Dec 28, 2013

Passively smoking Christianity

I'm going to attempt a highly unusual and possibly controversial metaphor, so let's ignore the connotations associated with either entity and try to look at them as objective ideas.

A passive Christian is like a passive smoker. You grew up in a family of smokers and never really lit the cigarette yourself, but was always surrounded by the fumes. You breathe in the smoke of others. You do not have the first-hand experience but you take in what the others do all the same, and you call yourself a smoker, too, although that's technically not fully true. Once you realise that you aren't a real smoker, that you've only been living on the stuff of others, glimpses of their own real smoking experiences, you have three choices. You can shrug and leave it as it is, continuing to be a passive smoker, perhaps still calling yourself "a smoker", or just acknowledging that you don't really know what it's like first-hand. You can decide that you want to remove yourself from the association with others' identity, remove yourself from your delusion  and the house. Or you can decide to experience it for yourself, light your own cigarette, let your lungs fill with your own.

Dec 25, 2013

Something I just needed to hear

The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
2 Chronicles 15:2

the unworthy is given all the gold




We are so unworthy, but we've been given the privilege to stamp Jesus’s name on our little prayers, as if He Himself said them. Our prayers said in His name - with His identity. When we say grace half-heartedly, thankyouforthefoodinjesusnameamen, it is as if He is saying it. When we pray and say "Your will be done" and stamp Jesus's name behind it, it is as if He is in the garden of Gethsemane, praying before His death. Who are we to use His name like that? I'd hate it if people said stupid things and then said it was said in my name. Look at all the power He is giving us, so undeserving. We have both the ability to abuse it in half-hearted prayers, and the power to activate all of Heaven.

I would like to have you know

This Christmas, I have something I would like to say to those in the Christian Fellowship in Yale-NUS. Or to anyone in Yale-NUS, really, since this misconception seems to be stretched to a lot of people.

Some people seem to think, for some reason, that I'm a really diligent, devoted, dedicated Christian, and that Jesus is all my life is about. I guess it's the cross I wear, and my phone's background picture, and "Hannah", and the fact that I play a part in organising CF and speak in front sometimes - I guess that's what they expect of the person in front, because if not, what authority does he/she have to be talking to the rest?

I would have you know that I am not the pure holy devoted Christian that people keep making me out to be. I am no different from the average in the whole range of Christians in Yale-NUS. I know what it means to be devoted and to walk very closely with Him - when I was in SOT (and also in Sec 4) my life was all about Him, because it had to be. Bible school 9-1, with powerful worship and the enlightening Word; then tuition or whatever, and the mandatory reading of the Bible other required books; talking to SOT people, praying with SOT people, doing whatever church ministry I had assigned myself to, seeking His love, looking very much forward to the work He had for me in Yale-NUS. Jesus was in the centre, and He often gave me encounters with Him, little or large, tangible or in the heart. It has been quite some time since I have had an encounter with God - two months maybe?

No, I am just another lazy, forgetful Christian, who rarely does her quiet time (especially in school), who forgets to put Him first (and often finds herself unable or unwilling to), who is frequently ungracious in her speech, who thinks ugly thoughts, is a sinner in all these ways. I am not the person that some people absurdly make me out to be, or accuse me of being (it seems like that sometimes, although I'm not even deserving to carry His cross that way). I am just another regular Christian person who's not very good at keeping her love to Jesus, y'know? And then I look at people like Carissa who is so encouraging and gracious and loving in all she says, who keeps clinging to God in all the tough times; Charlotte who comes into my room to pray with me and continues to carry God's salvation to those around her; Denise who does so much for Christ; Yixuan whose prayers are so heartfelt and powerful and overflowing with Bible verses; Carmen who has such a persistent, profound love for Him; Pei Yun who understands who she is because of who God is; and I'm like, what on earth are people doing saying I'm all that they say I am? Who am I?

I don't want people to think I am someone I'm not, so I type this today. I am just the average Christian (I don't like saying it this way because it sounds like a job) - I am bad at keeping my side of the covenant to God; it is a personal relationship, and I am bad at keeping myself close to Him. The only reason I speak at CF is that I am willing to. A lot of people aren't willing to speak in front - why? Do they think they're not good enough? That they have to be absolutely holy and devoted before they have any authority to speak? Please. None of us have the authority. Only Jesus does, and all we need to do is work harder at being a better sieve for His spirit to flow through. I am unworthy, undeserving, and I know it. I know. And I hope you forgive me for not being the Christian you thought I was. I will try, I will try, but please do not put me on a pedestal because that way things are not completely honest. At Yale-NUS we all face similar struggles; let's all just share a little of ourselves with one another and try to help one another through it. (that's what CF is about.)

