Thursday, February 10, 2011

Short Story First Draft

Short Story First Draft
I walk into the darkness, my heart was trembling, I received the paper anxiously. The dire questions in the paper seemingly could not be solved, I was stunned. Then the invigilator started the exam, his terrifying voice startled me badly, I move my heavy hand and grabbed a pen to start writing, would I get good result or would I returned in shame? I turned and rolled my head continuously, tried to solve the questions.

Since primary 2, I join the Olympiad Mathematics Training. My talent in Mathematics was noticed by an experienced Mathematics teacher, Mr. Lim. I often get good result in Mathematics Test. This also changed my life as I would be studying in Malaysia if I did not join the team. Mr. Lim nurtured me and other teammates to participate in the Olympiad Mathematics, it was rather different than the normal Mathematics questions as it required additional working and formulae as well as logic.

When I received the invitation letter, I refused to join, my mother also did not want me to join since the fee was costly and it was unnecessary to me. My mother always told me that tuition would not fix your hole so called weakness but it would make it bigger because some of the tuition teachers did not even teach properly, the most common way of “guiding” the students to get an A for result was to recognize and memorize the entire essay, and then pasted in their essay test such as English test and Chinese test.

But Mr. Lim seemed to be able to read my mind. I also found out that he always tried to seek a chance to clarify the advantages of this training to my mother. One day, while my mother was reading a newspaper, she suddenly shouted, “Oh my God, I can’t believe this!” In the newspaper, there was a big headline wrote “Talented Malaysian Gets Scholarship to Study in Singapore“. After reading the report, my mother encouraged me immediately to go to the Olympiad Mathematics Training so that I could also get the scholarship to decrease her burden very much since I was a burden to her too. Studying at no cost was great for parents because they could save a lot in their children’s expenditure.

Knowing the fact that I would join the training, Mr. Lim was much obliged. I learned very hard to strive for the incoming Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad for Primary School which could be called APMOPS. I also did not want to disappoint my mother who had high expectations to me. At first I tried to be truancy of the training lesson, but my mother advised me to think of the next generation as the currency of Singapore Dollar was much bigger than Ringgit Malaysia, which meant that Singapore’s economy was better than Malaysia’s economy.

To be honest, my mother transferred her burden to me. I felt stressful after a few orientations of the training, every time I heard the explanation of the answers of the questions by Mr. Lim, it was like thousands of piercing razor stabbed fatally into my heart, I carried the burden alone. Sometimes I thought myself, should I gave up, yielded, surrendered to the God of Fate? I did not want to continue this type of life, I wanted a life that was full of freedom and no restrictions or stresses. The life of me was getting boring and uninteresting. My mother always tried to assure me, it was Mr. Lim who gave me an analogy of studying in Malaysia and studying in Singapore, I thought for a whole day every time Mr. Lim advised me and assured me.

Finally, I decided to continue this stressful life because I would feel the hardship for only this short reading period, but I would be successful after this period as I learned more things than other classmates and therefore got higher opportunities compared to other students when I became grown-up. The APMOPS arrived at last; I was chosen to be one of the competitors because I did well in the primary round. Some of my chosen teammates and I went to Singapore by bus for the secondary and final round. This competition would judge my future fate and destiny and hence I became quite nervous.

I passed the second round successfully, and I would enter final round. If I did well then I might get the scholarship to study in Singapore. I walk into the darkness, my heart was trembling, I received the paper anxiously. The dire questions in the paper seemingly could not be solved, I was stunned. Then the invigilator started the exam, his terrifying voice startled me badly, I move my heavy hand and grabbed a pen to start writing, would I get good result or would I returned in shame? I turned and rolled my head continuously, tried to solve the question.

Guess what? Now I am studying in Hwa Chong Instituition, it was very obvious that I did very well in the final round to get this scholarship to study in Singapore.

4 comments:

  1. I like the way you wrote the first paragraph, it kept me in suspense and made me wanted to continue and finish the entire story. I like the way you made the story progress, unveiling bits and bits of information at a time, making me guess how the story might progress. If this is really your true life story, in congratulate you as you have already achieved something in life. Keep up the good work :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great job in writing the short story. The whole story keep me in suspense till the last paragraph when you revealed your true identity and how you managed to do well in your competition. Great choice of setting and theme that can truly contribute to how you convey your message to the readers. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Wei Hng,
    Overall, the flow of the story s quite nice in the rising and falling action. Good job.

    However, I was confused by the logic of the story. A mother want her child to join Olympiad Mathematic training for getting the scholarship, because she could save a lot in the children’s expenditure. But I like to advice you that only nearly 1~2% of student who study Olympiad Math got the scholarship, so the mother in the story should not expect so much of it. Dear Wei Hng, please re-comment on my short story as I have edited it, sorry but thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your story is good, and has a twist at the end. U clearly described the characters, and the setting was well-portrayed. You described your journey to success very well, how the character's behaviour has changed. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete

About Me

My photo
Mysterian, 6 years later and still goin' strong!