Sharing Session at ITE College West

Last Friday, I was invited to give a short talk at ITE College West to a class of 40+ students. Mdm Fahimah, my ex lecturer was the one who invited me, she would like me to somehow motivate her  new class of students to perhaps take up National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) or perhaps strive for the Lee Kwan Yew Scholarship too.

I guess it's nice to help motivate students, but then again I had mixed feelings about it. Sure it was the time of my life but I'm not exactly sure if I was 'happy' with who I was 4 years ago. Stephanie the motivated perfectionist, the high achiever. Then it became Stephanie the girl who fell, and boy she did fall hard.
Now I am Stephanie, the girl who fell but picked herself up again.. the girl who evolved and she did it with that same MOTIVATION (mind you).

So I decided, I shouldn't be motivating people to be who I was last time, I should encourage them to be who I am now. Motivated and doing what you love, not for anyone but for yourself.

I also understand that some of them might have some emotional issues, so I decided to share abit of my Journey too and introduce them to CHAT hub - a platform for youths with mental health issues.

Then came the troublesome part. I need to create slides to engage the students, as a student myself I know how short the attention span can get. Also because I'm a visual person, I hate wordy stuffs.
So after much thinking this is what my slides look like.

I end up drawing on almost all the slides lol.

The next morning I travelled from my home in Pasir Ris to Chua Chu Kang. Yes, ITE College West is in Chua Chu Kang if you didn't know.

So there I was, talking about my experiences, sharing with them about the goals I hope to achieve in future and trying to tell them to do what they love and not stress out.
They were really nice, enthusiastic and quite hyper. They would interrupt me and ask silly questions!
I think the weirdest question I got that day was "How did you try to kill yourself?"
Hahaha, after the sharing I had coffee with Mdm Fahimah, Mr Aaron the Course Manager and Dr Eric Cheung the Director. It was really nice to catch up with them again and I hope to go back again soon..

omg I still have an old photo of them.

Left to Right

OK, back to work. I actually took a short break from working on my assignments to blog about this.

Launch of JCI Patient Care Posters

This afternoon, I was invited by IMH to speak during the launch of the JCI posters. I illustrated a series of 5 posters to help the staff understand how me/we as the patient value their services and hope to encourage them to keep up the good work! (Or rather that is how i depict it)

The funny thing is, I was advised by the Medical Affairs dept to talk about my experiences while illustrating the poster and share about how I hope their staff can improve (or something like that). Which I never need in the end. This actually got me to note down what to say and I kept trying to recite what to say the whole morning. I was reciting what to say out loud in public while walking to IMH and I attracted a couple of stares.. there was this man who kept turning back to look at me as we were walking hahahaha, now that look back and think about it, I think it's hilarious.

In the lecture hall, Dr Chua the CEO of IMH was presenting and I thought to myself "wah, he is such a natural when it comes to public speaking." I want to be like that too.. The more I think about what I'm going to say and what if I forget, the more I felt nervous and the lower I sunk into my chair.

He was talking about their plans to improve the hospital facilities and patient care services etc. Then there was one part where he touched on the stigma and letting people who are suffering know what help is available. I think that part is very important? Because base on my experiences I didn't know I was suffering from depression for so long till it got really bad. And trust me, you can shout for help all you want but nobody is going to take you seriously. I also want to raise awareness to the younger demographic. :(

Ok back to the topic. I forgot what to say the moment I stood in front of the rostrum, but for some magical reason (this always happen, mind you) I spoke naturally. I was perfectly fine and spoke confidently, which is good!
Maybe I should thank my ITE days for all the public speaking opportunities and training.

So here are the posters!

I'm really honoured to be given this opportunity to illustrate for them! It was a great experience for me, and awesome for my portfolio! A big thank you to Pui Yee and team for generating the message and helping me in the process :D

Here are the photos which I took with the CEO Dr Chua and my psychiatrist Dr Alex Su.

Want to hear a joke?
After uploading the photo of Dr Alex on facebook, I got alot of my facebook friends commenting that "Hey it's the singing doctor!" and I was like "what singing doctor?"
Apparently he took part in some talent competition back in the 90s when I was still a baby, and the number of friends I have who recognised him is just freaky.
It's freaky because he is the Doctor who takes his job seriously, never smile AT ALL (thats not really a smile in the above pic right?) and never crack any lame jokes to me :(
So yeah.. I think he takes his job very seriously, or maybe I'm too negative and emo everytime I see him thats why.. hahaha. Shit, I wonder if he is active online and happen to me reading this..... ._.

