Love

The following essay is written by Ryan Foo of 4E2, BBSS, 2010. The essay is produced raw and unedited.

Before the dawn of time, the omnipotent presented a doubled-edged sword, in front of Adam and Eve, the quintessential form of humans. The almighty professed ‘thou shalt possess indomitable power with this weapon. However, such raw power comes with a price’. Eve was notably neutral towards the sword, but Adam, consumed by greed and impulsivity, sauntered past the almighty, and brandished that very sword. He felt euphorically enthused and was already feeling the unadulterated power coursing through his veins. Eve watched in awe, as she watched Adam being consumed by the power of the sword. This sword, is what enabled him to ensure continuity of their own kind. Without it, Eve wouldn’t be attracted by Adam in the first place, if he had not possess the qualities of the sword.

That double-edged sword as we know today is love. The extended metaphor above is an apt description of love. Love is the consummation of the best feelings in the world. Yet, love, despite being magnanimous and unconditional, has its consequential damaging effects. That is the other end of the double-edged sword that has been ignored by many, including Adam himself. Being in love, may be the best feeling in the world, as described by fortunate ones. Love manifests itself in all forms of life, even the most miniscule creatures are not ignored. Ants are the exemplary creatures that exhibit this quality. Feral creatures such as lions and tigers, expresses their affection for their offspring as well. They can toggle between the roles of a caring mother or a malevolent hunter. When their loved ones are threatened, they would undoubtedly assume the former role. They would fend off whatever adversaries that are threatening their offspring. This shows how love is manifested in different forms of lives.

How about love among humans? Because of our superior intellectual abilities, we have interpreted something so simple, as something so vastly different? Love, as we interpret it to be, is full of intangible complexities that one, cannot possibly decipher, no matter how conscious one is. If we look at it simply, love creates a mutual bond between two individuals and the established bond ensnares them subconsciously. If only we humans, were simpletons. The very existence of us spawned several incarnations of love; namely lusty love, respectful love, motherly love, et al. These emotions offer us a spectrum of positive effects, but I digress. The most peculiar thing about love is that, It wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t a detrimental side plaguing it. After all, it takes two hands to clap. Men has always been extolling the pulchritude of love, and yet, lambasting it when they are finally sober. That is why love is a great paradox, as it is perplexing to see that such euphoria is accompanied by its depressing cousin. To substantiate my claim, you only have to recall how many suicides are induced because of love?

Love is the most profound, yet confounding feeling one will ever experience. It captivates humans, but yet many have fallen victim to its ineffable bait. That is why I would prefer to take the plunge when I have matured to a certain extent. We are the most impressionable at this age, and I wouldn’t want my perception of love to be tarnished, just by a wrong move. But, one must bear in mind the inexorable anguish when love itself is tainted by oneself.

Essay by Fong Chui Choo

Write a story based on 'We were amazed when we heard how lucky John had been'.

"Wow! Absolutely unbelievable! How?"

After a recent trip, John was drowned in a sea of questions. No wonder. Everyone thought that John was dead! John shivered, and goosebumps appeared on his skin as he recounted his frightening experience…

It all started on the day when he decided to go on this expedition, to find a world famous and rare flower. Legend has it that it only bloomed once every thousand years! Intrigued, John decided to search for the flower.

Confident, John started the hike through the leafy jungle. Amazing and exotic flora and fauna surrounded him. He gasped in wonder as he continued his trek. Three days later, as John walked through the jungle, he decided have lunch. He walked to a nearby stream, and started to catch some fishes, oblivious to the bear on the other side of the shallow river. It was not until the shadow of the bear fell onto him that he realized he was in terrible danger. With quick reflexes, John jumped away from the bear in a flash. He ran as fast as his feet could carry him.

Unfortunately, the bear had apparently been angered terribly. Two tons of matter raced through the jungle not far behind John. When the furious bear caught up with John, it started to attack with its claws. Desperate, John grabbed a stick beside him, and tried to defend himself as he slowly retreated.

Suddenly, John felt nothing beneath him, as the bear slashed his torso and he fell into nothingness. Then, darkness, as John fell into deep unconsciousness.

A few hours later, John woke up to find himself in a cold, empty hole, most likely, dug by the natives in the jungle. It was pitch black. John groped around in the darkness as he tried to stand up. Excruciating pain sliced his torso. John could not suppress a wild cry. Gasping, he tried to calm himself down.

Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he began to see. He had spotted the flower! It was growing healthily, at the bottom of the hole. As delicately as he could, he plucked the flower out from the soil. Then, with the flower, he tried to come out of the ten meters deep hole, but to no avail. Exhausted, he tried one more time, with all the strength he had left.

Yes! He had climbed out of the hole! Fresh air rushed to greet him and sweat and blood glistened on under the moonlight. Languid, he passed out again.

When he woke up, he found himself in a warm, dimly lit room, clean and fresh. It seemed the natives of the jungle had rescued him. He left a gift as a way of saying thank you, and left discreetly. After another two days he made it out of the jungle, this time, with the flower.

As John thought back about this experience, tears rolled down his cheeks as he thanked god and felt that he was so lucky to be alive.

Essay by Lam Guan Wah

QUESTION

Write a description of The rush hour.


