My Life Story

Haha isn't it cool to name a post with the same name as the blog's name?

Okay so I warn you that this post will look like an autobiography of a person born on 16th February 1992 whose name is Heizel. I wonder if one day somebody will make a biography of me heheh..

So I was born into a family of a multi-skilled dad and a pragmatic mom. When I was a baby, a burglar entered my then-house. Worried about my safety, my parents decided to move into our grandparents house which is both my house and home until now. A year later, I was given a younger sibling. We quarreled a lot when we were kids but now I really treasured having a brother. I can't imagine how dull my childhood will be if I was born to be the only child in the family.

I started playing soccer when I was in Primary 4. At that time, my brother and I were so passionate about soccer that we played almost everyday. We used this wall in my house as the goal and we played for a few hours a day. I'll have to say that the passion was further fueled my the anime Captain Tsubasa which was really a boom during that period of time.

So I went through my kindergarten and primary school in peace. Not really, though. I was so short that my taller friends always bullied me. I'm still relatively short now but at least not too short. God knows what His children need and He will provide it when we really need it. I did quite well in school too. This is not meant to brag, but I always either topped or second-topped the class from primary school to secondary school. And again, I'll never grow bored attributing all these successes to God.

In May 2007, I received a scholarship to further my study in Singapore. It was really exciting as everything about my future seems to clear up and brighten up. In November the same year, I flied here with two of my best friends: Aldrian and Gideon to Singapore, the land of promise for me. Actually I'd been praying about this a lot even before taking the scholarship test. So it's really God answering my prayers. One year later, He also answered my prayer and my brother won the scholarship too.

If anyone would ask me to name two events that really changed and shaped my life, I will answer God and Dale Carnegie course. Knowing God is really a privilege for me as I have Someone to look at every time I need Him. As for the Dale Carnegie course, in case you don't know it's like a self-improvement course to boost confidence. At first my parents registered me there because I was such a shy person. Little did they know that it was a life-changing decision for me. Not only did it make me more confident but also it taught me life skills that I believe will be necessary for my future. I learned to control my emotion. I learned to prioritize. I learned to invest my time on friends and my social circle. I also learned to step out of my comfort zone to reach my maximum potential. Oh well, it was definitely one crucial step I have taken in my life. To be honest, I used to be a boy who was scared of girls. I just disliked girls for no reason when I was in primary school. It was when I really fell for a girl for the first time that I changed haha. It was quite fun to look back and reflect how I have changed over time.

So yeah that was it. I have been in Singapore for 2.5 years by now. It means I only have 1.5 years left here. I want to enjoy the remaining time I have here as much as I can. I'm pretty sure I'll miss this place once I graduated. Hopefully I can get 45 points (it IS a dream, but yeah who knows?) :P and my ultimate target: UK/US! Oh ya I've taken so many commitments now such as student council not just for CV alright. I truly enjoy the experience and I'm expecting more fun ahead!

Talking about BGR (Boy-Girl Relationship), I think I'll still stick to my initial stand that I will NOT engage in a relationship until I graduate from IB 1.5 years from now. It's just not worth the time as now I'm still very busy with school works and stuffs. Again, as Achebe says in his novel "No Longer At Ease" that enjoyment can wait. I'm still looking for my perfect imperfection though. Once I find the right one (I think I'm on my way towards that, not far from now), I'll wait. Yes, I will wait for the right time which in my case should be after IB. So yup yup that's all folks! Write to you later yeah :)

God bless you all!

There you go: A THANK YOU NOTE!

I want to take the time to thank these people who have really been there for me especially in my times of need.

My parents
Thank you papah and mamah for supporting me thus far and giving me valuable advices that I really find helpful. You are always so concerned about me whether I study too hard here. You are always so worried that I run out of money too. You and God are really the two reasons that keep me going whenever I feel down and unable to carry on. Thanks mom and dad. I love you.