Dec 24, 2013

why good and bad exists in us: a revision (for kev)

(day 2 of nepal, 5pm)

i wish to revise my suggested reason for the innate tendency / choice in people to do evil. i once said that maybe we need the negatives to exist in order to know the positive. (reference blog post) but i don't think that's WHY we have the negatives in us. it's just a consequence. both for worse and for better.

so why? we're just fallen. we chose not to be innocently blinded, guided only by God's embrace. that's how it started out, and God Himself wanted to protect us from this pain of choice that is presented only when we know of the other side, but then we chose to be exposed to good and evil; we ate the fruit of the knowledge. therefore we must be aware of both sides. the reason is the seed deposited in all of us.


--
(TLDR - just a random ramble:
As I read The Fault In Our Stars and muse on how all its philosophical ideas are weaved into a teenagery love story, I think: no, perhaps if given the opportunity again, i would still say no. Perhaps he is not worth me. He has not been privy to the things that go on in my head, the basket weaves and yarn loops of philosophies about love and futility and beauty and identity and the universe and God. The only person who has - sufficiently but still only a little - is probably kev - he’s probably the only one I’ve talked to long enough, and deep enough, for conversations to occasionally lead down that road. And the conversations also help me further refine my philosophies - when I look back I snip away at the parts that don’t make sense anymore, or add weaves of his perspectives and still try to come to some sort of a resolution with that addition. Even then, he has only seen a glimpse, and I often denounce my relationship with these philosophies once I speak them aloud, because I realise they need to be further refined, or they still don't really do my thoughts justice. He also hasn't seen my theories / philosophies about God, I think. Maybe I've talked about them in bits and pieces to people from time to time, but never all together - it's far too much, and the thought processes have spanned years. 

I think in misty clouds, and spoken or written words help me concretise them so that I can look at the thoughts and see if they really make sense. I wonder if I’ll talk to anyone long enough for them to know all of me and all my thoughts, including those that are still misty, the huge clouds I still do not understand. Maybe I don't fully understand any of them, actually. I wonder if beyond kev I’ll have the energy to build the bonds of friendship with anyone else through these discussions, these ones that matter, upon which our lives are built, that lead into the night with their tears and silences, and with the space for me to relook and refine.)

Dec 23, 2013

on pain

"As Antonietta Meo lay dying at the ripened age of six from this agonizing cancer, she told her father, "Pain is like fabric: The stronger it is, the more it's worth." Is that true, Hazel?"


"No," I shouted over the music. "That's bullshit."


"But don't you wish it were true!" 

all the unholdable things that get handled

"'Always' was a promise! How can you just break the promise?" 
"Sometimes people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said. 
Isaac shot me a look. "Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway."

the fault in our stars

"So what's your story?" he asked, sitting down next to me at a safe distance.
"I already told you my story. I was diagnosed when-"
"No, not your cancer story. Your story. Interests, hobbies, passions, weird fetishes, etcetera."
"Um," I said.
"Don't tell me you're one of those people who becomes their disease. I know so many people like that. It's disheartening. Like, cancer is in the growth business, right? The taking-people-over business. But surely you haven't let it succeed prematurely."


I read this book halfway through about two months ago, when I finally had a free Monday schoolnight to do whatever I wanted. No readings or assignments to rush through. I could go anywhere. Do anything. So I decided to finally read something of my own choice, instead of something that was assigned to me.

(I know, right? What has become of my life? Staying in a building 24/7, and the one chance I have to go out and do whatever I want I decide to stay in and read like I've been doing the entire term anyway. My parents would be shocked, what with all my 1am nights before school started.)

Anyway, I thought I'd be able to start and finish it that night, but I didn't, and I didn't have the chance to read the rest of it after that, so I decided to restart the book (and I will finish it today). It's funny. I see a lot more now that I read it again even though I already saw and understood all this the first time. Like this quote. I liked it the first time I saw it, and I believe in it too, but it's only now that I decide to type it down. Perhaps because now I am so much more fascinated by the wealth of experiences and lessons and opinions behind each passing face, how nobody is one-dimensional, someone who seems completely uninteresting have their own beautiful moments if only you are willing to look.

