Basket.

So today my last A-Level subject paper ended, and we went out and had quite some fun. Lunch, library, movie et al. Good times.

Today just happened to be the day PSLE results were released, and my youngest cousin was one of the thousands receiving their scraps of paper all across the island. So she scored 238, which I quite genuinely think is a decent score, not outstanding, obviously, but good enough for most purposes. And then my mother is going on about how people can be so happy with results like this. I wisely keep my mouth shut. It isn't my business anyway.

Later, I am reading the newspapers and I come across this report with 3-year-olds learning to sculpt clay or something. What caught my eye was the report stating that one of these infant prodigies also learnt Chinese, gym, dancing and some other nonsense which I can't remember.

Good lord, the kid is three fucking years old. THREE. It probably can't even walk very well yet. And it is already being sent off to enrichment classes, and so many of them too. What the fuck has the world come to? This is just silly. "The best possible start in life" - this is actually giving your child the worst possible start, in my opinion. Whatever happened to giving your children a carefree childhood? It's going to have plenty of time, indeed, plenty of things to learn later. But look, the child is only three years old and you pack it off to so many courses already? It's insane. It's just plain stupid. Give your children a break, won't you parents? It is sheer madness to try to cram so much into one so young.

And thus, leading on to my main point (fuck, have been writing too many Lit essays lately) - why must we stress ourselves and our so-called "loved ones" so much? Why can't we learn to live with lower expectations? The best, always the best, never settle for anything but the best. Determination and drive is all well and good, but why can't we stop a moment and smell the flowers? Why can't we lower our goals and be happy for once with what we have achieved? Once you get past Primary 4, does it really matter very much whether you are EM1 or 2? PSLE results - the fuck is going to care about them once you get into secondary school. No one is going to bother about how many As you got for your O Levels or what your bloody L1R5 is once you get into a junior college. In the big scheme of things, do these all really matter? The answer is no.

Please - think of the children. Or think of yourself, for those older and more sentient. It really isn't worth it to push oneself so hard, to just neglect everything else with singular determination, just to grasp flimsy success. It doesn't last. It isn't worth it. There are plenty more important things in life, and one does not always need four As and two S-Paper distinctions to attain those.