Geography: What About It?

Today marks my last day as a relief teacher! Originally, it was supposed to be Wednesday but due to some administrative insolubility - and why does this word strike a chord with the subject of Chemistry -, it has been decided that I'll bid farewell to the career on this fateful day.

As customary of a person forsaking a sedentary(relatively, since it was just a three week stint) place in search of a greener pasture (not so green for me since waitering will be my call for the next few weeks!), I respectfully informed a number of teachers, whom I have studied under or worked with, that I was saying goodbye. On one occasion, I spoke to my ex-Geography teacher, who happened to be the kind and enthuasiastic Ms Seow.

Progressing from the usual "Goodbye" and "Good luck", she talked about my consistently excellent performance in the subject of H1 Geography back in my JC years. "We are still using your answer scripts as model answers for the current batch of students, you know!" she said unhesistantly (At that point of time, I regretted for "donating" everything that had to do with H1 geography to the dustbin as a "post-A-level exercise"). Typical of a conservative Asian, I tried to tone down the praise by regurgitating cliched phrases of humility such as, "no la, not really that good la." To my surprise though, I topped the act of modesty with a straight-from-the-heart, unscripted, unmoderated, spontaneous confession: "Actually, I love Geography more than I am good at it".

Harking back that the previous statement, I realise that of all the subjects that I have taken in A-Level, nothing beats Geography. Both Physics and Chemistry are easy-to-tackle and interesting subjects, but I guess there is too much of science stuff in my brain that it creates an imbalance with respect to the more artistic realm of knowledge. Mathematics is all about formulas and application, which is not appealing to a person whose life is overly-cluttered with practicality. GP somehows screws up my writing skill and logic, so it is definitely out of my list of likable things. Removing other auxiliary subjects, all that stands alone in the limelight is Geography, the passion for which is both insatiable and unwithering.

As a young child, I had freely embraced Geography by reading innumerable volumes of geography books, playing around with the flow of tidal streams during the ebb of the sea tide, bending down to examine random stones in my uncle's oil palm plantation and leaping with estatic joy when I had found the source of a particular stream. Somehow the flame of passion is carried all the way to my junior college years as evident through my choice of Geography over the more popular Economics as a contrasting H1 subject.

The modern life demands a great measure of practicality to the extent that even the subjects we choose to read must be of some practical use when it comes to degree application or career search. Frankly, subjects such as Physics and Chemistry grant a wider access to different university courses such as Medicine, Engineering, Science, Business and Dentistry that, in the long run, insure a person with many career opportunities and good income. Geography, on the other hand, has limited practical value and person studying it would most likely wind up being a teacher or at best, a university lecturer.

However, Geography is my ideal brain food. I have never studied a subject with as much interest and commitment as I did with Geography. Partnering with Billy, I pursued the completion of two Geography case study projects with so much unabated fervour, intimate meticulousness and irreproducible ingenuity that I doubt I could do a better job given a second opportunity. My love for Geography is ineffable - I just love it as though that feeling has been hammered to my basal instinct.

Perhaps, I should read a minor in Geography while studying Chemical Engineering. Perhaps....