Going overseas

One of the questions I often get asked is: Have you ever gone to another country? This is understandable given the enormity of the task of moving me, with my physical weaknesses and all, plus my mobility and medical equipment, abroad on aircraft or ships. Such a complex logistical operation defies imagination, which is why the answer to the question above is no.

Not in recent history anyway.

The truth is that I wasn't always the way I am now. My medical condition deteriorates over time. This means that I am much weaker now than I was when I was a child.

When I was a child, my sitting posture was a lot better and my trunk muscles a lot stronger, allowing me to move around in a baby stroller instead of a customised wheelchair. Furthermore, I could sit in a normal airline seat without falling over. My overall constitution was also healthier. All of these meant that my parents could bring me along on vacations. I was quite well-travelled as a kid. By the age of 10 I had been to Malaysia, Thailand, and even Australia.

The last trip I went on and the one I remember most clearly took place 12 years ago in Langkawi. It was a three-day holiday with my parents. We stayed at Pelangi Beach Resort, in a cosy little private chalet with a balcony and easy access to the sea and swimming pool. I lost one of my milk teeth on that balcony, and saw a real live pond skater (a kind of insect) in that pool.

The customary photo of the plane before the flight.

Just across the road from the hotel was a restaurant called Laman Padi. Apparently it's still around! The food there was so delicious and affordable that we returned two or three times during our stay!

#foodporn wasn't a thing back in 2005 and neither was #selfie. People on holiday actually took photos of one another using separate devices known as cameras, after which they would simply store the pictures because there was no such thing as Instagram. Oh how did we ever survive???.

We also ventured further afield. Langkawi is so small anyway. My dad drove around in a rental car with the guidance of a paper map. GPS technology wasn't so advanced yet, there were no smartphones back then, and my dad scoffs at those navigation aids even to this day. I was extremely obsessed with a spot on the map that said "cement factory" and kept asking if we were there yet like those irritating children in TV shows that go "Are we there yet?" incessantly. Needless to say, when we eventually got there, it turned out to be an anticlimactic jumble of vehicles and machinery. Oh well.

We also found various places of attraction such as the Underwater World and Cable Car. They might as well have called the Underwater World the Zoo of Langkawi because it had all kinds of animals including land-based ones like mongooses and anacondas.

Anaconda!

The Cable Car was quite literally the height of awesomeness. Sentosa's version can go fly a kite. The Langkawi one ascends the side of a steep mountain and takes you up to an altitude of 715 metres. At the top there is a deck for you to stand and admire the scenery. The view is breathtaking (the air IS rather thin up there...) and worth the heartstopping ride in the cable car, which jolts and rocks violently in the wind, evoking visions of the infamous Sentosa cable car disaster.

A view from inside the cable car of the small town at the base of the mountain.

The base of that mountain is also the site where I first tasted a carbonated beverage. Nowadays I can't do without them...

That particular holiday holds a special place in my memory because it was the last time I got out of this boring little island home of mine. These days, I rely on a motorised wheelchair with a backrest that is specially moulded to my body shape. It cannot be brought into an airline cabin and must be checked into cargo, but that would mean that 1) I have nowhere to sit while on the aircraft as I can no longer support myself in a regular airline seat, and 2) the wheelchair may be damaged due to rough handling by the crew, incurring hefty repair or replacement costs and leaving me stranded with no way to move around.

Which basically means that I'm going to be stuck here for the rest of my life, and all those times I sat staring out of the window watching the runway rising to meet the airplane, or playing multiplayer racing games (read: other passengers trying to play racing games while I just wanted to crash my virtual car into everyone else) with other passengers on the in-flight entertainment system, or being wowed by exotic sights, sounds and smells in foreign lands, will become artefacts of a time long since past, fading memories clung to tenuously, eroded by time.

On mortality

Being born with a severe congenital illness, I have thought about my own death ever since I grew old enough to grasp the concept of it. As a child, the idea of dying used to scare me, and I would lie awake at night fretting. But as I matured, I started to accept that I would eventually die, and perhaps it's not so bad after all.