2012 and 2013: A Review (Part 1)

I think I'm crazy for attempting to do this at 12am, so I'll just do 2012 now, and maybe 2013 in the next few days.

Jan - March: MOE Teaching Internship at Crescent, where I taught Sec 2 Lit and Sec 3 English. My Sec 2 classes were adorable. The novelty of a young teacher - they all wanted to find out more about me and stuff. I had some freedom to plan and execute classes my way, which was great because I had some flexibility although also a structure so I didn't have to start from scratch. Showed them Sungha Jung videos to learn about mood and atmosphere, let them listen to snippets from songs like Life Is A Highway and Hot And Cold to learn about metaphors, etc (looking back, this was also a great preparation for teaching English at City College this year). Also got to exercise a bit of old dance discipline mistress strictness when they got too relaxed, lol. [my Facebook album]

And, of course, got my A Level results and UK/US uni offers. I was really thrilled about East Anglia's creative writing director sending me a personal email to say he was 'extremely impressed' with my portfolio. I hope it was genuine.



First picture: I was at the MOE internship with Geraldine and Rachel Louis, and it was another working day before our A Level results release, so we got Macs and cupcakes to calm our nerves lol.
Second picture: My foster siblings came back to Singapore to get their results, so they stayed at my place!! Yay fun.

Also crashed Orientation for the first time as an ex-student - I crashed Jessica Chen's OG, since she was both my OG kid and Council junior (I'm so proud of her). Made friends and they were nice people, and became really good friends with Ruo Wei (and crashed his OG this year! Ah I feel like I should do 2013 tonight too, but no, must restrain.) Oh before the new kids came in the Council band also led worship at chapel again, but it didn't go very well.
(Hmm, where are my 2012 crasher Orientation photos?!?!)

And started giving tuition, which I'm still doing. In 2012 I had a lot of students. The ages range from 8-21, and I usually teach English. In 2012 it was more Sec 2 English for Express and Normal streams.

April: For two weeks, I relieved two GP teachers at ACJC across six classes. I think they were all JC2 classes, so one year my junior. For the first week I got to teach, which was really fun. I wasn't a great teacher and made some mistakes, but it was a good experience anyhow - giving them cheat tips, showing them the female genital mutilation video (lol), holding a debate... I didn't have the freedom of planning the lesson, but it was cool anyhow. It was also when I asked about their perceptions of homosexuality [link]. I remember I was invigilating a class for a GP paper and reading Angels and Demons, and when I get really absorbed in a book my head goes really far down so they thought I was sleeping lol. In the second week the teacher just told me to make them sit down and do their newspaper articles, so the students thought I was just lazy and boring. But relieving was fun anyhow, especially with Abi and Gideon!

(Second picture: Oh yeah, also, Valentine's Day was spent with these kids at the Titanic exhibition and then at Abi's house watching Titanic hahaha)

April - June: Waitressed at Shinji by Kanesaka. Emme asked me if I wanted to work there, 'cos her mum owns the place, and I took it up because I thought they needed the help. (I was wrong.) It was insane and really draining - three times a week I'd reach slightly past 10 with my hair in a bun and light makeup done, change into the kimono and clogs, and be at the main place at 10.15 to sweep/mop the floor, clean the chairs, etc. You had to be mostly invisible, yet perfect - stand quietly by the side with your hands clasped in front of you, occasionally checking to see if anyone needed their tea refilled, etc. I definitely learnt a lot, and I'm very thankful for the experience, but I wouldn't work in an atas restaurant again. I learnt a lot both from the working environment and the customers. Rich people. Interesting people. Two customer experiences I remember clearly are the time this guy was discussing the different universities (when his friend left for a minute I asked him how he felt about staying local versus going overseas, because I was choosing between my university offers at that time), and this other time these two guys were talking about Yale-NUS. They actually talked about Jim Sleeper, about how his posts were ignorant and ridiculous. When they were about to leave I told them I was going to go there, and we're a fantastic bunch, and we'd prove them wrong. He suggested we contribute to the Yale Daily.

