This is a story forwarded to me by email. Its amazing how a 15 year old girl can relate at her young age what many of us had forgotten.

Do not forget your roots.

------------------------------------------------------------

This is a truly great story by an amazing 15 year old.

Subject: FW: Fw: 15 year-old girl essay -MUST READ!!!

Hi ,

It's worthwhile taking 5 mins to read this essay.

Singapore girl wins Commonwealth essay prize!

A 15-YEAR-OLD Singaporean, competing against 16- to 18-year-olds, has
won the top prize in a writing contest that drew 5,300 entries from 52
countries.

In the annual Commonwealth Essay Competition, Amanda Chong of Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) chose to compete in the older category and won with a piece on the restlessness of modern life.

Her short story, titled What The Modern Woman Wants, focused on the conflict in values between an old lady and her independent-minded daughter.

'Through my story, I attempted to convey the unique East-versus-West struggles and generation gaps that I feltwere characteristic of young people in my country,' said Amanda, who likes drama, history and literature andwants to become a lawyer and a politician.

Chief examiner Charles Kemp called her piece a 'powerfully moving and ironical critique of modern restlessness and its potentially cruel consequences'. The writing is fluent and assured, with excellent use of dialogue.

Amanda gets (S$1,590). A Singaporean last won the top prize in 2000, said Britain 's Royal Commonwealth Society, which has been organising the competition since 1883. Singaporeans also came in second in the 14- to 15-year-old category, and fourth in the under-12s. Other winners included students from Australia, Canada and South Africa .

==================================================================

What the Modern Woman Wants

By Amanda Chong Wei-Zhen

The old woman sat in the backseat of the magenta convertible as it careened down the highway, clutching tightly to the plastic bag on her lap, afraid it may be kidnapped by the wind. She was not used to such speed, with trembling hands she pulled the seatbelt tighter but was careful not to touch the patent leather seats with her callused fingers, her daughter had warned her not to dirty it, 'Fingerprints show very clearly on white, Ma.'

Her daughter, Bee Choo, was driving and talking on her sleek silver mobile phone using big words the old woman could barely understand. 'Finance' 'Liquidation' 'Assets' 'Investments'... Her voice was crisp and important and had an unfamiliar lilt to it. Her Bee Choo sounded like one of those foreign girls on television. She was speaking in an American accent.

The old lady clucked her tongue in disapproval.

'I absolutely cannot have this. We have to sell!' Her daughter exclaimed agitatedly as she stepped on the accelerator; her perfectly manicured fingernails gripping onto the steering wheel in irritation.

'I can't DEAL with this anymore!' she yelled as she clicked the phone shut and hurled it angrily toward the backseat. The mobile phone hit the old woman on the forehead and nestled soundlessly into her lap.

She calmly picked it up and handed it to her daughter.

'Sorry, Ma,' she said, losing the American pretence and switching to Mandarin. 'I have a big client in America. There have been a lot of problems.'

The old lady nodded knowingly. Her daughter was big and important.

Bee Choo stared at her mother from the rear view window, wondering what she was thinking. Her mother's wrinkled countenance always carried the same cryptic look.

The phone began to ring again, an artificially cheerful digital tune, which broke the awkward silence.

'Hello, Beatrice! Yes, this is Elaine.' Elaine. The old woman cringed. I didn't name her Elaine.

She remembered her daughter telling her, how an English name was very important for 'networking',Chinese ones being easily forgotten.

'Oh no, I can't see you for lunch today. I have to take the ancient relic to the temple for her weird daily prayer ritual.'

Ancient Relic. The old woman understood perfectly it was referring to her. Her daughter always assumed That her mother's silence meant she did not comprehend.

'Yes, I know! My car seats will be reeking of joss sticks!'

The old woman pursed her lips tightly, her hands gripping her plastic bag in defence.

The car curved smoothly into the temple courtyard. It looked almost garish next to the dull sheen of the ageing temple's roof. The old woman got out of the back seat, and made her unhurried way to the main hall.

Her daughter stepped out of the car in her business suit and stilettos and reapplied her lipstick as she made her brisk way to her mother's side.

'Ma, I'll wait outside. I have an important phone call to make,' she said, not bothering to hide her disgust at the pungent fumes of incense.

The old lady hobbled into the temple hall and lit a joss stick, she knelt down solemnly and whispered her now familiar daily prayer to the Gods.