I don't know when I will die. Some people with my condition died when they were much younger than I am now. Some are still alive well into their 40s. Neither do I know how I will die. Some fellow sufferers succumbed to respiratory distress, while others were killed by heart failure. A few died in their sleep. I hope that when my time comes to die, it will be quick and painless. Hopefully it happens while I'm asleep so I don't have to know anything about it.

There are some advantages to not living a full lifespan. Obviously, the biggest is that I may even die before my parents do. I can't live independently as I need help for everything including daily routines like bathing and eating. My parents are my caregivers right now and dying before them means I won't have to worry about surviving in the world without them.

Another advantage is that the uncertainty surrounding when I will die gives me an impetus to live every day like it's my last. I choose to be positive, forgive small slights easily, and don't get too worked up over minor issues. It isn't always easy, but I think this makes me a much happier person overall.

Nowadays, my outlook on dying can best be described as acceptance tinged with regret. I have gone through so much difficulty and overcome so many challenges in the short time I have been alive, and it feels like such a waste that it will all count for nothing after I'm dead. I don't believe in an afterlife in any form, and the thought that all the experiences, memories, and even skills and knowledge I have accumulated over the years will just disappear into an eternal darkness makes me sad.

Which is why I hope that I won't die so soon. I haven't accomplished anything at all. I've been around for almost 20 years but spent the entire time as a student. That's not the kind of legacy I want to leave behind! I shudder when I imagine what my gravestone will say about me: "Herein lies Jonathan. He died with a matriculation card in his hand."

My wish is very, very simple: I want to work before I die. I don't really care where or what I work as, as long as it's a full-time permanent position that I gained on my own merit. I want to put my skills and knowledge to good use. I want to know what it's like to have a circle of colleagues which together form a second family and an office to call a home away from home. And most importantly, I want to make a difference, big or small. (Oh, and I also want to earn my own salary so I can buy nice things for myself and my parents.)

And that brings me to the last advantage of dying quickly that I can think of. Most people get so tired of working life after a few years, but I won't have that problem. Related to that, normal people need to save up and plan for retirement, but I don't have such problems. That means I can spend more money now, and buy more nice things!

I just need to cross my fingers and hope that fate and luck will grant me my wishes...

Fast food funnies

I love fast food as much as the next guy. McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC are all subjects of my all-too-frequent cravings. Over the years I've had a couple of hilarious experiences with the counter staff at some of these outlets.

"Sundae Kosong"

This happened many years ago at the VivoCity branch of Burger King. I was still a kid then, so I waited at the table while my parents went to place the order.

I wanted a set meal that came with a sundae. I thought I was being very clever, because even though I don't like sundae, I could ask for the sundae to be served without sauce, thereby turning it into simple vanilla ice cream. Even better, it would be contained in a cup and wouldn't melt and drip messily all over the place.

So I proudly communicated this grand scheme to my dad, who chortled but was otherwise unfazed because he's used to such queer flights of fancy that regularly escape from the space between my ears. He went to the counter and explained the complex instructions to the auntie (elderly lady).

To everyone's surprise, the auntie didn't bat an eye and immediately understood what I wanted. "Orh!" she exclaimed a little too loudly. "You want sundae kosong!"

To those of you who don't know how to buy a coffee or tea from the hawker centre (shame shame, go and learn lah! stop drinking that overpriced black water from Starbucks), or foreign visitors to my blog: "kosong" means zero in Malay and refers to a drink being plain, e.g. "teh kosong" means plain tea without sugar or milk

Cheeseburger vs. McChicken

Recently I was at the airport McDonald's. I went up to the counter and asked for a "Cheeseburger (Plain), please."

"McChicken?" said the girl taking the order.

"Sorry?" I said, a little flustered. "No, Cheeseburger (Plain)."

"Yeah, McChicken."

My dad thought she couldn't hear me properly so he leaned over and said "He wants a Cheeseburger (Plain)."

"Yah lah, McChicken right?"

Cue the sound of crickets and a major WTF moment as my dad and I tried to figure out if the gal was hearing-impaired or merely possessed the intelligence of a sesame seed.

