My pants didn't do me any damage reduction and it was just scalding my leg as well after absorbing the soup.
I was just silently shouting during that period of time as I washed my entire floor just covered with Kimchi condiments' and smell. And all I could think of was... damn, I'm screwed, I gotta clean this mess and go to the tutorial, which was like in 45 minutes time, bearing in mind that my entire left leg was still slowly burning and I gotta get to the bathroom quickly to cool down my already burning leg, change, and wash the floor. And I know some of y'all gonna be like... "Why not call help from the hall office?" Well, let's just say some stuff in my room shouldn't be there and that calling hall assistance would just be shooting myself in the foot.
So fast forward, I hobbled into the bathroom, stood under running cold water for around 10 minutes, and then hobbled back to change and literally clean the entire floor before leaving my hall for my tutorial. The entire journey to my tutorial was hell. The sun was scorching like any other day, and being under the scorching sun only continued to give me the burning sensation. The best part was that there wasn't any shelter throughout my journey and there were points where I just had to make a dash while hobbling because in just mere seconds, the burning feeling would come back and it was a mad feeling.
And the third shitty mistake was not going to the doctor immediately. Actually, to be exact, my timetable did not permit me anytime to see a doctor so as the days went by, my leg was getting more and more swollen till it looked like that:
5 days later, I finally went to the doctor, and by the seventh day it looked like this:
Thankfully, I recovered just in time for my concert and I did not have to hobble on stage. Everything is fine now and my leg has all healed up but damn, that was an event that I'll never forget. And yes, it's all my fault it happened.
#4: Accomplishing Amplitude 2019 (Concert) - February 2019:
My bro recently asked me what was my highlight in 2019. And it doesn't take long to say that this was my absolute highlight. From start to end, I enjoyed every single moment of it. To be the one leading a good 300 people onto the stage with my team is something that I would never ever forget. Would I do it all over again if given a chance? Definitely without a single doubt. I will always have Amplitude in my heart and Amplitude will always have me should they need someone at the helm again. But, I'm happy that someone who is just as, if not more capable than me has taken over the helm and I wish him all the best for Amplitude 2020. Nonetheless, should NUS Resonance need a Director, my door is always open and I'll be so humbled if I get that opportunity.
#3: Going to Hokkaido - July/August 2019:
Perhaps another great and memorable highlight was going to Hokkaido (Japan) during my holidays with my family. It was a significant event because it was only my third time traveling overseas and my first ever time traveling with my entire family. And what better place to go to other than Hokkaido; the land of fresh fishies and flowers.
The trip started off really bad, because my grandmother, who is 93 years old, got a panic attack when we got to the hotel as she still thought that we were at home. Y'know how dementia can be. But after hours of settling down and walking around, she managed to settle down and the trip went as normal. We went free and easy, so it was up to me to plan for the good two weeks with my family. Every day was super packed with activities, from road travels to train rides and just sightseeing all day long. And y'know how those relatives of yours are like "Aiya, call Taxi wherever you go lah, safer and better for your grandma." Omg I love you my G but taking a taxi overseas is one of the WORST ideas you can give when you can just explore more stuff and enjoy more things while driving or taking a train. It's so expensive and pretty much I could use the money to buy more seafood lmao. Thankfully, the road trips were manageable for my parents and grandmother, so there isn't really much to haggle over in my opinion.
After those two weeks, my parents and grandmother went back home first while I had to hang on for a week longer to clear a module over there. If it wasn't for the module, the whole family trip wouldn't even happen. Since the module was about agriculture, I managed to experience lots of agriculture places, gained lots of insights on the Japan agriculture and made some new friends as well.
I was thinking of doing a video of my trip to Japan for the entire 3 weeks there, or maybe a full blog on what actually went down. But eh, shall see how it goes. Would I return to Hokkaido again? You bet I will. The best overseas trip I've ever been to and no regrets whatsoever.
#2: Teaching Tuition for a Junior College Student - September - November 2019:
For those that actually followed my life or read my stories, you would know that I've been actively teaching tuition during my holidays and most recently, teaching while I'm schooling since I'm no longer staying in hall. I have taught a total of 3 students this year; two of whom are from Secondary 3 and 4. But in the midst of all the studying during my Y3S1 stint, I was offered a job to teach a JC1 student. Even though I used to teach Junior College students, it wasn't anywhere near a tuition-like kind of job where the pressure is on and I need to perform to please the demanding parent wanting results for their kid. But when I was offered a job to teach a JC1, I still applied for it despite knowing the impending pressure I could face, not excluding the fact that I was overloading for that particular semester. However, if you knew me well, you would know that teaching JC students have and always been my dream and goal in the long term. So when my application was accepted, you can bet how happy I was.
