Evening Serenade: My Bro's 21st Birthday

11 October 2014. Awesome day! Suited up black and white for my brother's birthday, which unfortunately.... TOOK PLACE AT HOME. Initially when he told me to suit up black and white, I thought we gonna celebrate his 21st birthday in some luxurious ass hotel. Then he said, "At home". My hopes and dreams straight up shattered into pieces hahaha. But eventually, shit turned out pretty alright I would say. Well, there's nothing much to highlight, really, except a few things that I'm gonna talk about later on. The party was basically just, lots of family and friends, more friends, vodka, Mojito, buffet dinner, EVEN MORE FRIENDS. Man, I didn't know my bro's social circle was that huge...

During the party, I met my cousin Kenneth who's 27 years old and just got back from the US. Kenneth was the most fun-filled, cool and street-smart person I've ever seen in my life. I look up to him for advice sometimes but I don't really get the chance to contact him very often because he's always traveling the world, doing shit he like. We talked about school and reminisced old times together.

While we were at the topic of school, he said things to me that I'll never forget... He mentioned that he did pretty well for O's and got into ACJC. Too bad he was playful during J1 and got himself retained, but eventually he graduated after A's with decent results, just enough to get him into the Uni course of his choice. He then told me to be SMART in JC, "Don't kill yourself at such a young age, slogging your life out to study and score all As, because honestly, no company will ask about your A level results during a job interview. Your degree/diploma does the talking." This was quickly validated by my uncles who then joined in the conversation. In fact, he said, those who scored all straight As did that for the honour and glory at the moment in time to establish an identity that "I AM SMART" or the person thought he/she could qualify for any Uni course if they scored straight As. I mean, everyone wants to score straight As, but, grinding your subjects so hard and sacrificing so many aspects of your life, socially, emotionally, mentally and physically, is totally not worth especially when your youth is super precious and dear.

Kenneth is actually a very intelligent and bright dude. He's just not cut out to study and fit into the system. We both share the same idea of rebellion and refusal to conform to whatever societal standards and norms. He did a brief comparison between my bro and I, and said we are total contrast of one another. My bro, is the kind of person who can study and will study. 9A1s for O's and 6A 1C for A's, became a commando officer and then proceeded to studying at NUS Business Admin. He's like the ideal child for every Singaporean parent, and he sure did my parents darn proud. Then there's me, the dude who hates to study but forced to do so, messed up my O's pretty badly. Got into a JC that isn't up to the Rafflesian standard, likes to do things against the flow to see what kind of outcomes there could possibly be. Definitely not the ideal child every parent wants, but probably the child that walks a the left way instead of the right way.

After the stark contrast and compare, he told me not to feel useless even though I may not excel in academic areas. "Try something else. Do something you want to do and learn from the experience. Learn from your dad. He was a pai kia last time but grew up to be someone successful after venturing around and learning stuff from other people to create something of his own." He then gave me ideas about experiencing the outside world like doing some seriously underrepresented jobs. He once went to Malaysia on his own and made a deal with a hotel manager - to provide him accommodation for a night at the hotel if he cleans up one entire level of hotel rooms in 4 hours. The manager was impressed and gave him an unofficial temporary job at the hotel to pay for the accommodation provided. He then traveled to the US and Canada to live with his friends whilst trying out different jobs and learning business as he work. After all these ventures, he returned back to SG and began embarking on his business ideas and plans for realzies.

He gave me so much inspiration on what to do with my life! I want to do stuff like that! Something like a nomad... I don't want to do the same thing as everyone else! IT'S SO MUNDANE, DULL, BORING AND MAINSTREAM. I want to learn shit that notes, textbooks and TYS can't teach. Learning from the University of Society hahaha as what my dad always reply when asked about what Uni has he been to (Highest Qualification: O level). I'm planning on doing this venture right after army and before entering Uni, which is if I can even get into one hahaha! I'll take 6 months off, leave my home and live everywhere in the world and try to survive independently. Sounds rather impossible and insane for me to actually do it, but believe it or not, that's a definite must-do on my life's checklist.

Alright it's getting pretty damn late. Need to sleep and stay awake in school tomorrow for fucking PW. Giving me lots of shit lately, but it's okay, do it well, do it once. By the way, Kenneth gave me his $6k Gibson Les Paul electric guitar HAHAHA!! OMG SO BEAUTIFUL!! He said he got bored of playing guitar and didn't used it at all, just like the PS3 that he gave us. SWEEETT~~ Picking up guitar now~~~ Anyway, I just hope my bro and I can click together closely like how we used to in the past. I don't want a segregated as fuck brotherhood relationship to the extent that we don't even utter a single word when we see each other. Let's go back to when we do super thrilling, fun and exciting stuff together and when our relationship was literally BRO!

~Have a good one. Peace Out~