so this is it...

gold without honours...

received by an academically premier school. of course, it does not go down very well.

i guess, 'elite' schools take utmost pride in their status in any sphere, sporting or aesthetics or otherwise. especially when they're competing against perceived 'lesser' schools (just because they take in students who score lower in psle), there's a kiasu mentality going on.

i think, it's not wrong to hope high for the elite schools to do really well in sports and arts (there's the direct school admission thing, too, which contributes to those successes). but, what happens when we fall slightly short from being the top?

i don't know if my other ex-schoolmates feel it, but i'd feel slightly disappointed when my school sports team got anything but first place in the national competition. the name of the school and the school's long illustrious history are perhaps, overbearing in that way.

maybe this self-reflection should be taken in a positive way, that we always strive to be the best or be better in what we do?

especially in the area of arts competition, the battle gets even fiercer. in sports it's pretty much fair, if you have better abilities you will win (unless the referee is biased, but the damage dealt by an unfair decision is measurable). in arts, it's really hard to judge who has done better, because there's so many aspects to consider.

taking choirs for example, maybe choir A has better tone production than choir B, which is more musical. using the scoring criteria, it may be quite simple to conclude that, hey, choir A is better because it scored more points in the 'technical' components. but what happens when you appreciate the musicality of choir B and hence enjoy choir B's performance more than choir A's? by the way i'm not comparing between any particular choirs here.

aiya. don't know what to say haha! not really sad, la.

looking at it, they could have easily done worse (we all know) so we should be happy with a gold :) had they put in more effort... haiz.

if any of you happen to bump into my blog, hi :):) say hi to me if we bump in school k? lol.

but please work harder next time! FOCUS during practices! and appreciate working on a piece of music, making good music doesn't come at a snap of the finger, nor is it purely due to talent :)

enjoy your school life!