Michael Ivan
Although you keep saying that I'm more mature and stronger and so on and so forth than you, actually you have your stronger times as well. Maybe it's a way God uses to draw you back to him. Well I don't know how God works in your life but I believe it is for good. Keep striving, keep persevering. Remember that you always have God and your friends to back you up whenever you feel your life is falling apart.

Deiver
Yo wassup I don't think you'll ever read this but oh well, just want to thank you for being so supportive all the way. You might not realize it but I do admire you in some aspects like how you persevere despite of all the negative remarks you get. And see how you've matured so much in the past 1.5 years you've been in Singapore? I'm so proud of you. So yeah, I'll keep mentioning your name in prayer every day like how I've done for the past 3 years or so :)

Miss Grace
Hi madam. I highly doubt that you'll ever read this ever. Still, I'm really thankful for all the scoldings and disciplining I went through under your supervision in Hall 4. Although people keep saying how unfortunate and sad I am for being placed in this hall, I myself feel otherwise. I thank you for letting my brother to stay in the same hall as me too. See how much he has changed thanks to you madam :) One last thing is I want to thank you for all the treats and gifts you've given me so far. I still remember all of them and I could still fondly recall the experience. Thanks for the life-changing journey madam! I'll make you proud by doing well for my IB exam next year.

City Harvest Church
One of the best decisions I've ever made is to go to City Harvest Church. I have been molded here through the painful experiences as well as the delightful memories I have in the church. This is where I first encountered God and received the gift of Holy Spirit. Thanks City Harvest!

Shiladitya Ghosh
Heya Mr. Chairman! Thanks for being super friendly towards we the scholars. Not many Singaporeans can be so friendly and accepting as you are. Yes, we are different from you Singaporeans but it was a difference that should be celebrated. After all we all go through the same journey of IB right? Yup yup, thanks for being an awesome chairman and an awesome friend!

Steven, Sucip, Eko, Liauw, IW, Clifford, Irvan, CS
Thank you guys for being my good friends! You really are friends that I am closer to. Good luck with your study and everything. I know we can go through this together and emerge victorious!


Ooh Lilis
Hi ooh. I don't think you'll ever read this either but I just wanna thank you for all your concern and love to we your nephews. We're not even your children but you really care about us. I'll be forever grateful for your valuable advices and thoughtful opinions which eventually guided me through my times of trials last year :)

Adit, GD, Metew, BJ
I felt guilty for forgetting to mention your names here. Thanks Ivan for reminding me that I should not and must not forget the old friends. You know what, besides the fact that I can confidently say that I consider you all my best friends, I really do enjoy the time we've spent together in the boarding school for the past 2 years. For Metew, although I only knew you when we became roommates, I must say I only starts to treasure the moments we spent together when you have left. I want to apologize for being an annoying roommate at times as well. Wish you all a great journey ahead in your respective schools.

Vina
Hehe see I'm so kind to remember you in my blog too! Not every sure if you will read this but oh well, let's get it started. First of all thank you vin for helping us go through the pain of organizing our reunion dinner last December. It was real fun, wasn't it? Thank you for the outing we had during my last holiday in Bandung. I must admit that it was my first time going Chang Ge haha. I really enjoyed it and I hope you did too. So sorry you had to go home yourself at that time. I really should have practiced driving cars better so that next time I can drive you home or something. I must learn the map of Bandung as well >.< Yeah last but not least thanks for all the conversations we had especially during World Cup. It was 3 am in the morning and I was like chatting with you for a couple of hours until the match was over. Thank you for that yeah. So I hope to see you soon! :)

Ding, Ben, Zheng Wei, Mat, Natasha
Guys thanks a lot for the bible study time we have together especially to Ding who is the one who initiated this fellowship we've been having every week. Honestly, from the first time we had our first bible study in Sabah I know it's gonna be a great great opportunity to get closer to each other as well as to God. Yeah, hopefully we'll keep growing not only in number but also in altitude :)


