r/singaporespeaks

I'm a student, currently in uni year 1.

I will say, I am really different from the average person in SG. Throughout the years interacting with other Gen Zs of my batch (born between 2002 to 2006), all I can say is, god forbid people have hobbies.

I say my hobby and they don't grow curious. But if it's something relatable, they go on and on about it with other people. It's also not just hobbies, but behaviour and attitude. If an individual says something unique, they scurry away. If an individual wants to criticize, acts not-as-per-expected from the average Singaporean, they scurry away. What this shows is people who are different are looked at less while those who are factory-produced replicas are always given social opportunities.

Since I was young, I was always out of the norm and got bullied so many times, including in NS.

I cannot tahan this country. I've been suffering from severe social isolation it is suffocating. My social skills are so bad it is insane to find anyone who is willing to put up with my differences from the norm. I find it so difficult to talk to people while trying to hook them to the conversation, just because they don't find me relatable.

I am not going to be a replica of everyone in SG.

I had goals to help SG improve such as via public health policy, but I am trying to resist losing that motivation.

If people don't want to help me, then why the hell should I serve to improve this country?

I love being innovative, but this country suffocates that kind of characteristic in me.

Just an ordinary early 30s avg guy w an avg job but slightly lower than avg salary. Iron rice bowl company thought. No kids.

Just moved over to a less demanding dept, and stopped working on the weekends ever since. Feels great at the start, i get more time w my wife, cooking, researching on companies, or just rotting at home over the weekends. But it’s been months with this life and i kinda feel that i should do something else to generate side income. Rather than rotting away. Side hustle abit perhaps? But i would want to do something that value adds my life, and not trade time for money. Meaning to say, no grabfood, grabcar kind of side hustles. Learnt how to trade but concluded that it isnt my kind of thing(though still trying).

What can i actually do? I’m thinking of starting a small business, probably 1k ish a month if possible. But i have no idea what business should i start with. Any ideas? Whats in trend for the up coming years? What are you guys doing over the weekend?

11 years as an early childhood educator… i don’t even know where to begin.

it’s been so long since i properly journaled my reflections about my career. partly because life kept moving, and partly because i wasn’t sure what to say. and linkedin always feels like the place where everyone has it together… where careers look clean and linear and certain.

mine hasn’t been any of those things. and maybe that’s exactly why i’m writing this today.

i used to count the years in my career.
“1st teacher’s day!” - 2014 during an internship
“5th teacher’s day!”
“8th teacher’s day!”

somewhere in the last year, i quietly crossed more than ten years in teaching. there was no fanfare. no moment where it all clicked. just me, realising in my heart: “oh. it’s been a decade.”

i started on a law degree. i left. people thought i was mad, but said, “well done following your passion!” maybe i was mad. but indeed, i followed something i couldn’t explain at the time, switched to early childhood education, and showed up to my first classroom in 2015 with more heart than sense.

i’ve never regretted it. i might have struggled with the idea that we as teachers aren’t compensated enough, yes, but my heart for teaching has always burnt wild.

along the way i took a gap year, flew to ireland, completed my honours degree. and subsequently was offered a place to do my master’s in early intervention at trinity college dublin. i was so proud of that.

and then covid swallowed the world whole, and i gave it up. came back to singapore. came back to the kids. told myself it was the right call and kept moving.

teaching has always been bigger than a classroom for me. the children that stay on my mind the most are the ones the world overlooks… the underprivileged, the unseen. showing up for them never felt like work. it felt like the whole point.

but i’d be very honest that ten years is a long time to give your heart to something that feels like it takes more that it gives in this reality. and i won’t pretend it has always been easy.

there are seasons in this profession that quietly wear me down, not because the love fades, but because loving something deeply doesn’t make it weightless.

my love for children, my love for teaching — that has never moved an inch. but i think after a decade, i’m allowed to pause, breathe, and reflect on the road behind me before i look ahead.

here’s to over ten years in this title people say it’s noble. to the little faces that made it all mean something. and to whatever the next season holds.

and if you’re an educator reading this and you understand this feeling — i see you. what we do is real, even when it doesn’t feel like enough.

oh, and happy Labour day, everyone :)

For context, in secondary school I was those kind of Jocks, and I was particularly horrendous at [subject], and Kind of didn’t care about the subject at all, I graduated already.

the school hosted a kind of concert showcasing all the performing arts , and I chose to attend because I wanted to support my friend. Everything was going good but when I found my seat, I saw my sec school [subject] teacher and a group of other teachers. The moment she spotted me, she said outloud “Please tell me you have the wrong seat” and when I plopped down she gave a very audible “ugh” sound. She continued to talk to my classmate who was behind me, joking around by saying things like “Can you swap seats with him, I’ve had 4 years of him already” yadda yadda, and then she said something along the lines of “how’s your new school? Do you get bullied? Wouldn’t be surprised with that face” Confused, I asked her what she meant by that an then she said “‘nevermind” the show went on and after intermission, she made one of the other male teacher sit next to me while laughing like it was something funny, nothing else really happened after but I feel like even if she didn’t like me while I was in the school I shouldn’t have to feel awkward at a public setting. When I was still in school she would always try to ridicule and embarrass me for some reason but I never gave it much thought cause I couldn’t really give a fuck.

What are yalls thoughts/opinions?