I remember spending most of my working days looking forward to the 2.5h lunch break. Fantastic Japanese lunches by the chefs, and a nap on the floor of the dressing room. And then it'd be work again until about 10+ or 11pm, and I'd leave really tired, catching a late train home. Sometimes I'd treat myself to a Starbucks or McFlurry.

Also, I applied and got into Yale-NUS somewhere around this time, and went for the Experience Yale-NUS Weekend!! It's a weekend where admitted students are invited for sample classes, college-shaping activities (e.g. what you'd do with a $100,000 funding; initial student club ideas) and other things. Obviously the highlight of that for me was the 2-4am chat with nine others - Dylan, Kevin, Xi Min, Theo, Eugene, Rio, Amrullah, etc - and, needless to say, all ten involved that night are here in the inaugural cohort today. We just couldn't turn Yale-NUS down after that fantastic chat, eh? (here's the link to my post about the EYW) (GUYS IT HAS BEEN MORE THAN 1.5 YEARS)

Ah, and my birthday was shortly after EYW. Went out with Ji En for breakfast, Dylan for lunch...what did I do for dinner??? And Eugene for lunch the following day!

Oh, also, Ruo Wei's erhu solo at the Chinese Orchestra concert!

July: I got baptised! Start of the name Hannah, haha. Here's the reason I gave myself the name, so that no one has to ask anymore. I think I spent this month just chilling, after the exhausting waitressing stuff.

August - Jan 2013: Started work at the Yale-NUS admissions office with Ronald, Jared, Amrullah, Kevin, Ximin (and later, Sau)!!!!!!!!!! WHEEEEEEEE best job ever; perhaps I stayed a little too long - should've tried out other jobs, but this was too fun. Managing the Facebook page, taking prospective students on tours of University Town, being given money to design the showroom suite with Jared (everything's still how I arranged them, including my photos / post-its / untouched Japanese self-study books / piano books / the f21 hat), it was all fantastic.

And of course, all the other fantastic Yale-NUS events - trivia night at Brewerkz, Paintball.. and all the informal Saturday gatherings - my place, Theo's birthday and bowling, Les Mis, etc.

August: Also went to Penang for the first time with Maddie. Stayed at Fang Jiunn's place and he took us around. I love the walls. And the wall art. And the char kuay teow!!! [my Facebook album]

October: Travelled to the UK for the first time, alone! For a whole month. Fantastic experience. Started in my mum's friend's vineyard in Oxfordshire (still the best 8 days of my life), then stayed with Geraldine in London for a couple of days and then at an apartment with Theo, and then Theo and I went up to Edinburgh and stayed at a backpacker's and Christabel took us around. Then Theo left and I went to Coventry to stay with Jaslyn at my initial dream university, Warwick (and it's a bloody beautiful place! Also went to Stratford-upon-Avon); then I stayed with Andrew's grandparents at Barnet, Greater London. I loved it. I love the UK. I loved walking around on my own. Beautiful place, beautiful atmosphere.
(the links are to my Facebook albums for the places!)


November: Went to Australia with my family and my cousin Ivan, because my dad was finishing his Master's there. We started at Canberra and drove through places like Wollongong and Kiama and ended at Sydney. I've been to Australia but never to these places, and it was also great. [my Facebook albums: Part 1, Part 2]

December: City Harvest Bible Boot Camp, Christmas in KL with the cousins as usual (I think), and NUS's Varsity Christian Fellowship Annual Teach-In Camp! It was a great experience - breakfast, workshop, lunch, workshop, dinner, workshop, supper. It's where I learnt about Islam and also how the Bible was canonised (how the 66 books came to be the 66 books over the years). Opened my mind to a lot of things. Also, the close reading on Colossians was fantastic.


Also the undercurrent stuff, ahem ahem lol

Dec 22, 2013

breathe me



Help, I have done it again
I have been here many times before
Hurt myself again today
And the worst part is there's no one else to blame

Be my friend
Hold me; wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small
And needy
Warm me up
And breathe me

Ouch, I have lost myself again
Lost myself and I am nowhere to be found
Yeah, I think that I might break
I've lost myself again and I feel unsafe

Be my friend
Hold me; wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small
And needy
Warm me up
And breathe me


[feel free to skip to 1:45 or something]

thin

Darling, darling, I hope you’re okay. Being skinny isn’t what’ll make you lovely. You are beautiful not for the shape of the vessel, but for the volume of the soul it carries.