"No!" my dad tried again, taking great pains to enunciate each syllable carefully as one would when speaking to a toddler. "CH-EEEEZE-burger... PLL-AAIN. Cheeseburger with nothing in it. No onions, no ketchup, no pickles. Just the patty and cheese."

"Oohhhh!" drawled the girl. "McChicken WITH CHEESE, is it?"

Thankfully we were spared further stress at this point when her coworker manning the next counter decided to intervene. He taught her which button to press on the machine to select the correct option for Cheeseburger (Plain). The store manager came over to investigate the fuss and explained that it was the girl's first day on the job. Both men were making that constipated face that eloquently communicated the fact that they were not sure whether to laugh or to cry.

I'm still a bit puzzled how the first-day-on-the-job excuse is a mitigating factor for mistaking Cheeseburger for McChicken. The two words don't even sound remotely similar! But whatever.

And if you're wondering who in their right mind would eat cheeseburger with nothing inside except the patty and cheese, well, enough people in this world do that McDonald's has Cheeseburger (Plain) as a pre-set option in their order-taking software. Try it sometime. You might just come to enjoy it!

Football has lost its heart

John Terry, the legendary Chelsea defender, played his last game for the club against Sunderland this past weekend. He has served his team and country faithfully for 20-odd years and it is now time for him to move on.

But what should have been a momentous occasion turned into a bit of a firestorm. Terry, whose team number was 26, requested to be withdrawn from the match in the 26th minute so he could go out in a blaze of glory. His manager, Antonio Conte, agreed and worked out an arrangement with Sunderland coach David Moyes so that Sunderland would allow the ball to exit the field at the stipulated time, allowing the game to be stopped for the substitution to occur. It should be noted here that Moyes and Sunderland were amenable to the idea.

The plan went ahead. In the 26th minute, the Sunderland goalkeeper kicked the ball out. The Chelsea players lined up into a guard of honour to salute their captain, leader and legend. Match referee Neil Swarbrick held the ball under his arm and joined in the applause.

Any fan will tell you that loyalty is a rare thing in football these days. One-club men like Ryan Giggs and Steven Gerrard are a dying breed in a world where players change hands as fast as club owners can write the cheques (or click the button on the online transaction platform, but "write the cheques" has a nicer ring to it). And who can blame them? Anybody would go where the money is.

So the truth is that Terry deserves some respect for staying on at Chelsea all the way to the end of his career. We commemorated the retirements of Giggs, Gerrard and others with misty eyes. Sure, they had arguably less of an ego and didn't ask for a grand send-off gesture like Terry did, but after all the guy has done, I think he's entitled to a little song and dance.

But now people are up in arms, saying that the whole affair epitomises how football has turned into a soap opera. I'm not a fan of Terry or Chelsea, being a lifelong supporter of Manchester United, so I think it's fair to say that my view that the detractors are overreacting is impartial. These people need to ask themselves: Why do we watch football? We watch because we want to be entertained. When we watch, we forget all our problems for those 90 precious minutes of escapism. And which parts of football do we find exciting? Apart from seeing a perfect team move or solo display of brilliance, we love it when passions boil over and managers and players create dramatic scenes on the touchline. We get a thrill from the rollercoaster ride of elation and anguish when our teams go through good and bad spells of form. In short, emotions drive football.

Isn't this exactly that? Simply a harmless spot of emotional expression in a sport which thrives on it. What is so bad about indulging one guy's ego for a bit, when that guy has done so much? After all, the game had nothing riding on its outcome. Chelsea were already confirmed as champions the week before and Sunderland had been mathematically relegated for weeks.

Maybe it's because Terry never had the cleanest of noses. He was racist and had sex with his friend's wife. But still, we should compartmentalise our negative feelings for him because of these transgressions. He served his sentences for those sordid deeds. Now go lightly on him will you?

And now to make matters worse, the Football Association is talking about punishing the parties involved for match fixing. This is one of the stupidest trumped-up charges I have ever heard of. If a goalkeeper fails to save a shot on purpose so that his team will lose, that's match fixing. If a striker deliberately smashes the ball over the goal from a metre away, that's match fixing. For a player to orchestrate a minute-long display to celebrate his own achievements... I don't think it's match fixing.

