Monthly Archives: November 2014

School is …..

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HARD!

Yup, I said it.

I have been struggling to NOT say that school is hard, I’ve used challenging and a lot of work but I’ve resisted saying that it is hard because I don’t want to be negative.

But you know what?

It is hard and sometimes, its freaking hard. However, I’ve decided that its not a bad thing. Hard makes you try harder, hard makes you more resilient and hard makes you learn a little but more, push yourself a little further along.

I have about 3 weeks left to the end of the semester and boy has it been challenging.

I set out thinking that it was going to be easy, I clearly underestimated the program and clearly forgot that math and psychology was something I never took in my undergraduate days. Why I thought it was going to be easy when I first started, is just unfathomable to me right now.

I chose this program because I was interested in the program, one semester in and I realized that it wasn’t what I thought it originally would be but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

There is a lot of math involved, but I’m not that bad at math it seems. Its quite therapeutic working at something for a long time and finally getting the correct answer!

My next masters shall be something literary! My wonderful and super capable husband says that I can study for as long as I want, so perhaps I will!

 

It has been a while, Singapore

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Yesterday, I presented my first presentation of graduate school and it was quite a blast. Both for me and my classmates. I had a lot of fun presenting and my classmates had a good laugh.

The project was a contemporary applications presentation, where I was supposed to find a contemporary application topic in my everyday life and relate it to the learning theories that I’ve learnt in class. I decided to do something close to my heart and presented on “Re-learning to live in NYC”, in which I talked about all the things I’ve learnt since moving here. I related learning theories to: why I made those  mistakes in the first place and had the class in stitches. I used social cultural theories, behaviorism and social cognitive theories.

After the class, I got “fist bumps” from my classmate and remarks of “You killed it.”  Which was very interesting because my peers’ reaction would be very different had I presented a similar topic in Singapore. A visiting lecturer, who was sitting in class to observe my professor, told me that I should consider writing a memoir or join UCB (Upright Citizen’s Brigade), which is some comedy training centre. I was thinking to myself, really? Was it that hilarious? I’m only reciting stories/misconceptions I had when I first moved here!

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed what I did. Now I’m thinking, I really need to find a thesis topic that’s closely related to what I did today! Because, one must try to do things, that makes the heart smile!

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you had as good of a start to the week as I did!

Oh why the title? I realized that I left Singapore officially in 2013, which wasn’t all that long really, but somehow my current life now seems to overshadow all that I left behind. In essence, it isn’t such a bad thing because it means I am making the most out of my time here and embracing THE NOW.

Going back to school was one of the best decisions I’ve made since coming here! I’m learning a lot not only in terms of content material but also learning a lot through observing the people around me. I am not just making friends with tech people (thru Kris)  or migrant housewives or sojourned Singaporeans. I feel like I’m finally getting to know real Americans in my own domains!

Just for good measure

*fist bumps* from my left hand to my right hand!

On a side note, we called Kris’s gramma the other day and she told me, “Oh, why do you want to go back to school?, what about making babies?, I would like to see my great grandkids, I’m not getting younger you know!.”

She’s adorable! Once you’re 90+ you can pretty much get away with saying anything!

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Challenge ACCEPTED!!

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School is a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. However, hard work is good for one’s soul.

I did pretty good in some papers, okay in others. Class average wise, I’m doing okay. I’m a good student I guess, not excellent just good.

Considering that I left school a while ago, that the American education system is new to me, psychology is something I’ve never done before. I think I’m learning a lot of new things. Why did I choose educational psychology? Honestly, its just because I’m interested and its something I’ve never done before. So yup, of course its hard. Why did I ever think its going to be easy?

Honestly, I think it took me about 1/3 of the semester to really understand what my professor and classmates were really saying. I mean I usually get 70-80% of whats going on pretty well, but it’s the cultural references and examples that are mostly American centric, that sometimes kill me. I mean in  class we were given a video to watch and identify learning theories, but because of the thick and heavy African American accent and idioms used, I couldn’t really make out the dialogue that was going on. But! Its okay, I will get better at it over time.

Or perhaps  I can suggest that future videos come with subtitles, but I’m the ONLY one in class who probably doesn’t understand and I feel bad for making someone do extra work just for me.  -_-

Statistics and all its mathematical formulas was also challenging, considering it has been 15 years since I took any math classes.

SO!!!!!

All in all, I’m pretty happy with my progress. I have gotten pretty decent grades and one lousy grade (even tho class average wise it was an okay grade) but I have tried to rethink and re-strategize my learning techniques and hopefully in the next test, I will do better!

At the end of the day, the most important thing is that I’m trying my very best and not short changing myself!!!

better than