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THE MAKING WAVES SERIES: BOOK 5
DIROY: HIS PERSONAL JOURNEY MAKING SMALL BECOME BIG
ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS Published in Aisa in 2017 by Sandu Publishing Co., Ltd. 20 Kaki Bukit View, Kaki Bukit Techpark II, Singapore 415956 Tel: (65) 6742 2088 Fax: (65) 6744 2088 enquiries@pageonegroup.com www.pageonegroup.com
Sponsored by Temasek Polytechnic Edited and produced by Temasek Polytechnic School of Design – Communication Design Chief Editor: Muhammad Diroy Bin Noordin 1206710d@student.tp.edu.sg www.tp.edu.sg Text used in this book obtained from Essential Life Skills.Net www.essentiallifeskills.net ISBN 978-981-4394-90-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. For information, contact Page One Publishing Pte Ltd. Printed and bound in Singapore
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/////CONTENTS Introduction
XXI
Self Esteem
01
It’s A Story About Me
02
My Educational
07
My Pride Towards School
13
My Journey in ITE College Central
17
My Dream School
21
Accepting My Learning Difficulties
25
The End
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— XXI
INTRODUCTION Making waves in the face of adversity. The theme and motif of the wave in the ocean is highly symbolic and meaningful. In itself, it can be interpreted as eternity as its movements that never cease; or it can also be seen to be temperamental as sometimes it surges with powerful force or at other times gently laps the shore. Because waves in the oceans symbolise the power of nature at work, humans have seen in them the potential of humans to mimic its strength or conversely they can be seen as symbols of adversity humans hope to overcome. As such, wave patterns and crest formation can be used to signify human behavior and emotions. For people who are handicapped in some way, whether physically, intellectually or emotionally, waves take on significant meanings. These series of books aims to provide advice on essential life skills to people with such disabilities so that they can lead a fulfilling life.
WHEN LIFE HARD, IT M STRONGER
E GETS MAKE YOU R.
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IT’S A STORY ABOUT ME
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It’s A Story About Me My name is Muhammad Diroy Bin Noordin; I am currently a 3rd year student at Temasek Polytechnic School of Design pursuing a diploma in Visual Communication. I love creativity. Graphic design is my passion, I enjoy and love being able to create and design. I would like to share my journey “Life is a journey about learning to live” and how my disability applies to me; about my learning difficulties and how I overcame it to be who I am today. I would also like to share with you on how I go through my life and how it motivates me.
“LIFE IS A JOURNEY ABOUT LEARNING TO LIVE” — From Me To You
When my mother explained to me about my disability and how it affected my academic potential, I looked back and thought how it gradually affected me after a long period of thinking. I soon began to differentiate of how I can built my character and how it can helped me in learning. I have a physical condition called, dwarfism or some people call it little people. During my childhood, I have difficulties in learning and studying. Even though my parents, who are normal educated tried to teach me many new things, I was just not interested in learning. Moreover, I got easily frustrated when I had to study because I usually need longer time to memorize or understand compare to others. In order to avoid the frustration, I did activities such as hanging out with my close friends, playing soccer, skateboarding, skim boarding and drawing. Nevertheless, I pushed aside all my studies. It made me feel so free and freedom without me being caged and force to study.
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My English and form teacher name is Mr Low.
This is ME.
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My Educational Background Dark To Light My educational background includes both oral education and mainstreaming. I began my education at the nursery school when I was at the age of 3 years old. I spent two years over there. I was a playful boy and I do not recalled or remembered learning anything. At the age of 7 years old, I entered Woodgrove Primary School which I attended for six years. While I was there during my primary school, I learned English, Malay, Mathematics, Science and other subjects in addition to have a intensive learning in speech and understanding of all subjects daily. That is when my disinterest in studying started and in fact that is when I got increasingly frustrated over my school academic.
