Reflections

The Latin root of the word ‘reflection’ is reflectere, literally meaning ‘to bend back’. ‘Reflection’ has come to be interpreted as a reviewing of our inner thought and emotional processes, a type of consciousness which differentiates humans from other creatures. To be able to reflect is a wonderful gift, one that I am about to utilize now in writing about the time I have spent here in Pisay.

Writing about what I learned in Pisay, especially with our final year in high school coming to a close, is as difficult as pulling teeth. It both pains and elates me to finally come to terms with the fact that graduation is just a few weeks away. I believe that I will be glad to be rid of the stress and the schoolwork for some while, but who knows if the university I’m planning to enter is any easier? The future feels so uncertain. And yet, if I look backwards to the past, I feel overwhelmed by the onslaught of memories. Memories that I never want to forget.

I believe that Pisay will always hold a special place in my heart. This may perhaps be attributed to the fact that I have moved around so much. After all, Pisay is the eighth school I’ve attended in my life, and the school in which I spent my formative juvenile years. Prior to attending Pisay, the shortest time I have ever stayed in a school was around five and a half months while the longest used to be two years and three and half months. After graduation, I would have been here for a total of four years. While this may not seem long or particularly noteworthy to others, I consider it a great milestone .

Seeing my parents have get-togethers with their friends of 30 something years, I used to wonder what it would be like to live in one place and interact with individuals who weren’t related to but you have known for a very long time. There is a saying that the amount of time does not equal the strength of the friendship – namely that it is possible to feel closer to someone whom you’ve known for five minutes than someone whom you’ve known for years. Though this may be true to some extent, my time in Pisay has taught me that there is a distinct element of solidarity, familiarity and trust between individuals who have spent time growing alongside each other – an ingredient of a relationship that cannot be attained in any way other than facing trials and adversity together. Having the opportunity to attend Pisay has contributed in nurturing close friendships with others.

In this high school, I have met people from all walks of life. A lot of these people eventually became my friends. Through four years, I have watched how people have changed and grown - some vertically, some horizontally, some in the realms of maturity and personality. Having had the opportunity to observe this has meant that Pisay has become like a second home to me. I feel comfortable even in the presence of batchmates who I do not know too well because somehow we’ve adapted to a peculiar and unique way of Pisay life and thus have an inherent understanding of one another.

One of the most notable and significant things I have learned in Pisay is what friends are. They are the people who make fun of your hair, who steal your food, who tell you corny jokes, who say and do the craziest things, who have incredibly generous natures, who give the best hugs, who let you copy homework, who lend you shoulders to cry on, who stand up for you, who try to understand you, who trust you and who, most importantly, accept and love you for who you are – quirks and all. The friends that I have made at Pisay will undoubtedly last me a lifetime, or failing that, provide me with a benchmark to assess what a great friendship should be like. Without these people, I doubt I would have made it through high school.

This Science High School has simultaneously humbled and emboldened me in a lot of ways. Earlier on in my life, I was frequently obsessed with being one of the best, and felt the need to academically excel over others. I regularly achieved this desire – regularly enough to eventually make me complacent in the knowledge that I would always be one of the best. For example, I used to perform excellently in Mathematics compared to my peers. People looked up to me and I was given the opportunity to attend competitions. Then came my first year at Pisay. Suffice to say, I soon found that Mathematics was truly not my strong point in the realm of individuals who were equally academically gifted. From this experience I learnt that there will always be someone out there who is better than you, and that aiming to be consistently best in everything is not a realistic goal. That being said, I learnt that the most important thing is to try, and to not expect things to fall into your lap. Something is always gained when you push yourself to be the best you can be.

The intense workload placed on the students by Pisay, whilst admittedly not always enjoyable, has taught me valuable life skills. First and foremost would be the ability to manage my time properly and deal with stress. Another lesson learned is the fact that procrastination will always serve to ultimately place unnecessary pressure on myself. Whilst I may not have completely overcome the tendency to procrastinate, I have learnt that putting things off makes the project and its impending deadline appear a lot more difficult to handle than it actually is. Tackling projects head-on and doing things like research and study in well-spaced increments make for a better, more polished result than attempting to cram everything in one or two nights beforehand.

I believe that my time in Pisay has aided in molding me to be the person I am today. It has provided me the impetus to visualize new possibilities, it has helped me differentiate my innate strengths from my innate weaknesses, it has enhanced my intellect and provided me with sophisticated thinking skills and fostered a sense of drive and ambition. Due to my time at Pisay, I find I am now better equipped to overcome adversity and personal challenges. I have at my disposal an arsenal of skills to handle not only tertiary education, but life itself.

- Courtney Mathay