5 reasons why I ain't in TP

The question that I've been labeling as the most irritating these days is: "Why never go TP?", especially after I say that I live in the East. Come on, must every Eastern kid who isn't in TP be asked this same question over and over again?

This shall be my list of reasons for not being in TP despite being an East kid, though most are my own personal ones. If only I could shove this link up the noses of whoever asks me this damn question again in the future.

5. First of all, there is the O Level results. Because of my shitty ones, there weren't a lot of courses I was eligible for. I was lucky enough to be eligible for TP's Film, Sound & Video course [I think it changed its name though] but that was it, and that was the only course from TP which I'd applied for in my 12 choices. With my shitty grades, what were the odds of me being able to get that?

4. Secondly, at that point of my life when I was applying for JAE 2013, I really wanted to escape the East side. I hated my job at Loyang Point, I hated the family that kicked me out of their oh-so-perfect house, and I hated the people from my school [who mostly lived in Pasir Ris], which brings me to my next point.

3. Maybe it was just me, but from the graduating batch before mine, I could see a whole bunch of people from my secondary school were in TP. I couldn't help 'stereotyping' students as lazy people who would only go for the nearest poly, so I took the chance to go further. I didn't want to be in the same school with the same people again, not to be reminded of my last year in that hell hole.

2. These next 2 points aren't really reasons why I didn't go TP, but more like why I started to not mind going to a school on the other side of Singapore. I'm not gonna elaborate this one, but just leave it at the main point: I just liked being nearer to the asshole's school, so we were able to meet up easier and more often.

1. This number one reason ain't nothing new. As time passed, I found that I really liked taking the MRT from one side to another. This liking for MRTs grew to a love for the roads; the longer the bus journey, the more things I'd get to see outside the window.

In fact, I love going to school from my Pasir Ris house than from Paya Lebar, just because I get to be on two expressways in one bus journey. I don't mind waking up at 5 in the morning for my 8AM classes, because I grew to love the long bus journeys. I would never have met the roads, my love of my life, if I had gone to a nearby poly.

And hey, if you look at the Singapore map, the Bukit Timah area isn't that far from the East at all. People only say it's far because they look at the MRT map, where Pasir Ris is EW1 and Clementi is EW23.

I've learnt the hard way that roads of Singapore are not equivalent to the MRT map, so you can't judge distance via its place on the latter. Pretty much like how Hougang and Ang Mo Kio are on entirely different Lines on the MRT map despite being practically next to each other.

So please stop asking me Why never go TP!? in that tone, like I'm expected to go there just because I live in the East. No, just no. Stop. And if you show me a shocked face or gasp or go all "Huh so far!?" to know I live in Pasir Ris/Paya Lebar and schooling in Ngee Ann Poly, I will slap you.