The Journey of a Future Champion
Today was a short but incredibly tiring day. It was every table tennis player’s favourite day of the week—Wednesday. Why? Because school starts later, and we only have one training session, which gives us more breathing space in the day. Normally, our school starts at 8 AM, but today, we began at 9. That meant an extra hour of sleep, so I woke up at 8, got ready, and headed for breakfast. Breakfast was just a simple bowl of cereal—not the most exciting, but enough to fill my stomach for the morning ahead.
Our first lesson was ALP, which stands for Applied Learning Programme. It’s quite similar to FTGP (Form Teacher Guidance Period), but instead of focusing just on values or class bonding, ALP lessons focus on real-world applications and hands-on experiences. This term’s topic was farming, and today, we had our final session where we harvested the plants we had been growing over the June holidays.
When we got to our planter boxes, we were greeted by a surprise—a bunch of caterpillars crawling all over the leaves! Many of the leaves were full of holes, clearly chewed up by our new buggy friends. Despite that, some of the plants had healthy, lush green leaves that were ready to be harvested. A few students, being their curious selves, wanted to try putting the caterpillars on their hands. At first, I thought it was kind of gross and didn’t want anything to do with it. But after watching them have fun with it, I grew curious too. So I asked one of my friends to place a caterpillar on my hand. The moment it touched my skin, it literally jumped and dropped to the ground—as if it hated me! Everyone watching got a mini jumpscare and burst out laughing. After that experience, I just accepted that caterpillars and I weren’t meant to be besties and went back to focusing on the healthier leaves.
After ALP, we had Higher Chinese. Recently, our teacher was transferred to another school, so we were assigned a new teacher this semester. I quite liked our previous teacher, but to my surprise, the new teacher turned out to be just as kind—maybe even more engaging. She got us to play games related to Chinese vocabulary and grammar, and even rewarded the top three students with snacks. Let me tell you—food is a very powerful motivator. We were all super engaged and competitive throughout the lesson, way more than in my usual literature or history classes, where I sometimes find myself struggling to stay awake… oops.
Next was Math, my favourite subject! We were working on geometry today. The questions weren’t particularly difficult, but the working was long and required careful steps to get the answer right. (If you get what I mean—it’s one of those topics where you know how to do it, but you still spend ages showing all the working properly.) Even though it was tiring, I was still motivated to complete more questions. Time passed quickly, and before I knew it, it was time for lunch.
Unfortunately, lunch in the dining hall was disappointing today, so my friend Kaeann and I decided to head over to Rally & Roar, the school café that all the students love.
I got my usual tortilla wrap, which I hadn’t eaten in a while. With some chili sauce added, I finished it in just a few seconds. Meanwhile, Kaeann was still halfway through hers, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
After lunch, we had Literature. Honestly, this was the lesson I was least excited for. Today, we were introduced to poetry writing for the first time. I found it a bit confusing, especially the part about metaphors and rhythm. It’s not as straightforward as writing an essay, and I’ll need some time to get used to it. On the bright side, school ended 20 minutes earlier today—which is just another reason why everyone loves Wednesdays!
I headed back to the dorm, tied my hair up, got changed, and finally relaxed a little while watching Squid Game on Netflix. I had been waiting all day for this, and it didn’t disappoint. It was so thrilling that time flew by without me noticing. Before long, it was time to submit my laundry and head to training.
Today, players from Taiwan came to join our training session. Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to train or play with any of them, but I really hope I get to tomorrow—it would be such a valuable experience. During training, we played matches and did drills. Everything was going fine until we heard the word we dreaded most: “Running.”
Everyone groaned and dragged their feet down to the track, hoping for a miracle. Some even tried giving excuses like knee pain, but deep down we all knew it wouldn’t work. This is part of an athlete’s life—no shortcuts. Everyone had to run seven rounds around the stadium track, which adds up to about 2.8km. But I had to run nine rounds (3.6km) because I was punished by coach earlier.
During training, I got frustrated with myself and threw a mini tantrum because I felt like I wasn’t playing up to my usual standard. That made Coach angry, and my punishment was two extra rounds. Sometimes, I feel like Coach hates me—but maybe that’s just part of being in a tough, high-performance environment. I completed the run in 20 minutes. Some people might think that’s fast, but to my coach—and to my own standards—it was too slow. Maybe it was also because I was on my period today, which could explain the sudden moodiness and low energy earlier.
We all left the training hall red-faced and completely worn out, but Coach gave us drinks from the fridge in the coach’s room as a post-run reward. I grabbed my usual chocolate milk and headed for dinner. Dinner was okay, but I didn’t have much appetite. I took a few bites and then returned to the dorm early while everyone else was still eating.
I used the quiet moment to shower first—before the toilet-snatching chaos began. After cooling off, I did some homework, followed by filing my worksheets and notes. My table was soon filled with papers from all kinds of subjects. And now, I’m taking this peaceful time to write a longer reflection than usual. I hope tomorrow brings even more experiences worth writing about. Overall, today was a mix of fun, challenges, and personal growth. From laughing over caterpillars in class to being punished during training, every part of the day taught me something—whether it was about stepping out of my comfort zone, staying mentally strong, or learning to accept tough moments without giving up. Even though I felt tired and frustrated at times, I know that days like this shape me into a better athlete and person. I’m proud that I pushed through, and I’m hopeful that tomorrow will bring new chances to improve and enjoy the journey.
