Okay, back to the topic! I've been away for a REALLY long time and 2016 is coming to an end, a lot of things has definitely changed and I can't wait to share all the exciting things I have planned!! I'll be investing my time to grow my YouTube and blog, try to save my hopeless Instagram, and having lots of fun after my Os! But first, let's talk about some of the things that have changed :)

March

My braces are off! Now my jaw is straightened and I can smile prettier than before hahaha :)

Check out my instagram to see my selfies hehe instagram.com/smileforlovers

I'm also descending into this bottomless pit of Korean beauty products and all my money have literally flown away to Etude House and Innisfree. I'm not even kidding - I wish I was - but one day I looked at my piggy bank and realised all of my notes were gone and my secret stash of makeup was getting suspiciously larger.... I wonder why :') #noregrets 

And have you noticed that the basic blog layout is gone?! YAY


You won't believe the amount of hours, immense stress and brainpower I had experienced to achieve this almost perfect look for my blog!! Hahaha and it's all for free!!! I really didn't want to spend money to get a web developer to do this so I singlehandedly served countless of pre-made blog design websites and deciphered CODING (all by myself!) to modify it. I was so utterly whelmed by coding... Never again, please... :(

July

In July, I joined a gaming clan! I joined for the classic Team Fortress 2 but now I mostly play Overwatch and Minecraft, according to the founder, real-life friendships were SUPPOSED to be forged, so there were monthly clan bondings where we met up at the founder's house and have a somewhat good time together. I actually got KICKED OUT of the clan in December (I'll elaborate later on so continue reading) but I don't regret joining the gaming clan as it was through it that I...

...

...met my boyfriend!!!

The day we met!! <3

Teaching each other how to play tf2 and Overwatch lol

Look at his awkward hand

September

Yep, I am happily in a relationship! Still growing strong :)

He makes me so happy :)

29 September

It's Princess Jermaine's birthday! Celebrated my sweet 16! Spent it at Santa's Igloo at Scape with some of my then gaming clan mates. Actually I invited them because my boyfriend was supposed to go overseas on my birthday but turns out his trip was on 30 Sept and I couldn't exactly uninvite the others um so in the end my gaming clan mates kind of messed up my celebration but oh well, had fun! By the way, the Virtual Reality (VR) machine was spoiled and there was no popcorn so Santa's Igloo had false advertising sia

October

On the 1st of October, I finally graduated from my school after 4 years! NO MORE GREEN PINAFORES PLEASE hahaha to be honest, if I could turn back time, I'm sad to say that I still wouldn't have chosen TKGS... So many people have said that their time in secondary school was the best 4 years of their life but nope, not for me...

Thank you

Thank you

I've met good friends, learnt a lot about people and the teachers were generally really good but I just think the school wasn't right for me. Or perhaps if I could turn back time, I'll simply not screw up my own social life in secondary 1 by being so obnoxious and bossy hahaha. Just something about girls' school, I guess. I think I get along better with friends from the opposite gender haha


Hopefully poly will be the 'best time of my life', please!

I also had my O LEVELS where I didn't even feel the stress, partly because I knew I already had a spot in Singapore Poly, but I hope I still get a single digit for my L1R5! During the O level period, I was an emotional wreck because I got into really bad arguments with my family :( However, even though I spend the previous days crying my eyes out, I tried my best to focus on the examinations the next day. Sigh I remember there was a 15 marks essay for Social Studies, there were 3 questions on 3 different topics, but I unfortunately did not study for any topics that came out and just 'winged' it omg

November

The best part of my November was the school prom night! Even though I only represented my class as the Prom Queen nominee bc no one else wanted to be, I was surprised to win the TKGS Talent Award! I think my ballet dance in my long prom dress stood out exceptionally since the other nominees either sang or made a speech during their '30 seconds of fame'. (You can see it when I finally edit and post my Prom Night vlog!!)

Prom was held at Fairmont Hotel!

I had so much fun on Prom night, it was seriously one of the best nights of my secondary school days! I dolled up really nicely for prom and wore my mother's old ROM dress. You can see how I got ready for Prom in my 'Get Ready with me' video!

