Thoughts that I think all the time, yet I am unable to put it in a post with the themes and stuff, like what I did with my previous blogs (was that last year?)

As much as I try to respect people, I don't like it when people force some customs on you so that they may feel respected. For example, the need to say "thank you" to people after they helped me do something. Makes me wonder if they did the good deed just to earn a "Thank you". I just think that the purpose of helping people would be wrong, even though they still did something good. 

Respect is earned, not given freely. Why do I respect my instructors? Because they chased their dreams despite opposition and hardship and they've trained countless dancers and helped them to fulfill their dreams. Because they do what they love and they are loving every moment of it. Because there are many people who have dreams but have no courage to fulfill them, because there are pathetic people who do not even have a dream that they want to fulfill, and yet they try to stop others from achieving it. Why do I then, despise my mother? Because she tries to convince me not to pursue dance at a professional level. Because she complains about having a bad husband, and tries to convince us that he is a bad father when she practically pushes all duties to my dad, saying that he should pay our various bills since she has no money. 

I can understand it if she has no money, but not only that, she encourages us to take advantage of my dad. 

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You wanna help other people? Help yourself first. See what problems you have with yourself. Solve them. Then try to help your loved ones out. Why bother helping other people when you have no ability? If you can help people, then you help them. If you can't, then have others do it. It is that simple. Before you even try to help other countries, help ourselves. Then help others. Don't tell me to do community service when I cannot relate to those activties. I'll rather focus on dance, then set up a dance studio to teach other people who wants to dance, but can't because of economic problems. I would teach people at a lower price. Or contribute to dance scholarship. Isn't that helping others as well? 

People tell me to focus on education in school. Math, science and humanities. Dance last, because dance is supposed to help me go to a better educational institution. I will change all of that, I swear. Dance is first to me and no one can change that. 

But seriously? What's wrong with dancing? When taking lessons, we have to learn how to remember stuff. We have to focus. Helps us in class, isn't it? Dancing is a good exercise. To dance well, we need good technique and cross-training to improve our skills. You can't dance well without cross-training. Dancing makes you happy. 

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What is the use of doing basics when you are learning a dance genre (eg, ballet, jazz, tap)? It is to correct any bad habits that you might form. Hip hop actually straightens your back. It straightened mine. You have to correct those bad habits so that you will dance well. Without your basics, you can never dance well. Never. Even if you are talented. So that you will not injure yourself. If you cannot do your basics properly, you might injure yourself due to doing a dance move in a wrong manner. Basics are boring, but hang in there, and you'll do good. 

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Stephanie's video might be unacceptable to people, but what I think that she is trying to highlight is that, even though Singapore is a fine country, there can be more improvements made. Especially to the under-exposure to the arts scene. Dance is fun, and I hope that everyone can be happy. Don't ever give an excuse about how it'll affect school work. Being happy is more important. If you do it right, it will even help your school work. We should be grateful that we have education. But we should also improve our education system.