(oh carmen d! at the risk of sounding extremely creepy:  i was blog hopping and happened to go to your old blog and it wasn't in use anymore so i decided to click on a random archive, so i went to somewhere in 2011 and i saw this and just had to repost it)

because love, and a shower of blessings


And inevitably the conversation turned to relationships, and Daryl asked what your ideal spouse would be. And Xi Min said that the perfect partner is the one you choose. And I mentioned this line from this Tim Minchin song which goes, "I don't think you're special. I mean, I think you're special, but you fall within a bell curve." And Xi Min said that's what makes love so wonderful: that out of this whole range of people who are vaguely attractive, but equally un-special, you chose someone and made them special. 

Isn't it lovely? The Bengawan Solo cashier, the poorly dressed aunty who brushes past you, the yawning man on the bus - each is the most beautiful person in the world to at least one other person; each has his/her own treasure trove of experiences that got them to exactly where they are at this moment. Behind every dull passing face is a slew of colourful experiences and thoughts, a whole life's twisted journey, a jungle, just like how we feel our own lives have so much contained within, so much more than meets the eye.

I am now reminded of this Threadless tee I saw once of a lion sinking its teeth into a zebra, and out of its black and white body sprayed forth blood of bright colours, like brilliant light spilling out of a small hole in darkness, screaming its hidden brilliance.


So I got back from Nepal yesterday (will blog about it more in the next few days) and will be leaving for KL tomorrow. I met up with four people separately in the past two days: four very special people with very special friendships that I'm very thankful to have (and/or to have had) in my life. Ended this little tour with dinner with the kor kor, who had just finished his pan-island tour too, going round to people's houses to deliver them gifts. I met him at the control station and he was wearing his Yale-NUS shades and he was like "are you Karen? Can you sign this please" and delivered me his gift, DHL-style.

It's now 1am and I haven't packed for KL, but I'm not sure if I can find the self-discipline to put his letters down - the daily log I made him promise to do in response to the letters I wrote him for every day I was away in Nepal (because I want to be around even when I'm not).

I am currently sitting on my new bed in my old room, my stuff all over the place, feeling very content and at peace with how I have spent the past two days in Singapore, with the people I have talked to face-to-face or online - although, Sarah, the chat was not enough; gotta meet again before you leave, and thank you so much for that amazing card. No, actually, in fact, none of the meetups fully satisfied, although they were fantastic. Only the start, despite the road already being so far trodden. Still only the initial trickle of a river. Still a gush of conversations to come.

Dec 21, 2013

Photographs



The travelling man takes a picture. I hold up my baby sister, my most prized possession. Travelling people come and go with a "namaste", fleeting faces and names I cannot pronounce, but I stay here. I am a speck, and my life is tiny, insignificant. But now I am in a camera. I exist there, preserved. A tinier me stands in this metal box with my baby sister, and the travelling man takes me around the world.

Dec 15, 2013

futility

Why do humans like to create futile things? Why do we draw, sing, write, dance, paint, knit? We do it for others, but we'd do it even if there were no external consequence. We create beautiful things just for the sake of it. For nothing. Put in effort just because. Isn't the human race also a futile beautiful creation?

[backlog]

1. I hope you realise now that you are not, in fact, 50. You're a deep thinker, but you are 22.

2. You said you believed love was something that could conquer all. I think you have realised that  there is a love even greater, so much that it overcomes everything of ourselves.

Dec 4, 2013

the side we hide

well we were talking. why do we get all the drama? everyone else’s life is so calm and fine

and i’m like are you actually saying that?

if there’s anything we’ve learnt recently it’s that ALL OUR LIVES are so turbulent

being tossed around tossed around, well sometimes it’s more like we’re a speck in a cup and everything’s whirling around us but someone who’s outside the cup knows that it’s going to be okay

but anyhow

i can’t believe you said that, now, after all this. everyone’s facing their load of shit. it’s college. hormones and emotions are messed up. people have also seen things, been places, swum depths.

i guess you haven’t heard and seen from the rest here as much as i have maybe. but the people who seem so carefree and pure, they have. they have been places. they have their layers and it amazes me. makes me feel both sad and amazed at how much depth there is in each individual, how we have barely put our fingernails to the surface of the iceberg of human experience in this world.

and i am so, very, so very sure that almost everyone thinks you’re this fine and dandy chap who hasn’t really known pain. simple-minded carefree happy person who only experiences the good stuff, and has not broken.

i have seen the sides of you that break my heart, too. but that’s because i have been one of the few privy to the behind-the-scenes. your movie reel is still playing. everyone’s is.