Admittedly, the job was difficult. The parents demanded a lot from me and wanted me to change my tutee's grade within a month. Could I do it? Perhaps I could, because I believed that nothing is impossible. But the pressure was immense. I could still remember my first lesson with my tutee, just sitting down and going through a single chapter for over an hour. It was difficult for my tutee as much as it was for me because it required lots of mental concentration on my part. At times, I needed to fight off the sleepiness from being in class because I would come and teach after long hours of classes at NUS. Despite all these, I put in my 110% whenever I teach, so I'm happy to have achieved this experience at this stage of my life while many people around me were too afraid to take the challenge.
#1: Experiencing Life with the Hokkaido Students - August & December 2019:
If I were to pick one extremely memorable event that actually happened this year; this one would top the list alongside Amplitude. Why? Because the experience I got with this group of guys are just second to none.
Its so crazy to think that we only had 2 weeks with each other marred with presentations, reports and reflections that contained strict deadlines. Yet, we somehow found a way to go out and enjoy, making full use of our time together. When we were in Japan, me and Edwin enjoyed the Gengkhis Khan hosted by the Japanese students. It was so, so great. We were also taught how Japanese people would pray in a religious area like this:
And then when it came to our turn to host them, it was affected pretty badly by the torrential rain almost every single day. Yet, we managed to bring them to places like Labrador Park, Vivo City, Sentosa, Marina Bay, Gardens By The Bay and the Merlion. On the last day of our programme, the Japanese guys wanted to visit the Merlion after visiting Sentosa. On a side note, they really reserved all the fun to the very last day. Anyhoo, it was drizzling at Sentosa. Thankfully, there was a sheltered pathway from Vivo City to the end of Sentosa. So it wasn't that bad. But when we got to the Esplanade en route to Merlion, it was pouring like crazy. And because the last day was presentation day, I wore some decent looking shirt and shoes. Being the idiot that I am, I didn't bring my umbrella on that day, and was pretty much doomed for this journey to the Merlion. I couldn't get my shoes wet because they were a special kind of shoes. So in the end, I was truly prepared to bear the torrential rain while walking barefooted all the way from the Esplanade to the Merlion. And as nice as they were, the Japanese guys took turns to shelter me with their own mini-umbrellas. And as for Edwin, he used his poncho and got his shoes pretty much wet.
I actually think the bonds me and Edwin had with the Japanese guys just peaked at the very last day of our programme.
Some other honorable mentions for top events of 2019 would be me actually surviving the semester with 7 modules. Now I know some of you'd be like "So simple, other people have also done it." Yeah, I get it, others have probably had 7 or 8 modules. But within the 7 modules that I took, 2 were 6 hours long labs and 3 were level 3000 core modules. In addition to that, I travel to and fro Bedok every day whilst teaching 2/3 tuition a week. If that's not intense I don't know what is. And another honorable mention would be actually matchmaking (directly/indirectly) at least 3 couples this entire year but myself. Yes, it's a year when everyone around you are coupling except yourself. Who's with me on this one?
So that's it for 2019! It has been a year full of smiles, sadness, things to look back on and things to look forward to. I enjoyed the company of the people I love, including my bros and friends from Uni. And as I had promised you, there will be some changes going on to ggdotcom. I had to consider for a really long time before making this decision and I'm glad to take the leap of faith and get out of my comfort zone to do something a little different in 2020:
- To start off, theggdotcom will be launching the birth of its YouTube channel (ggdotcomTV), and the first video will be released sometime in between January and March. Stay tuned for upcoming news about it on my Instagram (geraldgg__) and hope that you will support me in this new project.
- theggdotcom has reached approximately 13,000 total views since the beginning of its launch. To allow people to appreciate theggdotcom more, theggdotcom will be expanding its channel to not only Blogger, but on other blogging platforms as well. theggdotcom on blogger will continue its post concurrently with the new blogging platform. However, this will only take effect in approximately May - June period. Stay tuned for more updates.
- And as an added bonus, by popular demand, "Crossing the Cheating Line Part 2" will be released in 2020 as well.
Thank you for all your support once again... I hope to be able to produce more exciting contents for you guys in the future. Wishing you guys a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Byeee!
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