The FA argued that some bookmakers offer odds on when throw-ins are awarded during matches, and by putting on this show for Terry, the clubs have unfairly affected the result of those bets. What, are we protecting gamblers from their own silly decisions now? They chose to play on those particular types of bet, and they should bear the consequences fully.

This whole ordeal reminds me of those times when a player scores a goal and celebrates by revealing an undershirt with a slogan in support of some cause, and receives a yellow card sanction from the referee. By the letter of the law, referees are required to issue yellow cards to players who lift up or remove their jerseys to show off a slogan hidden beneath. But what if the slogan isn't inflammatory or commercial in nature? Shouldn't players be allowed, indeed encouraged, to use their fame and global appeal for a positive impact? Let's say there was a natural disaster or major terrorist attack. I think footballers are the perfect platform to disseminate a rallying call, getting people to know about the problem and help to solve it. Unfortunately, lawmakers don't see it that way, so the rule remains a blanket one and players continue to be penalised for doing good.

As in many arenas which have grown too large and flush with too much cash, football, or rather the people in charge of overseeing it, has lost its heart. It no longer has compassion, wistful sentimentality, and soul.

And that is a shame.

Major trouble!: My experience at the NUS FASS Open House

Yesterday I visited the Open House organised by the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), where I will be spending the next three or four (if doing honours) years of my life. The purpose of the Open House was to showcase the wide range of programmes on offer within FASS.

To say that an FASS student is spoilt for choice would be an understatement. The number of majors and minors is staggering! I myself am a little overwhelmed, because so many things look very interesting and useful and I wish I could study them all, but I have to be realistic in terms of the workload I will be able to handle.

I am most keen on two of the majors: Psychology, and Communications and New Media (CNM). There were talks for them, which I attended. Certainly, the cool air-conditioned comfort of the lecture theatre was a welcome respite from the heat outside! The talks were delivered by senior faculty members from each of the respective departments, and were... enlightening but elicited rather different feelings from me.

The Psychology professor was brutally honest in presenting his programme. The title of his presentation was "Psychology - for me or not for me?" but he might as well have called it "101 reasons why you should not study psychology". He pulled no punches and sugarcoated absolutely nothing. None of what he said surprised me, and most of it I actually covered in my previous blog post. I happen to also be a believer in telling prospective students the truth about psychology. When I was in poly, I volunteered at a couple of Open Houses, and I always emphasised to visitors that the "psychology" shown by the media is pure fantasy. I suppose the professor was trying to protect those students from junior college from getting a rude shock when their expectations of psychology turns out to be far from the reality. Having studied psychology before, I have the advantage of prior experience. Nonetheless, hearing such a distinguished academic laying bare the visceral ugliness of the field made me feel a little discouraged and frightened about possibly selecting psychology as my major.

On the other hand, the CNM professor was truthful about his major but tempered it with obvious passion and excitement in what his department had to offer. He did caution that CNM is, contrary to popular belief, not all fun and games and is actually quite theoretical, but went on to present some examples of projects in which CNM students applied those theories to solving real-world issues. Interestingly, he took pains on a couple of occasions to differentiate CNM from the course offered by the Wee Kim Wee School of Communications and Information at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). To avoid the risk of sparking an argument, I shall not elaborate on what he said, but I felt that it was a good move on his part to address this. After all, visitors to the TP Open Houses often used to ask me the difference between the psychology course at TP compared to the one at Ngee Ann. All in all, his talk left a better overall impression of CNM as a course of study.

I was quite pleased at being able to recognise certain phrases used in the presentations. Funnily enough, the psychology professor did not use any jargon and he deserves great credit for that. However, the CNM professor mentioned that students could expect to "struggle with calculating the t-test" (one sample? independent samples? paired samples?) and learn about "theories of persuasion, stereotypes and biases" (Cialdini, Malone, Kahneman, Tversky, Giegerenzer...). Lucky me, I have learnt these before! I think I still have my old lecture slides somewhere...