Over the years when I was in primary school, I was influenced with those mischievous ones. This prevent me from learning and also one of the way to make me avoid feeling frustration in studies. In school, I really had difficulties in understanding the concepts of language and mathematics, which made it harder for me to do well in school. My English and form teacher name is Mr Low. The fiercest teacher in my school. He was the one who encouraged me to never stop trying, never stop learning. He never blamed me for not reading the book every time.
“TEACHERS OPEN THE DOOR, BUT YOU MUST ENTER BY YOURSELF.” — Chinese proverb
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Due to my academic delay, my mother suspected that I had problem with my studies at the age of seven. She noticed that I did not progress as well in academics as compared to other students in school. I could not even comprehend the most basic mathematical concepts and do mathematics. I even had a hard time learning to count. Besides mathematics subject, I had even bigger problems with reading and writing skills. I did not know how to read until the age of eleven. I dislike reading because I struggled with the language and could not get a picture of what the story was telling about. My reading speed was extremely slow and my vocabulary was extremely limited. It was hard for me to learn new words as I often had a hard time remembering the alphabetic order. I also dislike writing because my writing skills were very poor, and I had many spelling errors.
Worst of all, I did not know where to put in punctuations in each sentence. When I had to learn the names of different kinds of food such as hotdogs, hamburgers, and many others, I had trouble knowing the differences. For an instance, I did not know the difference between broccoli and peas. Reading a menu was especially difficult for me. I was pulled out of recess time to learn how to identify different kinds of food indicated on the pictures. I grew up and not liking to go school because learning was so difficult for me and making me distressful. I kept failing all my subjects and retained one more year for my PSLE examination before getting into secondary school and counted myself as lucky to make it due to my grades which I score at minimum.
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TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR PAIN; YOU ARE STRONGER THAN THOSE WHO HAVE NONE. — Lois Lowry
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BELIEVE IN
“The greatest succes
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YOURSELF
ess is being yourself.”
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My Pride Towards School My pride towards school continued to be neg-
In the end I feel proud of myself because I
ative until the age of thirteen when I entered
managed to understand a little bit on how to
Siling Secondary School for four years. I
write and read. I worked hard and spending
began in the lower stream and was placed
long hours studying, but I still did poorly in the
in remedial classes along with other students
subjects.
who also had difficulties of reading and writing. A form teacher of mine whose name is Mr. Loh encouraged me to read his story book called Tom and Jane.
At the end of the year of my first year in secondary school, despite all my efforts I was given an evaluation test and was informed that I had learning difficulties. I had never
I tried but I still could not understand reading.
heard before of learning difficulties and I re-
So I try again and again to understand it. I
fused to believe the report. I refused to follow
never give up easily. Do it again—never give
their suggestions which they ask me to go to a
up! Because I think this is a great lesson for all
special school and felt wI was mislabeled be-
of us who are trying to learn things and im-
cause of my academic failure.
prove our skills.
I believed that my literacy skills was delayed
My desire to complete my education had since
due to my lack of exposure to early language
begun. I realized that I could not utilize the
and that it was related to my dwarfism, not
wall to avoid learning. In order to enhance
learning difficulties. Even though the results
my learning, I had to overcome my challenges
of the test stated what I already knew like I
and learn how to cope with my frustration. I
had limited vocabulary, severe problems with
struggled with my academic work but I was
reading, poor writing skills, problems with
beginning to overcome it.
grammar, organization, and math.
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I was not ready to accept the fact that I had
I went extra miles to have a remedial classes
learning difficulties. I did not like being in
and ask my teachers to help me when I have
special classes because I felt isolated. In ad-
any difficulties. Thank god I had a great
dition, I had a conflict with my education
teacher who took off their free times just to
teacher. When I had difficulty understanding
teach me. At the end of my Secondary School
a particular subject or made a mistake, he will
when my results for N Level examinations
yelled at me. He never even encouraged me
came out, I was proud of myself because all
to do well or told me “yes, you can do it!” he
my hard works payoff as I managed to pass
wounded my spirit and made me believe that
most of my subjects eventhough I still failed
I would never be successful in life because of
my English.
my education failures. I had a really difficult time with my classes, so this was probably the most stressful and unhappy period of my life. However, there is still other wonderful teachers who encourage me to do well and that makes me not to give up easily and try harder to pass my subjects.
