You Only Have One Life, Go Crazy

I'm not sure whether what I write next will be something good, but I want to get this off my head. Let me start you off with this incident which happened last week.

It was a wednesday. A half-day because of Chinese New Year eve. I went back to my primary school to visit my classmates. We haven't seen each other for quite a while, so we went to CDANS (country club) for bowling and also to do some catching up. Most of my friends were bowling (Matthiasm Wei Xuan, Amelia, Li Yi, Imran, Selva and two other guys). I didn't join them because I only had enough money to eat lunch. So I just sat there and played with the Rubik's Cube which I borrowed from Wei Xuan. I was curious to see Friend X (I don't want to name him as I want to keep his identity confidential) sitting there watching them play. Being curious, I walked over and asked him why he wasn't bowling. He replied that his wrists was injured due to a bicycle accident. It appeared that he was cycling at high speed where he saw another cyclist and his bike spun out of control. He fractured both wrists and dislocated his left shoulder.

"That's really gotta hurt. Did you go see a doctor?" I asked. He just shook his head and said nothing. So... I said "Why did you do such a thing? You should be careful." He replied with the title of my blog entry. "You only have one life. Go crazy".

That statement set me thinking. If he can say such a thing at 15 years old, when his other purpose in life is to seek thrills and go crazy, who knows what Friend X can do when he grows up and still keeps this kind of thoughts? It was then this thought came to my mind. I know it sounds elite but I was thinking "Why is it that majority of the people who come from neighbourhood schools have this kind of thoughts and crazy ideas but majority of the people who come from better schools do not?" Correct me if I'm wrong, and I think that most people will probably disagree with what I've said above. However, you can see (or think) that most Ah Bengs or Ah Lians seldom come from the better schools and majority of the friends I know in SJI and other better schools does not have such a "Moral Value" which tells you to live your life by seeking thrills and going crazy.

I'm thinking. The way he acts now is caused by his:
1. Education?
2.Upbringing?
3.The personal moral values that they have?
4.The kind of friends they have?
5.The type of school they go to?

Friend X used to be from a good class in primary school and he was... not the type of guy like he is now.Perhaps you may say that I don't understand him but from his actions and words, this is what I think of him. Based on that fact I think that I can cancel out 2, which leaves me to number 1, 3, 4, 5. Number 4 and 5 belongs to Number 1. So I'll categorize it further into

1. Education
2. Personal Moral Values

Speaking of number 1, I was thinking "Why is it that people from neighbourhood schools are always classified under the majority who misbehaves while people from better schools are always classfied as the more civillized one?" This made me question the quality of schools in Singapore. Why is it that some schools are able to educate all-rounded students and some schools educate lesser all-rounded students? Is it because they are unlucky? I don't think so.

And speaking of number two, that's really more of a personal issue, but part of it is still linked to number 1. We students sometimes need to know what's wrong and what's right, and this job is left mostly to parents and schools. While the parent is out working and has no time to educate the child, this job is left to the school. There is a chinese saying. "人之初，性本善", which means that all humans are born kind in nature. Whatever happens after that depends on Number 1, 2 and 3 in the first section. Let us take a look at Friend X's case again. I would like to ask:

1.What is the main factor or reason which seperates the good schools from the bad besides their academic results?

2.Why is it that the so called "bad schools" cannot do as well as the "good schools?"

3. The classification between "Good" and "Bad" schools. Is it based on the academic results or more of the type of students they produce?

4. If the school produces bad students, is it more of the school's fault or more of the student's fault which results in this phenomenon?

Well, these are the question which are runnning through my head now. I'm sorry if some of my words are offensive and please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm open to suggestions and comments. My deepest apologies to Friend X for using him as an example. Please feel free to leave your comments!