Listening to both talks made me feel a little queasy and uncertain about the future. I still want to do psychology in some shape or form, primarily so that my diploma training will not be a big waste. However, I really have no idea whether I want to commit to doing it as a major. At this point in time I do not intend to enter a graduate programme (i.e. Masters) immediately after getting my degree as I want to go to work as soon as possible. Having psychology as my major would bring me serious problems when it comes time for me to look for a job due to its lack of industry relevance, especially at Bachelor level. In contrast, CNM degrees are highly sought-after and I was advised by an authoritative source that its value will continue to rise in the coming years as the "New Media" part of the training becomes more useful with increasing digitalisation of the world.

Perhaps I can do both Psychology and CNM? A double major is an option, but brings with it its own set of problems. For one, there is the issue of which to designate as the primary major. This will appear on the degree scroll upon graduation, and also is the discipline in which the honours will be in. The difficulty lies here: psychology is more useful to have as an honours but adds less value being on the degree scroll, whereas CNM would make the degree more attractive to employers but is less crucial to do honours in. I will have to think long and hard about which to be my primary major, if I do a double. Of course, doing a double major would also mean taking more modules. Coupled with the fact that CNM has a compulsory internship programme which may result in time away from school, I will most likely need to overload my other semesters to fulfil the graduation requirements within the normal timeframe, or delay my graduation by a year. Neither is a very appealing prospect to be honest.

This leaves me with one other course of action: I can demote one of the two to a minor. Obviously, if I do this, psychology will have to be the one to go, simply because CNM as a minor makes no sense career-wise. Doing a minor in CNM is akin to not doing CNM at all. On the flip side, Psychology complements CNM beautifully. Subjects like cognitive psychology and social psychology contain theories and concepts that will crop up in CNM too. The aforementioned familiarity I have with stereotypes, biases and theories of persuasion illustrates this fact. Abnormal psychology may prove useful too, as CNM has collaborated with mental health organisations in the past on campaigns to raise awareness of issues related to mental illness. A minor in psychology would support the CNM major nicely, giving me greater depth of knowledge while allowing me to retain some semblance of manageability in my academic workload.

Decisions, decisions. And through all of this, I also have to fight the nagging feeling in the back of my mind. What if I am making the wrong choices without even realising it? Maybe I will only discover my mistake years from now when it is too late. What if...?

So many questions, not enough answers. Damn, this growing up thing really sucks!

The Diploma in Psychology Studies at Temasek Polytechnic

What is psychology?

A lot of people have misconceived notions of what psychology actually is. Some think it's about lying down on a couch and talking non-stop. Others get paranoid about psychologists being able to read minds or judge personality just by looking. I only wish that were true. Psychologists would be superheroes!

The most common assumption is that psychology is the discipline that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses like depression and schizophrenia. However, this isn't entirely true. One branch of psychology, called abnormal psychology or clinical psychology, does train psychologists who help patients suffering from those types of disorders. Counselling psychology also produces therapists who can guide you through rough patches in life, like breakups or exam stress. But psychology is so much more than that.

My favourite area in psychology is industrial-organisational psychology. I/O psychologists are like consultants, helping companies to improve their work processes so that they can get the best out of their employees. For example, I/O psychologists may recommend changes to the compensation and benefits structure, or design new learning and development programmes to optimise the job performance of the workers.

Regardless of what branch of psychology you are referring to, all of them share one important principle: empiricism. In other words, everything that psychologists do must be backed up by research evidence. Don't be fooled! Psychology is often found in arts or humanities schools, but it is actually as scientific as the real hard sciences like chemistry or biology in terms of approach.

Psychology @ TP

This explains the rigorous training in research methods and statistics that forms the backbone of the psychology course at TP. One of the key selling points of the course is that by the end of your three-year stint, you would have completed three full-scale research projects, working in teams of four to six and with guidance from the lecturers. This is excellent experience to take into university-level psychology studies, which are research-intensive.

The TP website tells you more about the course and so on. But since I just graduated from it, let me give you my personal take, for those of you who are thinking of applying for the course.

