Into the Fire

So, since I don't feel like repeating myself anymore and people have requested for this, I shall write a post on my JPA interview =).

(though of course this is MY interview and what occurs to me might not happen to you).

So, I arrived at the venue at about 7.05am. Surprisingly, there were already a number of parents and applicants waiting there. So, at around 7.30am, people started flooding in. And some of the JPA workers arrived to stick the name lists on the board. We are required to locate our names on the board and sign. Applicants are divided into groups of five for different "panels" which I guess refers to your panel of interviewers. Mine was Panel 3 FYI. The interviewers soon arrived as well and headed up first. Oh, speaking of the location. You will be required to wait downstairs in a courtyard. The board with the name list of applicants will be located in the middle of the courtyard. All interviews will be done upstairs.

Once my panel was called, we headed up to the waiting room. There, we are required to hand in our clear folders and photocopied documents. Each panel is assigned a counter. You will be handed a name tag with a number on so pin it on la. The people behind the counter will begin work by sorting out the docs and arranging them. So, this is the time where you can interact with your group mates. Mine were quite friendly and we managed to talked about some trivial stuff. Other groups waiting were all so stiff o.0.

Then, our turn came. We lined up according to number and headed to the interview room. My panel of interviewers consisted of three Malay guys who looked vaguely familiar for some reason. They seemed pretty friendly. First thing the guy in the middle said was to relax as we were the first batch and also to ask whether we had breakfast yet haha.

Ok, we started off with introductions. Since the panel asked this in BM, we had to answer in BM. And by introductions, they actually wanted more than just a simple introduction. We included family info (parents' career, siblings),hobbies and also a bit about our ambitions. And once one of us was done with the intro, they would question us(still in BM) regarding what we said during the introduction. So, I guess you should make sure you say valid things! Well, for mine, hmm.. I mentioned both my parents were working in account-related fields, so they asked why I didn't choose to be an accountant as well, which led me explaining why I wanted to be a doctor. And also a bit about Guiding, as I touched that and the charity work I have done. (thinking back, I think I was asked the least questions o.0). And I guess it's ok to inject some english words if you can't think of their BM counterparts in time, just don't say full english sentences. One guy got told off for doing so.

Next off, was very random. (In BM). The interviewer asked me to name the other 4 applicants, which I could btw. And for another applicant, he asked her to say out the hobbies the rest of us had mentioned during our intros.

After that, the interviewer (this time in English) asked us to each say a strength of ours and how it would help us in our career. So, I think I expressed this answer more fluently =D. And then, surprise...the end to our interview o.0.

We then returned to the waiting room to collect our stuff. Oh, you needn't bring so much stuff la. Because we were told to just leave everything in the waiting room =. =. And if you have Foreign Language Proficiency certs, do make a certified copy. They might come in handy =).

Me and my group mates exchanged contact details and that it's free to go.

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It's just not the same being with people from different part of your lives.

Recent situations have justified that.

It may be that I have grown too accustomed to the speech and lifestyles of my classmates that it seemed unfamiliar sitting among 4 other people speaking in Mandarin while as of recent times, jokes, crap and most conversations were done in English with current classmates. True, I think there is also the reason that I was never good with handling group conversations,I seem to be restricted to conveying my messages to only one person at a time. (which is not a very favourable trait if I am facing a panel of three interviewers on Tuesday.) So, in the end much conversation wasn't carried out and that turned into a missed opportunity to interact with more people. D=

Though, granted, conversations with some people never turn into awkward moments. And it seems that, for me anyway, no matter how long we've talked for that one day to catch up. There's still a lot that hadn't the chance to be said. I mean, being in different colleges and all now, there's already a part of our lives that each of us will never be part of and will never truly understand. Thinking about it, when I got home, I realised Hue Ching was right. We should have appreciated the time we had to meet up yesterday and talked more. Because who knows when we will ever have the chance again. And social media doesn't compensate for a real conversation face-to-face.

And no matter how interesting and wonderful college will turn out to be, this little part of me inside will never let go of high school because that's where a lot of things started off for me. College will never be the same. People aren't the same (and most of my more intimate friends have conveniently left for different colleges),teachers aren't the same, rules and system not the same...Any opportunity to return to CHS and ultimately to meet my friends cannot be passed up. Even if it means sacrificing a Monthly Meeting =/.

Yesterday, was eventful. In both a good and bad way. Who knows whether days like that will happen again in the near future. I even had to add a (?) behind the soon in " see you soon" while texting friends yesterday. Indication of how our lives hardly converge anymore. Next time, maybe it would have been even better if we really just sat down at a store outside school and talked about old and new times. I will anticipate that day.

Hope to meet all of you soon. (?)