Anyway today is a happy day!
And this Friday I am invited to go back to ITE College West by my former lecturer to share my experiences with her class. I've shared my experiences with many individuals before, but never to a class (and I was told they are very enthusiastic) so I am excited.
I also foresee that I will be all nervous again because I still got no clue on what to share with them.
But this time I will prepare slides.

Oh and Like my facebook page if you want to follow my illustrated/illustration journeys.
www.facebook.com/muffinsaurs

Lunar New Year

Fatman & Superchub ushering in the Lunar New Year! Of course lemon wants to be a part of it. 

Frankly speaking, I never enjoyed such occasions. To make it more less enjoyable, I was loaded with school assignments and freelance work on hand. Meaning, I have to work over the holidays *sad*

On the eve of chinese new year, I went to grandmumsy place for reunion dinner. I brought my macbook with me but found out that I couldn't get any work done because there was just no space to do so there. There were adults watching TV and gossiping in the living room, 3 pots of steamboat brewing and kids  in the room... basically kids everywhere.

So I kept my macbook and took my notebook out to sketch instead. Was working on a new character for my Fatman & Superchub series, a villain role or the exact opposite of them.

Sitting in one corner of the sofa and sketching away apparently caught the attention of one of my aunt. 

"Hey, my daughter is just like you. She love to draw and is always seen drawing stuff on her sketckbook. She brings it everywhere she goes, in fact she is hugging it now."

I nodded and told her its great that her daughter has a hobby for art. But then she said:

"She told me to buy her art materials, some special type of stationaries, why can't she just use normal ones? She even use up her sketchbook so fast and kept telling me to buy new ones for her. But I see her drawings like... um..."

She hesitated. Seems rather clear that she doesn't appreciate her daughter's artwork. But then she added:

"Looking at her reminds me of you. Both exactly the same. She like to draw so much, but my husband kept advising her not to follow this path, no good! In the future because drawing cannot earn money. Right? Right?"

er ouch? Okay......... -_-

"Well it depends on how good she is, and which path she wants to go. There are many artistic route, you can't stop her if she is interested. Just let her decide what she want to do on her own." 

she is obviously trying to tell me indirectly that she doesn't want her daughter to follow in the same footsteps as me, and to agree with her that I can't go far in life as an artist. She even said that her daughter is 'doing very well in her studies' thats why they are encouraging her to study something that can earn more instead of going towards the path of the barely earning enough to survive artist.

Seriously I think it's pretty fucked up for her to be telling this in my face. If you ask me if being a artist advisable, I'd say No. Unless you got the passion and the love what you do. I believe passion is a very important factor, if you don't love what you do.. you are going to live a miserable life.

She could easily ask me if this career path is advisable instead of telling me all the (in your face) crap about not being able to earn much and fearing your daughter going going this path while reminding me constantly that we are similar. 

I know.. I know.. I am a bad example for your daughter. 

You have to state "She studied very well." because unlike her I am a failure. I never did well in my studies, I went to ITE, I wasted alot of my precious time (years in fact). But being able to draw is a 'talent' and requires alot of passion. It's not a career path which only "people like me who can't study" take. 

Seriously woman. One day, I will make it. I will be successful and you guys will go 'woah'

-_-

#NowYouKnowWhyIHateCNY

In the end, I went to my cousin and told her "Don't listen to your parents, do what you love and follow your dreams."

Okay so to end this rather unhappy post, I'm posting some pictures.

Below is with Sister Maria Riva, whom I visited at St. Joseph Old Folks Home. She is a catholic nun who taught me catechism when I was 7. Oh how time flies~

She is going to be 81years old this year, still healthy and strong but her legs are getting weak so she rides a scooter around the home! 

Finally I'm going end with a selfie which I took this morning in school. Yes, I went to school on a Sunday and the 3rd day of the lunar new year. This just shows how much work I have pending on hand.

I'm getting pretty exhausted from all the pending work, I hope I don't stress myself out.
Or rather I don't think I would, because after all I enjoy what I am doing..