My Second Home —— Wong Shiu Chi Secondary School
Wong Shiu Chi Secondary School is just like my second home, a place where my classmates are my siblings, my teachers are my guardians, and my classroom is my comfort zone. Under the soft blue sky with fluffy white clouds, is our blue and white campus. Each colour represents the sincerity and purity of the students inside. Secondary school life in WSCSS not only gave me the opportunity to grow up but also took me on the crucial journey to glow up.
When I first walked onto the campus, I was so timid and shy. I was reluctant to engage. The first step I ever took was joining the School Choir in Form One. I can still remember that we practised every Monday, allowing me to meet the choir members regularly, and that was the time when I started to appreciate the sense of unity within the group. Each choir member had to coordinate with one another in order to create harmony in songs. Singing while listening provided me with the chance to feel how strong a power could be created when individuals were turned into a team. Being a choir member laid the groundwork for me to be proactive enough to take further steps to become an all-round individual.
The change from junior to senior secondary highlights the process of me jumping out of my comfort zone. I always believe that learning is never simply about revising textbooks and regurgitating model answers. We should also understand, as well as apply, knowledge. In Form Four, there was a precious experience for me to apply what I learned during Economics and BAFS lessons. This was our school’s first Lunar New Year Fair Stall. Since none of us had experience of holding such a large scale event, we were extremely frustrated at first. However, being the Chairperson, I had to remain calm and guide my team in planning as well as organising the event. I gave suggestions on cost control and pricing strategies such as mark-up percentages, based on the knowledge gained during BAFS lessons. On top of that, I also voiced my opinion on how to attract more customers via non-price competition. For instance, I suggested strategies like enhancing our product quality, offering better services and giving small gifts. During the days when we finally started running our stall, we did face several obstacles. The most significant one was that our prices for some products were set too low and it nearly caused a shortage. I wondered why this happened even though we had applied what we discussed in school. I finally figured out that things we learned in textbooks were theoretical situations; interactions between consumers and producers may not follow the same rules and we should be able to adapt to the changes. This experience not only gave me the opportunity to apply my knowledge, but also sharpened my adaptability.
Apart from holding the Lunar New Year stall, WSCSS also offered me the chance to participate in the Hangzhou Service Learning Trip organised by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. During the trip, our role was to cooperate with the Poly-U students and act as teaching assistants in a primary school. This trip helped to equip me in two different ways. The first one was to be proactive. Serving someone who has an entirely different cultural background was truly a brand new challenge to me. I tried to approach the primary school students by playing easy games as well as having casual chats with them. I started to develop a deep relationship with the Hangzhou students and get a better understanding of their background and learning environment. Other than learning the importance of being proactive, I also discovered how university students work on projects. They did a lot of research on adolescents and the studying environment of Hangzhou before the trip. They also practised division of labour throughout the whole project. In addition, there was an evaluation session each day, in which we discussed the things we did well and also the areas to improve. Working with the university students, I understood their conscientiousness and knew how to carry out effective communication during group projects. This trip really helped me to prepare to be a university student.
Studying in WSCSS gave me a supportive environment to jump out of my comfort zone, I also realised how warm my second home could be. There were many times when I faced obstacles and felt frustrated about my academic performances and my future plans. I was so lucky to have Mr. Kwong as my class teacher. He is very experienced in career planning. He held Zoom meetings with me in order to ease my concerns and provided different suggestions for me. Ms. Yu, who taught me Liberal Studies, is a teacher who knows me as more than just a student. The advice as well as care given by her acted as my motivations during that time. Aside from my teachers, my classmates were also an important part of my secondary school life. They brought so many precious memories to me, ranging from chit chatting during recess to creating a snack locker, from holding gatherings during holidays to studying hard for the HKDSE together. I will never forget the time when we were still secondary students, finding our path, staying around each other without the need to worry about adult’s questions.
On the last school day, when I turned back and said goodbye to WSCSS, I only had one single thought: how lucky I was to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. WSCSS is where I equipped myself with skills and knowledge, where I met my best friends, and where I felt comfortable. WSCSS will always be my second home.