Dec 3, 2013

seeds

When someone is so much a part of your life they leave little seeds in you, and a little part of you changes to become like the one. It could be the way you now say certain words a different way. Maybe now you type "mm kay" or say "yeah, go for it". Maybe it's a taste for rock music you've acquired, or strawberry-flavoured stuff, or hazelnut coffee. Maybe you swear more now. Maybe you grew to like driving out to the seaside. Perhaps you've developed a sense of humour. Maybe it's not even in the recognisable habits; the person has changed who you are. Maybe you've come to be a more introspective person. Or more dependent on others.

It doesn't have to be someone you've spent a lot of time with. It could just be someone you really like, or look up to. When you look up to someone you might imitate certain aspects of them without realising. You give these people a certain amount of influence over yourself.

The weight of your entirety might have left me but you still remain in the little, the everyday. I only eat seedless grapes. I never drink Yeo's green tea anymore, only Heaven and Earth. And yeah, I still like beer. Perhaps a little too much now. I also still go to see the cats. I still walk the route we used to take, and the cats are still there. And you are in the wind of every storm.

Dec 2, 2013

Applying to Yale-NUS? A disclaimer

In the first few weeks of school, when the aircon repairmen entered my room when I was in class, three people on my floor messaged me to warn me about it, and one confronted them to ask why they were entering my room. When Al, whom some of us might not know since he's only starting college in 2015, got Jon Ho's (or was it Jon Tan?) permission to borrow his clothes, he got told off by Jon's neighbours for entering his room.

Yesterday a lovely person (who shall remain unnamed for angel-mortal anonymity) gave me a candy apple. Carissa had also made sweet potato brownies and was giving them out to anyone she saw. An hour ago, Janel gave me a little bag of the granola she was making in the kitchen. (ref: first picture) And Carissa made her mortal, Janel, a hand-sewn Good Morning towel drawstring bag.


We make one another tea. We leave little gifts, notes and snacks outside one another's rooms. We knock on one another's doors to sing them songs. When someone inconsiderately took Josh's instant noodles, he came back to his room to find four bowls of instant noodles at his door, given to him by loving classmates. Students stay up late to give remedial lessons to other students. Students who don't collect their clothes in time when they're done in the washer might even return to find that someone else has already helped to dry them.

(The second photo is a picture of my wardrobe door: some of the notes that my classmates have left on my door etc. this past semester. I have many more in my drawer, on my wall, and on the side of my shelf. Yes, I feel very much loved, and this is simply an example of the love that goes around this beautiful school.)

Students make an entire pot of barley (Adlin), or a whole cake (Liz Chan), or bread pudding (Reuben), or a massive amount of orange juice (Kei), and bring it to our student-run kitchen or leave it in the lounges for everyone to share. And they gain nothing from it. Except a lot of love.


We are a tiny college with just one tiny cohort right now, and we only need to hear someone's voice to know who it is. We can tell who's in whose room by the slippers they leave outside. We make random signages and posters and stick them wherever appropriate (or not, even). We have too many inside jokes, because we're all inside, together. Say "everyone's so beautiful" and we all think of Annette. Say "peace and love" and we all think of Shanice. Say "Canadian". Say "European". (also, say "annoying alarm clock" and they'll think of me lol)

Shenanigans. Shake Shack. Petrus Liu. Andrew Bailey. (Yes we love our profs just as much as we love each other!)


If you are applying to Yale-NUS simply because it's a fantastic school with incredible people and talent, if you're applying because you are a high achiever and you want to beat everyone, if you are selfish about academics or anything else and are not willing to share what you have, please don't bother.

One thing you must understand about Yale-NUS is that it is family. We definitely disagree a lot, but we all love and will go out of our way to help one another. We are not selfish with our skills. We want to teach and we want to learn. We give one another things, time, effort and our hearts. If you are selfishly elitist and are bent only on your own success without a regard for others', this is not the school for you.