Basket.

Pragmatic. Dogmatic; dictatorial, according to dictionary.com. And not a word often associated with me. In fact, never, until today.

Now, I've been called a considerable number of things, good and bad, in this short 17 years, but never, ever this word, until today. Not that I have anything against the people (Cherylene, Jieqi and Gen seemed to come to this common consensus) who perpetrated this act; they have every right to their opinion. I am just intrigued... what could possibly make me a pragmatist in their eyes?

Could it be my ruthless, bean-counting ways as treasurer? Or my insistence that six weeks is a standard time before an exam to start studying? Perhaps it is my continued stress on being focused in preparation for the exams. I can only postulate, for it is a complete mystery to me; over the years people have more associated me as an antithesis of a pragmatist!

In RI I was rather known as being a slacker; one who did his homework but almost never studied, getting by by virtue of sheer intellectual capability; most of the time at least. I never did do many Maths practice questions like much of the rest of 4E; yet I, like everyone else, studied and worried when the exams came, be they Sec 1, Prelims or O-Levels. Never too fond of the sciences and maths, I literally had to force myself to sit down and mug those disgusting formulas and equations.

Hmmm... perhaps therein lies my pragmatism. I actually bothered, and managed, to force myself to do it. To study what I did not like. A dogmatic act that qualifies me as a pragmatist? Or me, not naturally pragmatic, forced to become so by circumstance? I would happily have dropped all 3 sciences and Add Maths if I could, after all, ie if the school allowed and... I must admit, no negative consequences were forthcoming from this act.

Aha. Perhaps it is that last part that can be seized on. "No negative consequences were forthcoming from this act"... have I just exposed myself as a pragmatist here? If so, however, I can think of one more question to ask: why are we all taking Maths C and complaining about it despite the fact that we can drop it anytime? I see no other reason than the fact that 4 A-Level subjects are a world away from 3. If this is so, we are all, every single one of us who hates Maths, taking into account these "negative consequences". So, are we all closet pragmatists, or what...?

Winston and the bunch of them never saw me more than a guy who was lazy but had something in my head; Zihao in a recent straw poll was of the opinion that I was "less pragmatic than most". Indeed, I myself feel that I almost always follow my fancy in doing things, sometimes to my own detriment. What, in the end, exactly are my characteristics? Can they be clearly defined, or am I a mass of contradictions? Mmm... very interesting. To think one single remark (ok, a few) can launch a journey of self-exploration. I wonder. No, I seriously do.