I looked around me, it was striking in variety of colours. Old, dull and faded newspapers were surrounded around me. I look left and right, messy and unpleasant; there was no way I could find my owner. I was solitary and deserted in that breezeless garbage basket...

I was kept in that miniature, diminutive, cosy front pocket of my owner's, Ms Lee, handbag. I was carried and attached closely with Ms Lee wherever she goes. We somehow shared some affinity and she was my next kin. Sometimes, her students will also get hold of me; which I hated Ms Lee for abandoning me.

"Good morning, class." Ms Lee greeted her students.

The next thing I knew, I was placed neatly and orderly at the front bar of the whiteboard.

"Class, today we're going to go into a new topic- Descriptive Writing. Are you are excited? It'll be quite interesting and you all are going to explore new things. Sounds great?" Ms Lee exclaimed dramatically.

Ms Lee opened the cover of me, started compressing the tip of me on my pal, the whiteboard, gently.

"Ring, ring, ring." Ms Lee's handphone rang.

She picked up the call, left the classroom and deserted me all alone at the whiteboard's bar.

After Ms Lee left the classroom, for something urgent, the class turned chaotic. Students were running around the class, as though they were kindergarden's kids, throwing paper balls. The innocent me, was also picked up and thrown around the classroom.

Thereafter, I found myself in the garbage bin...


Years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Tan, the Chief Executive Officers(CEO) of I&Z company, a fashion designer company, hired me as their personal assistant. Up till today, I am still one. I've been helping them all these while, being it in the company or their home and adminstrative affairs. In their eyes, I was a reliable, trustworthy and infallible worker. They entrusted me to handle the company all these while, having the seat of the Vice-CEO. Their childrens, nieces and nephews, working in the company, didn't liked me, because they thought that their parents, aunt and uncle were biased against them. Mr. and Mrs. Tan had their reasons for charging me with a responsibility; I have business potential in me, that was what they said to me. And, they wanted to groom me to the fullest.

One day, I realised I was wrong about Mr. and Mrs. Tan. There weren't that simple to deal with, yet cunning, as I thought. It was a plot, right from the beginning. One of their son, Richard, Managing Director of the Department of Adminstrative, was as crafty and scheming as them. He make an engage in bartering with the company's competitor, Pascal's Fashion, and leaked out the company's ideas to gain better opportunities and benefits from our opponent, rather than staying in his own family's business, having to get no high position and income.

During one of the presentation of designs meeting with all the other Fashion Design company, both Mr. and Mrs. Tan were well-prepared and aroused to see the company's new season designs. The next moment, an unbelievable episode begins, Mr. & Mrs. Tan facial expressions transformed. At the very end of the table, I saw Richard grinning to himself, I knew something was wrong. Both our company and Pascal's Fashion had the same ideas, same designs. Everything went haywire; the meeting was put off.

Mr. Tan, followed by Mrs. Tan and I, hastened out of the meeting room, dashed rapidly into his office and exploded.

"Who was the one?" Mr. Tan vociferated like as a tiger and caused the company to convulsed.

As his asisstant, I couldn't helped but to speak my mind out openly and unreservedly.

"Mr. Tan, in my judgement, I belived that Richard was behind this." I discoursed sedately.

"Are you sure he's behind this, Benjamin? You can't be lying to me? Do you have evidences?" He interrogated panicky.

Mr. Tan started to secrete salty, watery fluids from the sweat glands of his face. He was bothered and worried.

One night, Mr. Tan dropped by my house. I was bewildered and overwhelmed.

"Mr.Tan, it's late already, why are you here? You're looking for me?" I questioned Mr. Tan curiously.

"Yes, I want you to capture all evidences of Pascal's Fashion misdeeds and kill Mr. Tang, the boss of Pascal's Fashion in 1 week' time. Thereafter, I'll give you a mommoth sum of money and elope from the country." Mr. Tan requested.

Without a second thought, the next morning, I gathered as many evidences of Pascal's Fashion misdeeds as I could and handed it over to Mr. Tan.

"Good job, Benjamin. You can carry on with next task." Mr. Tan beamed widely.

Few days later, I disguised myself, got myself prepared and trailed Mr. Tang's whereabouts. Just when I thought it was the right moment, I got out of my car, took out that black, shiny, polished firearm and pointed accurately at Mr. Tang from a distant.

"Bang!" I shot scrupulously and left the scene promptly.

The next morning, I saw my 'WANTED' face on the news headline. I had no choice; there was no time I could delayed, but to seize as much money I had in my bank and flee off the country. I evaded all the way to China, as the living expenses were much lower than any other country.

After 2 years, Mr. Tan still had not sent me the giantic amount of money he promised to give me, and my pocket were almost dried. Police forces in Singapore had not gave up a single moment in looking for me. I knew I had regretted for my actions. As such, I thought for days and nights, I decided to return to Singapore to plead guilty.