ESSAY

“Sigh,”as I looked at the bus stop about 50 metres in front of me.It was bursting with people. Such was the usual state when I left for school after my Drama lesson every Monday and Wednesday at 6pm. Nonetheless, I had to move towards it in order to board the bus. People were looking at their watches and getting irritated with how slow the bus was. Others were sitting down, having a break, looking totally oblivious to the elderlies and pregnant woman near them. Minutes passed and the blue and red rectangular vehicle came.

“Screech...” the bus with the number '157' flashing brightly on it braked, causing a high pitched sound. People rushed to the door, awaiting its movement. As the door opened, people pushed and squeezed through the door as if a shopping mall was holding a sale. The commuters charged into the bus mercilessly. Patiently, I stood behind and walked in small steps, entering the shaking vehicle slowly. Some privileged few sat down on unoccupied seats, while most moved to the rear. "Why are people so impatient?” I wondered silently in my head. "There is still a lot of space left...” I quizzed beneath my breadth.

The bus with its motors started once more, black, poisonous smoke bellowing out of its exhaust pipe, exited the bus bay. Slowly, it pulled over bus-stop by bus-stop.The same scenario could be seen throughout where I was standing- the middle of the bus. Passengers pressed against the glass doors, awaiting it to open before they could move up. Once,the bus could fill no more, it rejected to serve more. The stranded ones were left behind, their mouths wide open and eyes staring at us.Some were even shouting remarks that seemed hurtful. I felt lucky not to hear it, thanks to the four metal walls surrounding me.

Everyone including me, grumbled, both silently and aloud as the old vehicle with paint dropping off, approached and pulled over at every bus-stop. Others were grumbling because they had to squeeze once more for the alighting and boarding passengers. For me, the mixture of the smelly perspiration from the male workers and aromatic perfume from the female businesswomen were making my head dizzy. Hurry up! I want to get off!

The car horns outside trumpeted violently all of a sudden. Wondering what had happened, I pressed my face against the windows behind me in an attempt to find the cause. A traffic jam! Cars of different shape and size lined up in a straight row and honked in irritation. Finally, after what seemed like 45 minutes, the stationary bus moved and roared back to life again.

As my destination came nearer and nearer, I shouted and questioned myself in my head, Great!Now, how do I alight this fully packed rusty thing later on?

Eventually, we arrived. I tried to squeeze through the sea of human beings, just to find myself in an embarrassing state. Once my upper body came into contact with the other commuter’s shoulders, all eyes shot straight up at me. At long last, I escaped from the torturous hell of the rush hour and heaved a sigh of relieve. I shall avoid the Rush Hour, I vowed. But, could I?

Essay by Joshua Wong

QUESTION

We were amazed when we heard how lucky John had been.


ESSAY

As I waited at the traffic light outside my school, I recalled a life-changing experience that happened almost exactly where I stood.

It was approximately six months ago. Our End-of-Year Examinations had just finished. My friends and I were eager to loosen up and forget about our studies for awhile. We decided to go to John’s house. I had been to it once before, and I was dying to return. John lived in a bungalow. His house had a total of five computers including two laptops. Each and every one of them had games and internet access. In addition, John had a game room, where we could enjoy ourselves with his Xbox360 and Wii.

I suppose my friends were just as eager as I to go to his house because they all agreed to go.
Two of my friends and I had to stay back with a teacher for awhile, so John and the other friend went first. They said that they would wait for us at the bus stop. After the teacher spoke to us, we rushed down to the ground floor and ran to the school gate. As the talk with the teacher had not taken long, we were able to see John in the distance, talking to the friend. The traffic light showed a green man, so they began to cross the road.

Suddenly, a black Volvo with fully tinted windows and no number plate appeared round a corner and sped straight toward where John would be in a moment. They were on a collision course.
I desperately wanted to shout to John, I wanted to ask him to stop, but I was utterly out of breath and so were my friends. John and his partner were engrossed in conversation, so they failed to notice. However, miraculously, John suddenly came to a stop. And so did the friend. John reached into his left pocket.

At that very moment, the Volvo sped past John, inches from his nose. John looked up, only to see the plume of dust the car had stirred up. By then, we were all fully energised. I ran straight toward John and told him what had just happened. John looked at me a mixed expression. Fear, horror, gratefulness and wonderment were all displayed there. Later at his house, John told us exactly what had happened.

‘’My phone suddenly vibrated. So I stopped and took up my phone’’, John continued ‘’you know what’s the freaky thing was? The message was from my mother. It read: be careful on the roads today!’’

To most people, this would have been mere coincidence, but I wonder, could it be divine intervention? Anyway, we were all amazed when we heard how lucky John had been.
I was brought back to the present by the sound of the green man coming on. I began to cross the road, thinking about John and what would have happened if the message had not been sent.

Submerged in my own thoughts, I did not realize that not all the cars had stopped at the red traffic light. I turned to the sound of screeching tires and saw the face of a horrified driver. A split second later, metal hit bone with a sickening crunch.

For some reason, I felt no pain. I just lay there on the road, wondering what had happened. When I saw the pool of blood in front of me, I figured I had not been as lucky as John. Faintly, I could hear the sirens of an ambulance. I could not help but to wonder, why John? Why not me? I desire to live too. I suddenly felt extremely weary, and closed my eyes.