Thank you God of the Sky, you have given my daughter luck all these years. Everything I prayed for, you have given her. She has everything a young woman in this world could possibly want. She has a big house with a swimming pool, a maid to help her, as she is too clumsy to sew or cook. Her love life has been blessed; she is engaged to a rich and handsome angmoh man. Her company is now the top financial firm and even men listen to what she says. She lives the perfect life. You have given her everything except happiness. I ask that the gods be merciful to her even if she has lost her roots while reaping the harvest of success.

What you see is not true - she is a filial daughter to me. She gives me a room in her big house and provides well for me. She is rude to me only because I affect her happiness. A young woman does not want to be hindered by her old mother. It is my fault.

The old lady prayed so hard that tears welled up in her eyes. Finally, with her head bowed in reverence she planted the half-burnt joss stick into an urn of smouldering ashes.

She bowed once more.

The old woman had been praying for her daughter for thirty-two years. When her stomach was round like a melon, she came to the temple and prayed that it was a son.

Then the time was ripe and the baby slipped out of her womb, bawling and adorable with fat thighs and pink cheeks, but unmistakably, a girl. Her husband had kicked and punched her for producing a useless baby who could not work or carry the family name.

Still, the woman returned to the temple with her new-born girl tied to her waist in a sarong and prayed that her daughter would grow up and have everything she ever wanted. Her husband left her and she prayed that her daughter would never have to depend on a man.

She prayed every day that her daughter would be a great woman, the woman that she, meek and uneducated, could never become. A woman with nengkan; the ability to do anything she set her mind to. A woman who commanded respect in the hearts of men. When she opened her mouth to speak, precious pearls would fall out and men would listen.

She will not be like me, the woman prayed as she watched her daughter grow up and drift away from her, speaking a language she scarcely understood. She watched her daughter transform from a quiet girl, to one who openly defied her, calling her laotu; old-fashioned. She wanted her mother to be 'modern', a word so new there was no Chinese word for it.Now her daughter was too clever for her and the old woman wondered why she had prayed like that.

The gods had been faithful to her persistent prayer, but the wealth and success that poured forth so richly hadburied the girl's roots and now she stood, faceless, with no identity, bound to the soil of her ancestors by only a string of origami banknotes.

Her daughter had forgotten her mother's values. Her wants were so ephemeral; that of a modern woman. Power, Wealth, access to the best fashion boutiques, and yet her daughter had not found true happiness. The old woman knew that you could find happiness with much less. When her daughter left the earth everything She had would count for nothing. People would look to her legacy and say that she was a great woman, but shewould be forgotten once the wind blows over, like the ashes of burnt paper convertibles and mansions.

The old woman wished she could go back and erase all her big hopes and prayers for her daughter; now she had only one want: That her daughter be happy. She looked out of the temple gate. She saw her daughter speaking on the phone, her brow furrowed with anger and worry. Being at the top is not good, the woman

thought, there is only one way to go from there - down.

The old woman carefully unfolded the plastic bag and spread out a packet of beehoon in front of the altar. Her daughter often mocked her for worshipping porcelain Gods. How could she pray to them so faithfully and expect pieces of ceramic to fly to her aid? But her daughter had her own gods too, idols of wealth, success and power that she was enslaved to and worshipped every day of her life.

Every day was a quest for the idols, and the idols she worshipped counted for nothing in eternity. All the wants her daughter had would slowly suck the life out of her and leave her, an empty soulless shell at the altar.

The old lady watched her joss tick. The dull heat had left a teetering grey stem that was on the danger of collapsing.

Modern woman nowadays, the old lady sighed in resignation, as she bowed to the east one final time to end her ritual. Modern woman nowadays want so much that they lose their souls and wonder why they cannot find it.

Her joss stick disintegrated into a soft grey powder. She met her daughter outside the temple, the same look of worry and frustration was etched on her daughter's face. An empty expression, as if she was ploughing through the soil of her wants looking for the one thing that would sow the seeds of happiness.

They climbed into the convertible in silence and her daughter drove along the highway, this time not as fast as she had done before.

'Ma,' Bee Choo finally said. 'I don't know how to put this. Mark and I have been talking about it and we plan to move out of the big house. The property market is good now, and we managed to get a buyer willing to pay seven million for it. We decided we'd prefer a cosier penthouse apartment instead. We found a perfect
one in Orchard Road . Once we move in to our apartment we plan to get rid of the maid, so we can have more space to ourselves...'

The old woman nodded knowingly.