So yeah. Will extend the list if I got time :)

A song I came across today

Kamu Bukan Kekasihku - Yovie & Nuno

sejak pertama kukenali dirimu

kumerasa engkaulah belahan jiwa

tapi artinya kusesali dirimu

sebelumnya kau telah terikat janji dengannya

reff:

kamu bukan kekasihku

namun berikan segalanya

aku merasa turut bersalah

ganggu cintamu dan cintanya

kau hadir dalam mimpiku

saat kau ada dengannya

aku terluka, mungkin harusnya

di akhiri semua ini

biarkan ku sendiri

dan kau berkata terasa lebih indah

bila aku selalu ada dekatmu

tapi benarkah semua ada artinya

bila miliknya tak pernah miliki seutuhnya 

saat ku menjauh

sungguhnya ku rindu padamu

Just a post about life in general

I really wanted to write about things that I encounter in my life here in Singapore.
The last few posts are about specific topics so I think it's time to come out with a more general post yeah?
And I promise there'll be nothing here about exam. Promise.

Okay so it's been about three weeks since I flied back to Singapore after the one month June holiday. Life's been treating me well so far. No more homesick, no more relationship problems whatsoever. Yeah, God is great really! I've been really enjoying the weekly bible study my class's having. When we prayed to God during our first bible study in Sabah that we'd start with 8 people but we'll definitely end with more than 8 people, He has really been faithful and granted us the desires of our hearts. Currently, we have people such as Thang, Mark, Natalie, Ivan, and Rae joining us for our bible study. And the number keeps growing! :)

In addition to that, my relationship with people around me is simply amazing as it is! I'm not short of friends. I have one awesome brother here. Most important of all, I have God who is always by my side guiding my way and carrying me through this IB journey here in Singapore. Great is Thy faithfulness of Lord of my life!

I've been closer to her too! Hope things will go well and by God's grace He'll show me the best way of all.
Yup yup, I shall post another thank you post specially dedicated to express my gratitude to people around me who have supported me all the way and of course, God :)

The result for mid year exam is out!

There is no better time to start blogging than when the exam result is just released. I received the fruits of my hard work during the exam 2 weeks ago this morning when the teachers gave back our papers. Usually, I have always been anxious on the day before the exam paper release. However, this time round I felt neither anxiety nor worries about this exam. It's not that I'm super confident about my result. I guess it's God's work all over again who has blessed me tremendously in my life. This perfectly reflects the word of God in Matthew 6 which reads "Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his structure?" I posted that verse on my table so that I will never fall into the trap of anxiety any more. I feel that when you hold tight to God's word, He will not hold his blessings for you. This is really true for me especially after undergoing the pre-paper-release period during the past one week.

So yeah, shall I jump straight to my result?

Here is a detailed list of my marks for this year's mid year in comparison with last year's final year exam.

Mid Year Exam Year 5

Physics HL (72% - 7 pts) 

Chemistry HL (73% - 6 pts)

Mathematics HL (58% - 4 pts)

English A1 SL (56% - 5 pts)

Malay B SL (89% - 7 pts)

Economics SL (67% - 5 pts)

Aggregate: 35 pts

Final Year Exam Year 4

Language Arts (80% - 7 pts)

Physics (75% - 6 pts)

Chemistry (78% - 6 pts)

Core Maths (94% - 7 pts)

Advanced Maths (88% - 7 pts)

IHS (74% - 6 pts)

History (75% - 6 pts)

Higher Malay (85% - 7 pts)

Aggregate: 40 pts

See the difference?

Nonetheless, I really thank God for the result He has given me.

May my good result be a testimony of His everlasting love and grace in my life!

God bless you all :)

Post-exam holiday

The past three days of holiday have been fantastic.

Day 1:
I went with a couple of friends to watch Eclipse in Orchard Cineleisure. Having read all 4 books of the saga, I find the third sequel the best so far. I can't wait for the first part of Breaking Dawn, the last sequel of the saga, to come out on Nov 18 this year.

