As we journey through the different stages of life, we are bound to experience a wide diversity of activities, hobbies and interests that we take part in. I am Lai Jing Han, currently 16 years old, attending secondary education at Edgefield Secondary School and here is my personal experience with the curriculum provided there, and more specifically, the Taekwondo module exposed to students. It was a program made compulsory for lower secondary students and optional if we wanted to further our experience in upper secondary. I was one of the students who chose the latter due to my interest being piqued at the motion of practicing Taekwondo- a series of martial arts movements made for offense and self defense.

The essence of Taekwondo is essentially a fluid movement between each action that you take in a spar or a fight that challenges how smooth or rhythmic ones’ footwork can be. Each jab or kick that you throw and launch has many layers of depth within it, and the complexity of it appealed to me greatly as I was intrigued by the theory and practicality of it, making it my favorite part of the training. However, putting said motions into practice were easier said than done, with many attempts and practice needed to hone a hook kick, for example. Through this harrowing experience, I gained the tendency to preserve and pick myself up quite literally and metaphorically over and over again when required.

Some achievements in my holistic profile would be receiving scholarships for excelling in academics throughout the year, and aside from physical activities like taekwondo, I have a role in performing arts, specifically Guzheng, as the Vice-Leader in the EXCO team. Through Guzheng or other means such as school based programmes, I participated in multiple VIA projects to give back to society by performing for them, or raising funds through our school’s biannual event called Artasfest.

Moving forward, there are multiple paths ahead of me that I can and would like to choose. Regarding Taekwondo, I am content with the stage I have achieved and would like to pursue my academics further by attending higher education at Temasek Polytechnic. I wish the best for any and all readers, be it students or adults in the workforce, regardless of the different roads that we take.