Weekends have not been the same over the last two weeks. Two Saturdays ago, Pokemon Go was launched in this sunny island state. Then, last Saturday, Joseph Schooling won the first Olympics Gold for Singapore. The entire country cheered and celebrated. So did we, UCC writers. Because in some way or other, we find something that links us with Joseph Schooling, either as education-ers, writers, or as parents. Everyone wrote something about it and I particularly like one of our articles – The Day Pokémons Got Schooled & Singaporeans Flocked to the Pools.
In the midst of all these, it appears that dreams, aspirations and the sleeping giants within were awakened. It has now become possible to dream of the impossible. I may be a cynic, but it was quite clear that when Joseph Schooling got into semi-finals and even when he beat Phelps in the semi-finals, Singaporeans were still hanging on the perception that a Gold medal was a silent whisper or a wishful wish. His first coach somewhat alluded that if he got a Bronze, that would have been a big achievement. Most didn’t have the faith to think a Gold medal was possible and were (are) happy to settle with any medal. Imagine if Joseph had held on to the same belief. Thank goodness he’s proven to be an extraordinary Singaporean, not the average Jo(e).
Joseph Schooling was in everyone’s blind spot, and had always been, until last Saturday. Two local magazines (shall not name them but the initials are MH and SC) have made very bad judgment calls with regards to the coverage (or lack of) for Schooling. The apology and the reasons given (for not running the well-thought and researched story) simply highlighted that they should remove the ’s (apostrophe s) from their names. These brands clearly don’t belong, neither to Men nor Singapore.
How can you blame a nation of sleepers or sleepwalkers when the media does not make it a point to assess their blind spots from time to time? Schooling did not appear suddenly, neither did he get a Singapore passport recently. He’s been around for 21 years. He decided to leave home at 14 to train for his personal goal and for his country. And he had to break rules and norms to do that. Not everyone’s happy with that. Then again, not everyone’s willing to train the way he did. And anyone can imagine the potential backlash had he not won any medal.
Rules and norms are not everything that govern the universe, neither is Pokemon-Go. Sometimes, you have to break the rules for your goal and dreams. Like Schooling. And sometimes, you have to follow the rules and strict discipline, like Andrew Lock. I’ve had the privilege of meeting Mr Andrew Lock in person a few months ago and learned a thing or two about persistence and patience as well as focus . It’s really about your goal and what is required to get there.
So here we are, inspired by what Joseph Schooling has achieved and Schooling senior hopes that he will inspire the youths in Singapore to go for their dreams. But firstly, parents of Singapore’s youths have to wake up from their shallow dreams. Many have not checked their blind spots for a long time to see what’s in store all these while but have instead buried their fighting spirit and settled for average. Parents who lament that “oh but his parents can afford to spend a million bucks to send him to the US to train” should give themselves two tight slaps. Then my question is how is it that we, as parents, have never thought it possible that we can have the same financial means? How is it that we think that our 9-5 job and monthly pay justifies “depriving” (for lack of a better word) our kids of a chance to explore his or her potential? How is it that we allow mediocrity to be our average? and even as we raise our averages, we decide it should have an upper limit? And then we dismiss the situation as having kids who are not inspired or motivated to be an inspiration? Parents, how many of us really make it our way of life to inspire our children to be greater than they think they can be?
I watched an interesting Ted Talk recently The Happiness Advantage -Linking Positive Brains to Performance and it’s about how statisticians and economists like to fit data to the average and work from there. We’ve become one of those average data points and if we’re an outlier, we’d either be ignored, put in the blind spot, or guided to “revert to mean”. Time to change the lens from which everyone sees (or not sees) perhaps?
We brought our little one to the pool on Sunday morning, and I begged my husband to show us how to do the butterfly strokes. I’ve always had to beg and cajole the strokes out of him, and this time I wouldn’t take no. As an aside, I find it really sexy when he does it (ssshhhh….). He used to be a competitive swimmer, but like many others, never brought it to another level, partly due to self limiting beliefs. So on Sunday, our little one saw him performing the butterfly strokes for the very first time. And it opened her eyes to something new and perhaps she’d be inspired to learn or at least know of its existence. I know I am. 🙂
Euphoria doesn’t last, but goals and awakened dreams should. I just wonder, how long will the adults and parents in Singapore stay awake and start checking their blind spots? Last Saturday, Joseph Schooling won the first Olympics Gold for Singapore. The entire country cheered and celebrated. Let’s hope they are no longer in their pyjamas.
Under (the) Covers 