After the movie, I went to Macs with some of my friends wanting to catch the match between Holland and Brazil. We went to Queensway branch only to find that they did not screen world cup matches anymore =(

Fortunately, by God's grace somehow the TV in my hall in boarding school managed to capture the signal from Indonesian channel and I could watch the match with my friends in the hall although it is in black and white. The match was breathtaking and am so glad that Holland won heheh.

Day 2:
The next day I had an equally interesting day. I decided not to go to church on that day and to go on Sunday instead so that I could catch a game of soccer with my friends. It's been over a month since the last time I played soccer on the turf. It felt so good to be back on the field. Plus, I played pretty well, scoring a couple of goals and some assists. You don't mind me showing off a bit here right? I couldn't do this in Facebook alright.

The day ended with yet another big match between Germany and Argentina. This time round my favourite team for this World Cup was thrashed by Germany 4-0. So was I crushed that night. Luckily the Spanish beat Paraguay so it like compromises the other match. I slept at 5 on that day.

Day 3:
It was Sunday morning when I woke up but rain is not falling lol. I had to go to church at 830 so I only had 3 hours of sleep. Thank God the sermon was good and I didn't fall asleep in church. In the evening, I went for a buffet meal at Sakae Sushi with my brother, Ivan and Adit. It's a really good catching-up session esp. with Adit whom we seldom see. There was an incident as Adit threw up right after exiting the restaurant hahah I think he just ate too much. To our surprise, he was not the only one throwing up in the toilet as there was another man who also threw up on the same time as him! Amazing what a buffet dinner can do to you :O

This pic doesn't justify how much food we ate!

(The waiter has cleared the plates when this was taken)

So yeah that's all. Today is a day off thanks to Youth Day. And it's a bit more relaxed because I don't go anywhere today (umm maybe to gym later). So yeah, have a good day peeps! =)

EXAM IS OVER!! *hooraaayyyy

Finally the much-anticipated Term 3 exam which is my first IB major exam is over. I can't describe the relief and gratitude I feel after surviving the one week period of exam. What's more: now I have a one week holiday before school reopens for me next Friday. It's just the right time to blog again yeah?

Well just want to recount my experience before, during and after exam here. The timing for my exam this time is very weird as it began on the first day school reopened after the one month June holiday. You sure can imagine how hard it was to force myself to study during holiday. On top of that, I have some overdue assignments from Term 2 which I hadn't been able to complete by the time holiday started *sigh

In the end, I started working on my school works and studying for exam after my brother flied back to Singapore which was one week before school officially reopened. I can't thank God more for His help during that one week of studying. Somehow I was able to concentrate well despite of the daily World Cup temptation and frequent going out with friends. He has really blessed my time and multiplied it a hundred fold. I must also say that the last one week of my holiday has been a really FUN FUN one!

The exam itself is super tough. Despite of the fact that the materials to be studied are not that much, the intensity and degree of difficulties of the concepts to be grasped as well as the questions set by the teachers are incomparable to secondary school. To make things worse, I suffered a really bad homesick right after I arrived in Singapore. Somehow I really missed my parents, my friends in Bandung, and all the fun we had during holiday. The change was just too abrupt and I didn't have ample time to adapt back to Singapore mode.

I did my first three papers which include Physics relatively successfully. Chemistry and Maths papers, however, were much harder. Nevertheless, I knew that I had done my best and that God Himself will take care of the rest. Looking back, I realized that the homesick I caught was indeed from God. He wanted to use my homesickness to draw me back to Him. To tell the truth, I had not been close to God during my holiday in Indo. I often skipped my prayer time and quite time. Lesson learned: God can and will use anything to draw us back to Him.

Now what's in front of me is a few days of enjoying myself, one day of cleaning up my super messy room, and finally bounce back to school mode as EE, TOK presentation, and IOP are all coming closer :)