A word of caution

Think about:

• How good are you with numbers? We use calculators and computer software to crunch data, but you will still need to spend hours staring at walls of data. If you absolutely hate maths or your head spins when trying to process stats, beware!
• Do you despise reading? Part of research involves reading work done by other scientists. These are published as articles in journals like Psychological Science. They are often very long and filled with complex sentences. If you don't like the sound of that, reconsider your options!
• Why do you want to study psychology? Make sure you know what you're going in for. Perhaps you are kind-hearted and want to help people in distress feel better. Counselling or social work would be more directly relevant. Maybe you were inspired by those cop shows on TV. Sure, we do get to pick a couple of electives on criminal psychology, but you'll have to study for a degree (4 years) AND a Masters (2 years) in order to become a forensic psychologist... or any other kind of psychologist, for that matter.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, you need to go in with your eyes open to the realities of psychology studies. We don't learn how to talk someone out of jumping from the top of a HDB block, or track down a psychopathic serial killer using fancy behavioural techniques. Certainly not at diploma level anyway. Maybe after you get your Masters, you might stand a chance against the likes of Ted Bundy. But for now, there's just a lot of sweat and tears (the good news is there isn't any blood) over the computer, slaving away at your next literature review, statistical analysis, or research report. It's unglamourous, exhausting, and at times frustrating.

But wait, surely something positive came out of it...

There sure was! Let's see, where do I even begin...

The three years I spent on it really sharpened my analytical and critical thinking skills, and broadened my worldview. By being exposed to lots of examples of how words (smashed vs. hit) and even numbers can be used to paint a certain picture, I no longer am as gullible as I was before, less likely to take everything at face value. Furthermore, being more aware of mental biases like the availability heuristic has allowed me to improve my own decision-making process, and even critique those of the government (*snickers*)! In cognitive psychology, the availability heuristic states that we often base our impressions on a small handful of examples that come readily to mind. This can result in many erroneous judgments. For example, we can easily recall plenty of incidences where airplane travel went horribly wrong, because such events are widely reported in the news. As such, we might conclude that air travel is extremely dangerous, even though in actual fact, we are statistically less likely to die in an air crash than, say, get killed by a car when crossing the road. In this case, the availability heuristic has caused us to inflate the perceived risk of dying in an aircraft. If we get so scared, we might even choose to avoid travelling by air entirely! Are you (my Singaporean readers) seeing any parallels here with the decision to completely isolate the entire public service from the internet? I'll just leave this here...

It even taught me to be a better person, not to judge people too quickly. In social psychology, there is an effect called the fundamental attribution error. It refers to our tendency to attach greater meaning to others' personality and innate characteristics and underestimate the influence of situational factors. For example, if a guy rushes past and bumps into you on the way to the check-in counter at the airport, you might be tempted to brand him an "impatient @#$%^&". But take a step back and calm down. There are many reasons why he might be behaving this way. Perhaps he is frantically trying to get back to his hometown, where his sick mother lies dying.

A bit more on the subjects

Trust me, you are going to do A LOT of research. Let me make it clear: Google IS NOT research. Research involves the entire process of reading up about a topic, thinking of an extension to the topic that hasn't been explored before, coming up with questions and predictions about your chosen topic, designing a survey or experiment to test your predictions, gathering data from your study, crunching the numbers and making sense of them, and finally reporting your findings so that others can build on them. You will go through this process three times, in Applied Psychology Research Project A (APRP-A), Applied Psychology Research Project B (APRP-B), and Major Project. The difference between APRP-A and APRP-B is that in APRP-A, you will design a survey whereas in APRP-B, you will need to design an experiment where you need to control variables. For Major Project, whether you do a survey or experiment or even exotic types like focus groups and interviews depends on the topic you get.

To be fair, the course is not all about research. It also covers the various branches of psychology, like child and educational, counselling, abnormal, I/O, social, and cognitive psychology. I've already talked a bit about I/O psychology, and given short examples of concepts in social and cognitive psychology. Electives allow you to learn about how psychology is applied to areas like human resource management and special needs education. These subjects are much more interesting and you will be able to easily apply what you have learnt to real life, more so if you manage to secure an internship in a related field. Internships are compulsory and possible placements include teaching aide at Pathlight School for children with autism, research assistant at universities in Australia, and recruitment or other business-oriented activities like what I had.