I was put in jail for 5 years, and given 2 strokes of canning. I was in deep pain, when I had to serve my youth in jail. I was really regretful. I realised my mistakes and tried my best not to waste the amount of time I have in prison. I made full use of my time, gain knowledges and thought about how life would be after jail.

After 5 years, I was released from jail, I was a well-known jail bird. I felt really restless, but I did not gave up a single moment. I went out to look for job every day, I was rejected over times and again. After a year of job-hunting, I finally found a job. Not a well-liked one, but I knew it was a good start. I was a clerk, and from then...


(c) Jake was angry at Diane’s accusations.

Jake never knew Diane was such a person. She had changed. Jack blasted and dashed out of the house, right after the last word Diane mentioned. Jake scampered off to the seaside to take a breath and thoughts were filled in his mind. He gathered the stones nearby, lifted his arm high up in the air, uses his physical power and propelled as far as he could. He was affected with dementia. Diane stood off by the tree, guilty as she is.


(e) She sat heart-broken on her bed.

I witnessed the whole scene. It was no doubt that she was in this state. She was crushed with sorrow and grief. Her bed was moistened with puddle of transparent, odorless, salty liquid all over her bed. She has been sobbing all day long, I felt heart-broken seeing her in this situation. Watery fluid continually secreted by the lacrimal glands between the surface of the eye and the eyelid kept rolling down her both cheeks. Her heart was shattered into broken pieces, downcast and dispirited. I was helpless and stood aside.


Failure is the state of not being able to meet a desirable or intended objective, which may be viewed as the opposite of success. Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up. Hence, it is important to get back on your feet even though you have failed. Failing is the first step to succeed. However, it is no doubt that failures may have advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of failures can be: First, a failure may change a person's character. Also, in another situation, students who tend to succeed in everything, had failed for the very first time, would definitely change his/her study habits to achieve his/her expected results the next time round. And, therefore, having to put in more effort to succeed. On the other hand, disadvantages of failures may lead to many cases of accidents, incidents and sufferings.

Failure may change a person's character. Years ago, when I was a teacher, I witnessed a student's changes after a failure. There are many students in Singapore who can't accept setbacks, especially those who have been consistently succeeding in getting good grades, hence having to put in more effort and work even harder to compete against those top students. Just yesterday, when I went out for tea with my friends, one of the mother said that her son had became an efficient worker and no longer dependent on anyone after he had made a huge mistake and failed O' level. As I recalled back, she once told me that her son was very playful, never bothered about his studies and always getting borderline passes. As such, examples like these shows that failure does not only change a person's character, but also leads to the first step of succession.

Secondly, in a different situation, students who always succeed would never accept failure and setback. To these students, failure leads to a future of no where. Therefore, these students will then change their study habits to a better one to achieve their expected results of themselves. Take a simple example, student A failed to score an A in a spelling test for the very first time. If student A is very competitive and positive enough, student A would definitely treat this failure as a lesson learnt and try to make amendments to his/her study habits or put in more effort for the next test. Two months ago, Ministry of Education(MOE) conducted a national survey among the secondary schools students asking if they would accept failures. 94.9% of them claims that they would not and definitely finds ways to make changes to their mistakes and achieve what they are expected of themselves. Such evidences prove that students these days sets high demanding of themselves and never accept failures.

Failure may lead to cases like accidents. Students, these days, are taking things too heavily. They could not accept the fact of failing, and things may turn out wild. Years back, my classmate, Jane, committed suicide because of failing her English class test. She couldn't accept the fact that she failed her class test and take it too heavily, and did not turn up for school the next day. Instead, we were asked to visit her at her wake. Dr Wellington claims that kids, these days, cannot take huge blows and setbacks. Many accidents are caused by kids taking things too heavily and not facing reality courageously. Examples like this shows that kids these days are taking things to heavily and does not have the courage to handle failure, which leads to the cause of many accidents.

Also, failure may lead to a person's sufferings. Few weeks back, when I saw my child in depression, I realised something was wrong with him. I asked, what had happened, son? He didn't mumbled a word but I could sense that he was really down and upset. I kept questioning him and even saw some scratch marks on his arms and legs. I felt really sorry for him and bought him to the psychiatrist to seek medical health. And, thereafter, I was told by the psychiatrist that he was suffering from mental disorders due to failures in school. Take my good friend as an example. She was always scoring As for her Mother Tongue. Recently, she got back her report slip and saw an F for her Mother Tongue. She was stunned and broke down into tears. She rushed out of school and went home immediately, neither did she took lunch nor dinner and stayed in her room the whole day. Obviously, she was one person who could not accept failures and kept herself suffering. Therefore, failures often leads to many sufferings, which causes unhappiness of the people around them.

In conclusion, failing may not be a nice feeling, but failing may also be the first step of succeeding. However, it is obvious that failures may have some advantages and disadvantages to consider. Failures may change a person's character and also change a person's study habits to acheive his/her expected results. But, failures may also lead to many cases of accidents, incidents and sufferings.

Zoelyn Mah♥
Siglap Sec
Sec 3E4(:

Izyan
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