Dear Elinor,
We haven’t seen each other for a long time. How’s your school in Singapore? I hope everything is doing fine.
Yesterday, our school held the first Healthy Living Day. It’s just like a normal school day and we still got lessons in the morning. But after lunch, there were plenty of activities, games and talks for us to join. If I remember correctly (because there’re really quite a number of events), there were board games, leisure reading, art workshops, DIY lip balm workshop, emotion management talk to help us put our burdensome schoolwork aside, and take a break! I really enjoyed the activities.
I only joined the board games session and the talk. I played board games with Bianca, Yuri, Esther and Gladys. At first, I had decided to do some reading, but you know them, reading is never their cup of tea. It’s more like a “task”, so we had board games! Those games were not simply Flying Chess or Chinese Chess we used to play when you were still in Hong Kong. Those were new games which we’ve never heard of. That’s why we spent almost an hour trying to figure out how to define the winner and loser, what actually the guidelines mean…and we encountered lots of problems about what’s the next step should be. Eventually, we spent another hour just trying to find out if we did follow the instructions correctly!
We all felt frustrated when the bell rang because we had no idea about who the winner was. We probably were the noisiest players in the room since we argued about the instructions so loudly.
But anyway, it’s really relieving when we were playing board games. We can’t yell so loudly in lessons, and I haven’t really had games with Bianca and the rest of them for a long time.
Later, we went to the talk. As I have mentioned, it’s about managing our emotions. I can’t remember the details because I didn’t pay attention indeed (don’t blame me! Half of the students fell asleep. I have tried my best to stay awake!) But the conclusion given by the speaker was really inspiring, “Don’t let frustration, sadness, anger or pressure nest on your head.”
I think the Healthy Living Day can really help me get rid of the bustling schoolwork and exams. I do hope that we can have an entire day of games and leisure but not just a few hours. I really enjoyed it! I know that schools in Singapore are very strict and demanding, and I also know that you’re striving to get good results. But please, don’t forget to take a break and spend some time chilling out with your friends. Or there will be an enormous nest on your head!
Write back soon!
Vicky