“INSTEAD OF WORRYING ABOUT FAILURE I IMAGINE WHAT YOU MISS OUT ON BY DECIDING TO NOT EVEN TRY.” — From Me To You
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BE STRONG, BUT BE KIND, BUT NO BE BOLD, BUT NO BE HUMBLE, BUT BE PROUD, BUT N
T NOT RUDE; OT WEAK; OT BULLY; NOT TIMID; NOT ARROGANT.
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My Journey in ITE College Central After I graduated from secondary school, I enrolled at ITE College Central (Tampines) for two years where I took Interactive Media Design course for the first time. That is when I realized my interest was in art and designing. I spent many hours trying to complete all the assignments but I managed to complete it and to my surprise I really did quite well in my course. Despite all the long hours spent for my school works and assignments, I really enjoyed doing it and that is when I thought that this is where my talent is and would want to pursue in life in becoming a graphic designer in the future. During the journey of my course, I realize my potential and started to communicate well my friends. I manage to overcome my fear and be more brave on not to afraid of failure. At the end of my course, I completed and excelled in my course.
SO I ASK MYSELF “WHAT IF?” & “WHAT NEXT?” NOW, YOU ASK YOURSELF. — From Me To You
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I Got Into My Dream School All the failures that I had been through before and the never give up attitude that I have put in with all my efforts had pay off and I was rewarded to get into my dream school Temasek Polytechnic which I never thought that I could went in to further my studies. In polytechnic I took Visual Communication course, I faced academic hardship. I had to battle against every challenge to increase my motivation to learn. With my desire to become a designer and the strong supports from my lecturers mostly to Lee Wei Lieh and Patricia Tan that never stop enencouraging me to never give up in life. Also to my fellow friends and familys, I try to give my best and put all the efforts to succeed in my course. I still currently doing my course and hope to do well in my journey. And now my journey begins...
“LET US BE GRATEFUL TO PEOPLE WHO MAKE US HAPPY, THEY ARE THE CHARMING GARDENERS.” — From Me To You
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“IF YOU WANT THE RAINBOW, YOU GOT TO PUT UP WITH THE RAIN.”
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NEVER GIVE UP! KEEP MOVING FORWARD!
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Accepting My Learning Difficulties and fighting against those challenges Accepting my learning difficulties and fighting against those challenges was a long and difficult journey. I overcome my learning difficulties. I learned to compensate for my learning challenges. I even managed to get around my academic barriers in spite of the truth is, attending school requires motivation, drive, persistence, and perseverance.
The more I learn about learning difficulties issues, the more I feel empowered. There is nothing wrong with having learning difficulties. In fact, many successful people have learning difficulties. People with learning difficulties are gifted and most have their own unique learning styles that are not the same as other non-learning difficulties people.
Without them, I would not have survived in school, especially studies. In addition, my par-
In order to become successful, they may have to work ten times harder than others, but believe me, it is worth it. I realized that there is not any disability. The only disability there is, is a bad attitude. With positive attitude, there is nothing that we cannot achieve. Take pride in your pain; you are stronger then those who have none. Be: Nice. Respectful. Positive. Appreciative.
ents are the key people who supported me all the way. Without their encouragement and support, I would not have made it.
“LET GRATITUDE BE THE PILLOW UPON WHICH YOU KNEEL TO SAY YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER. .” — Maya Angelou
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DON’T GIVE UP. D YOU KEEP WALKIN THERE ARE HELP A AHEAD. YOU KEEP IT WILL BE ALL RIG TRUST IT, LIVE IT A
DON’T YOU QUIT. NG, TRYING. AND HAPPINESS EP YOUR CHIN UP. GHT IN THE END. AND ENJOY IT.
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THE END
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ISBN 9789814394901
9 789814 394901
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