you can't keep a good girl down

Ok, this is a pet peeve of mine. I don't understand why so many people have the cannot-do-it mentality. Be patient with me as I try to explain what I mean.

A lot of people in Singapore have this "underachiever" mentality. Tell a student that she can get straight As and she goes, "Huh? Sure cannot." Of course lar, with that kind of mentality, definitely cannot. Where's that "I will try" kind of fighting spirit?

If you know me, you will know my Chinese sucks. When I speak, there's a funny chiang. But I got an A1 for "O" Levels and an A2 for "A" Levels. Do you want to know why? It's not because I'm brilliant (ahem!) but it's because I told myself I could do it and I die die will not admit defeat until I try. I know I sucked at Chinese. So I worked extra hard. If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again! I remember the first year I stopped having Chinese tuition. I was in Primary 4. I was horrified when I got my test paper back. 60%. My friend, Lois (gosh, I still remember this so clearly) leaned over my shoulder and said, "Hey, what happened to you?" From that moment on, I just tried harder. In Secondary School, I memorised every single word in the Chinese textbook and its "sentence construction". I did this for all textbooks for the four years (Sec 1 to Sec 4: 8 textbooks in all) in preparation for the "O" Levels. At the end, my Chinese textbooks were falling apart. But I got my A1.

I could have given up. I could have said, "Oh, I suck at this. I can't do it. My parents couldn't master Chinese. I don't think I can either." But I didn't.

My Chinese is dismal now. But at least I can say I did it.

In Sec 2 I had a P.E. teacher cum Track and Field coach who asked me what my target was for my 3000m event. I told him, "One minute forty seconds per round." (Now, this was record-breaking timing then.) You know what he did? He laughed at me. Later on that year, I went on to break the National Track and Field C Division record for 3000m. And yes, I did achieve my one-minute-forty-second target.

You think I'm a natural runner? I tell you, I've got flat feet. Prolonged high impact sports cause injury to my ankles, then knees, then back because of my flat feet. When I run, people used to laugh and say that I sounded like I was in labour. But I did it.

I could go on to tell you more stories where I triumphed despite the dire predictions of others - my Geography teacher in Secondary 4, my Chemistry teacher in JC, my ex-boyfriend (with regards to riding a motorbike, ahem!)... but you get the point.

So I'm sure you understand why my blood boils when I hear people putting others (or themselves) down with the cannot-do-it mentality, whether intentionally or not.

"Everyone cannot do it, you think you can meh?" I'm not everyone, and everyone is not me. Thomas Edison only needed that one lightbulb out of thousands. Who knows? Maybe you are that one lightbulb!

"He's a scholar, I'm a farmer, I cannot do it." If you think you're a farmer, you'll always be a farmer, no matter how much you want to be a scholar.

"Wah, how to compare? That one genius material you know!" And you are not?

Look, I'm not into the whole new-age thingy where you psycho yourself to do things. That path only leads to tons of tone-deaf people on American Idol. That's self-delusion - a whole different problem. But that's not what I'm saying here. I believe that one's expectations should always be tempered with reality. However, the cannot-do-it mentality hinders people from achieving the best they can because they are stopped from trying.

So, in closing, I pose this to you - the overachiever is separated from the underachiever by his willingness to try.

Think about it.