Bee Choo swallowed hard. 'We'd get someone to come in to do the housework and we can eat out-but once the maid is gone, there won't be anyone to look after you. You will be awfully lonely at home and, besides that, the apartment is rather small. There won't be space. We thought about it for a long time, and we decided the best thing for you is if you moved to a Home. There's one near Hougang-it's a Christian home, a very nice one.'

The old woman did not raise an eyebrow. 'I've been there, the matron is willing to take you in. It's beautiful with gardens and lots of old people to keep you company! I hardly have time for you, you'd be happier there.'

'You'd be happier there, really.' Her daughter repeated as if to affirm herself.

This time the old woman had no plastic bag of food offerings to cling tightly to; she bit her lip and fastened her seat belt, as if it would protect her from a daughter who did not want her anymore. She sunk deep into the leather seat, letting her shoulders sag, and her fingers trace the white seat.

'Ma?' her daughter asked, searching the rear view window for her mother. 'Is everything okay?' What had to be done, had to be done. 'Yes,' she said firmly, louder than she intended, 'if it will make you happy,' she added more quietly.

'It's for you, Ma! You'll be happier there. You can move there tomorrow, I already got the maid to pack your things.' Elaine said triumphantly, mentally ticking yet another item off her agenda.

'I knew everything would be fine.' Elaine smiled widely; she felt liberated. Perhaps
getting rid of her mother would make her happier. She had thought about it. It seemed the only hindrance in her pursuit of happiness. She was happy now. She had everything a modern woman ever wanted; Money, Status, Career, Love,Power and now, Freedom, without her mother and her old-fashioned ways to weigh her down...

Yes, she was free. Her phone buzzed urgently, she picked it up and read the message, still beaming from

ear to ear. 'Stocks 10% increase!'Yes, things were definitely beginning to look up for her...

And while searching for the meaning of life in the luminance of her hand phone screen, the old woman in the backseat became invisible, and she did not see the tears.

Woahhh... its finally a weekend~!!! Its true that when you are working, you really look forward to weekends, because sometimes working can be a drag. However, whether you find weekdays a drag really depends on how you feel about your job. Once you start finding weekdays hard to pass, that means its time to change ur job. As for me, my weekdays passed by quite fast now.. so thats a good thing.

Had fun during last night outing too, making stupid jokes, been a while since I saw them, and everyone got a job now, leading a different lifes fr what was a combined one for 3 years. And played pool for the first time since a long time ago~! hmm.. actually I played in yellowstone once also haha..

Sometimes, just looking at her can bring a smile to my face, its an unexplainable feeling, and my mind will be thinking.."I cant believe the happiness in front of me.." But like the epl, its easy to reach the top, but hard to stay there. Its in my hands now, and there will not be any letting up.

Stars..

Read this for a good laugh haha..

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Singapore

Its been 3 weeks of work already, and theres still so many many things to learn. Was totally catching no ball in the 2 suppliers meetings I have this week, just sitting at the side watching my colleague handle them. And it do get frustrating at times, because its hard to grasp the vast amount of information given to me.. Shrucks..

I finally ate the famous Botak Jones today, on the expense of the company haha.. Anyway, I ate Fish n Chips, and well, the fish is good. Fries is ok. Serving is big, but thats expected given that its more expensive than normal western food. But Im amazed at the number of workers it hire.. should be around around 7-10 ppl. For a hawker stall to hire that many ppl, it must be making good money i think.

I think yellowstone got me addicted..addicted to living overseas. Really want to go overseas again, to experience a different life from here. Its sort of like an escape, but then on actual fact, you are earning money too. My next job will be one that allows me to travel. A bit too early to think about that huh.. especially when I only started work for 2 weeks haha..

Nowadays we tend to get more and more news like avoid eating transfat because it can cause cancer.. avoid eating msg cause it is bad.. and like last weekend, the straits times published that the material in nonstick pan can cause cancer as well. I think that if one were to care about all these, one would die of anxiety faster. As for me, I wouldnt care less. Life is too short to be concerned with such things. After all, one can easily die in a plane accident, or someday, your heart can just decide to stop working, like many young man out there. And when u die, you will regret not eating that macdonald fries, or the movenpick icecream. I guess the important thing to remember, is to do things in moderation. Do what you want to do, but dont overdo it.

Theres a saying, that a guy wants to be a girl's first love, and a girl wants to be a guy's last love. Its different now. The guy wants to be the girl's last.

