Blessing in Disguise

When I first got my PSLE results slip last year, I was shocked. The three numbers that were to decide my fate were larger than I had thought they would be by over twenty. That was the start of my amazing journey. Too bad, my primary school friends said, you’ve already accepted the DSA into that school (I shall refrain from using the name of that school).

However, there was a way out of my predicament. So I said goodbye to my classmates and left. My father brought me to two secondary schools with the hopes of getting into one of them instead of the school that I had DSA’ed into. I had originally wanted to go to another school (I will not mention the name of that school or the school that I am in right now) but now I realize that being in the school I am in right now was actually a blessing in disguise.

When the mail came one afternoon in December, I was disappointed. I read the first three words on it and knew my hopes were crushed. ‘We are sorry’ were those words. I knew what would come next. I felt even worse after I found out that I had missed the cut-off point by 1 mark. 1 paltry mark. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for myself. If only I had answered that questioned correctly...

A few days later, I received another mail. This time it was from the other school that I had appealed to. Unlike the other letter, this one had a positive reply. “Oh well,” I said to myself. “At least I made it to the second school of my choice.” I felt sort of sad for only managing to get into that school.

When I went to that school to start my secondary school life I was surprised in a nice way. I had never experienced so much class spirit. This I found out when I started playing soccer with my new classmates in February. I never thought I would be able to make so many new friends so easily. I felt this… this strong feeling inside me. It only showed when I was with my classmates, playing soccer.

Their style of soccer was way different from the students who used to play soccer in my primary school. The intricate passing, the fantastic shooting, the great team-spirit; all of these were totally different. I had never experienced this before. What’s more, I was actually appreciated for my playing style. In my primary school, if you could not attack, you would never be able to touch the ball. None of the forwards on your team would ever pass the ball to a non-forward.

That meant that if you were better at defence, you would only be able to clear the ball if one of the opponents made a mistake. What’s more, when you cleared the ball and it went out, which it usually did, your team’s strikers would yell at you for being such a lousy passer. Talk about ironic. That’s why I hardly played soccer in primary school.

It’s a totally different story now that I am in secondary school. People like me who are better at defending are almost as appreciated as the attackers if you can do your job well. As the saying goes ’defence is the best offence’. If you can defend well throughout the whole game and just have one good shot at the goal, you will win. On the other hand, if you just keep attacking you will be worn out by the defence sooner or later and you will lose.

Now, I’m really glad that I made it to this school instead of the other school. I don’t think I would be this much appreciated there.