Assessments are mainly test- and exam-based, with some group projects and individual assignments thrown in. Projects and assignments usually require you to write essays or give a presentation on a topic. Being able and willing to memorise lots of facts is essential if you want to score good grades.

In summary...

I don't regret the three years that I spent on this diploma, as I have gained so much useful knowledge that I otherwise wouldn't have if I had gone to junior college (due to the competitive cut-off, all the students in this diploma are JC-qualified). It has imparted me with skills I will need in the university. Given another chance, I wouldn't change a thing. BUT! I would definitely advise caution to those who are considering the course. BE VERY SURE you know what you're signing up for. Like I said, if you want to become a psychologist, be prepared to read journal articles for the next ten years of your life.

Or you could always take this diploma as a foundation, and switch to another social science discipline like social work or human resource management at degree level. This is a good and viable option as the skills you will learn during the course are transferable to most general courses of study (i.e. not requiring specialised skills like engineering or medicine) in the universities, and there are plenty of choices of relevant university degrees now with the recent opening of SUSS and SIT, in addition to those offered by private institutions.

Personally, I'm probably going to jump over to another area of social science which is more skills-based and "real-world application" in nature. I don't think I want to make a career of psychology. It can be too theoretical at times, and research isn't easy or fun for me and I can't envision myself spending another six years or more of my life doing it just to get two pieces of paper. And I question the job prospects of psychology majors in Singapore, especially for those who stop at the Bachelor degree level like I plan to do. They seem pretty dim to me. Most local employers look for degrees which are related to the job opening. Degrees in human resource management are sought when recruiting for positions in HR, mass comm majors for PR roles, and so on. Since I hope to join the workforce as soon as possible, this is the route I will most likely take.

---DISCLAIMER---
I took the course from 2014 to 2017. This post is based on my experiences from that time. By the time you see this, things may have changed (particularly if you found this post through a Google search)!

Thoughts on blogging

This is it. My first post on my personal blog. I have finally taken the plunge, bitten the bullet.

I've been meaning to start my own website for a while now, but never got round to actually making it happen. Part of it was due to laziness, but there was also fear of the unknown. Unlike many others of my generation, I never blogged as a kid or teen. Sure, there were English assignments in primary and secondary school where we had to do a few blogs, but those don't count. They were mandatory, and topics were predetermined. And looking back on those old blogs, I can't help but cringe. Damn, my writing was terrible!

So why now? For a few reasons, actually. First, I have just graduated from poly (yay!) and am waiting for university to start. Now is as good a time as ever to embark on some personal projects that I wouldn't have time for otherwise.

Secondly, I do enjoy writing but often lack a reason for doing it. This blog gives me that. I can publish my written works and share them with others. Hopefully it entertains and informs, and people like reading my stuff and come back for more. I don't need a big fanbase. In fact, I was inspired to start this site by reading the blog of an old man living in a trailer in America who has so few readers that even he jokes about it! As long as I can write and someone out there derives something from it, I am satisfied.

Third, blogging lets me hone my writing skills. People have complimented my writing and standard of English, but I am personally dissatisfied. Studying psychology for the past three years has turned my writing into a long-winded, unintelligible, bombastic nightmare. Have you ever tried to read a scientific journal article? My writing was unreadable like that. I want to practice writing for normal human beings, which will be especially important if I am going into the communications field, so this blog was created.

And finally, this blog serves as a portfolio of sorts, to demonstrate to potential employers or assessors out there that I have produced original content. It also allows me to express my opinions and beliefs, so that such people can judge for themselves whether I would be a suitable candidate.

And here it is! The end of this momentous occasion. I hope you've found this post easy to read (I was going to say "I hope you enjoyed reading this" but realised that there's nothing much to enjoy in this one). Let me know your reactions and suggestions in the comments box, and bookmark this blog if you want to see more next time!