Do you remember him? If you grow up in the same generation as me, you probably will. Anyway, I was reminded of him, because my fren was recently promoting "save the earth" message, bringing ur own cutlery to steamboat instead of using plastics one, cos plastics is non-biodegradable. And I seriously think that cartoon is very good, teaching humans to protect the very resource they are depending on, its a pity they no longer show this on tv.

I just watched the first episode on the net, and here's the messages Captain Planet said towards the end:
Encourage ur families to save gasoline, turn off your lights in your house when you dont need them, carpool when you can, walk or bike for near distances.

Anyway, heres the link, if you wan to relive ur childhood:

Im a techno geek, not the one mentioned in 881 of course. So theres always a lot of things I want to lay my hands on. Like a new camera, a new laptop (even though i got one, but i just want vista~!), a new lcd tv( so tt i can connect my laptop to lcd and fully utilise my movies collections).. And amid all these, theres really one I want to get my hands on.. IPHONE!!!!! It just looks so cool when I tried it at San Fran.. oh man.. faster come over.. n if anyone were to have exclusive rights, let it be singtel.. if not i gonna change mobile provider..

Saw this trailer in the cinema the other day, which made me really want to watch it when it comes out in Dec 7th. And of course, its partially cos nicole kidman is one of my fav actress.

My friend sent me this pic.. best.. haha..

I suppose that to support my current lifestyle.. of eating icecreams, drinking bubble tea and eating chicken cutlets.. I have to do this.. So I went for a run just now. Its many months since my last run, minus those on impulse in yellowstone, and that probably explains my muscles is quite stiff now. Got to maintain the momentum from now on.. so...

If anyone living in bukit panjang or nearby interested in joining me for regular runs, let me know~!!! We can keep fit together haha..

Is the standard chartered marathon a possibility? Hmmmm....

Mr Brown provides some good entertainment, like a death note spoof of the recent odex saga, and also on another matter about mass cycling organised by political parties, in which I was irritated by a comment a pap politician.

Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee, in replying to Mr Low Thia Khiang, supplemented it with a fleeting statement: "If you listened very carefully Mr Low, I don't know whether his hearing aid is with him because he wears one..."

Cmon la.. are u from taiwan politics? if not, then talk like you are an intellectual person la, is there a need to resort to remarks like this?

Its ironic that the one who are doing the most for the environment are from the lower incomes. Was at ntuc just now and at the counter, when i saw people who brought their own bag to carry their things, reducing the use of plastic bag. More probably its cos of the 10cents saved for every $10, thats why poorer will value bring that little savings more.

Ppl like me, would value the inconvenience of bringing my own bag much more than the 10cents. Which make me think, they should really go ahead and charge for plastics bag used, like ikea, but it would require a concerted effort from all so that no one lose a "value-added" service of providing convenience. Sporeans dont have the mentality of saving the world yet.

Talking about saving, the crabs with hands tied climbing around in a small metal container is very kelian too. Even more kelian are those in coffeeshops, cos theres no aircon and water. ya it seems absurb, but thats one of the reason why i dont eat seafoods. I know i am biased, cos I dont get to see how my beloved chickens die. But then, I still cant bear to force myself to eat these creatures.

--> there was a crab that tried to crawl away fr the human holding the tongs, which inevitably attract tt human to take him. Its better to fake death..thought eventually they are still going to die.

wooo... one working week passed~!@ A week of training and more training, but still need much much more training before I really start my work as product specialist, thats why currently its a bit boring, hope to do some real stuff soon. And also must learn to sleep earlier now.. if not I will always feel tired at work.

Gonna start work tmr, a feeling of anticipation and uncertainty. Because theres so many things I dunno about it, dunno about what will happen tmr. But in any case, things will work out somehow. I have many things ahead of me, and Im moving forward.

Just feel that, as you get older and once you leave school, its very hard to keep many friendships intact. Your social circle will change, you will start hanging out with new friends, and it will become harder and harder to meet up.

Had an outing today, supposedly with quite alot of ppl, but then many fly planes, especially the juniors. And I guess it get to a point when you dont really care about it anymore, you just let go. Its like, at the start, you will still try to hang on, try to keep in touch. But as time passes, when you find that you are the only one making the effort, you start to get tired of it, and you will finally let go.

Just like my friends in uni.. nowadays outings dont have full attendance.. just like many of my jc classmates, didnt even see some of them in years when I studied together with them for 2 whole years. Just like many many things..

Also find myself more n more lacking in efforts to try to maintain some of these friendships. Maybe I should do more now. If only you guys feel the same way..