Update:

I've been scrolling through FastJobs every few hours trying to find suitable part-time jobs! Working is something I've been looking forward to bc I really want to get a first-hand experience of working in the real world. Not just the work attachments I did last year or helping out at my mum's childcare centre. I know a lot of people who go to work end up saying their best times were when they were schooling but my school days haven't been exactly fantastic haha 

I've previously interned in an office (link: here) but my first part-time job in December was to distribute flyers for StarHub in HDBs and at the roadshow. IT WAS SO TIRING. I collapsed on my dining table and silently cried because I felt cheated - I did not know I have to distribute in HDBs and climb 40 stories of stairs!!! Thankfully, I could work together with my boyfriend and it was at Tiong Bahru Plaza, just below my house so it wasn't that bad! We actually slacked off a lot but the pay was good! $8/hr!!



The 2nd job I took on was as a telemarketer paying $9/hr and $25 commission! Basically what I had to do is call a list of house numbers and follow a script. Although I had no idea about housing loans, I just had to ask them if they are paying for any existing housing loans, introduce a promotion package and take down their particulars. I quit after the 3 days trial because it was too boring though, hahahaha



Currently, I've already confirmed 2 jobs which I will be taking on from January to March! 1 is as a telemarketer cum receptionist and the other is as a Spa Front Desk Receptionist! Both pay pretty well :)


Ready for the most dramatic part of this post?


My boyfriend and I got KICKED OUT of the gaming clan after 6 months LOL. Well, we knew it was bound to happen since we often disagree with the leader's decisions and the people were quite immature and 'ah beng-like'. (oops) It's a SUPER long long long story and I've actually considered ranting out in a YouTube video or blog post but that's so burdensome and requires so much effort so... sian. But oh well maybe one day!


In short, what happened was that my boyfriend and I wanted a clan member who intentionally trapped us in a very heavy thunderstorm by locking us out of the condo gate and laughing in our face to apologise for his actions. I mean, any stranger who did that has no heart, much less a clan member in a clan that was supposed to forge real friendships right???? Unfortunately, everyone in the clan disagreed with us and claimed that we were stirring up drama for attention and blamed us instead for following them when running for shelter. They also used a lot of Hokkien cuss words while I questioned the boy's upbringing. They even went as far as to say 'where is ur brain', 'I bet at least 3 people will agree with me' that 'no matter how hard u fight ah.. no one will support u de' and 'no one likes to make friends with u' HAHAHA and that same guy said we were immature. OKAY :D


I admit that my boyfriend and I were also in the wrong for thinking that such boys could understand our logic and morals and further enticing them haha


Also to make it clear I said 'Just says a lot about a person's upbringing' - I didn't say he has a bad upbringing, I didn't say his parents are bad, I did not insult his parents, sooo they scolded me because they think I said that. If the shoes fits.... OKAY :D


Well, I also said something quite offensive to the gaming clan leader by questioning whether he was acting like what a Christian should be then he immediately removed us from the group



IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN ANYWAYS, better now than later, I guess. Just feel bad for the $14 I spent on the awful BBQ and the wasted resources on my clan drawstring bag. Like what am I supposed to do with it now

On a separate note, I wanted to dye my hair pastel pink but I'll have to bleach my hair twice, the colour won't stay for long and not to mention all the MONEY I'll spend, so perhaps I'll dye it light brown with pink highlights. I think I might miss my virgin black hair though... Hmm definitely something to look forward to!

OKAY, so what are my big plans for the future? :)

youtube.com/jermaineleejiaxin

I've actually been doing mostly vlogs on my channels and I've decided I'll be making more beauty, makeup style videos and perhaps some gameplay videos of the video games I play (Overwatch, League of Legends, Team Fortress 2). Most channels usually stick with 1 type of videos but bc it'll be so bothersome to grow a whole new channel again, I'll just be sticking to my current one and branching out into different aspects so remember to hit that subscribe button and stay tuned because I'm just getting started!! 

Some sneak peeks of videos I'll be doing:

- Everyday Makeup Tutorial (filmed)

- Get Ready with Me: Prom Night (done)

-Collabs with some of my friends who do YouTube too!!! (filmed)
- A secret social experiment!!!

I've travelled Bangkok (again) this December so expect my 3rd travel photo diary and I'll be going to Japan next year too!! YESSSS


I'll also be sharing my thoughts on everyday things, whatever that irks me off or inspires me :) My blog is like my open diary, although it takes a lot of effort to post quality posts, I choose quality over quantity!

instagram.com/smileforlovers

In hopes of a better feed, I deleted my previous pictures! Please send help by kindly following and liking my pictures thank you very much @ughjermaine

You can add me @jermaineleee on Snapchat! I am a huge snapchat user and update daily and you can get a sneak peek into my life through my Snapchat!

My New Year's Resolution

Is to control my temper better and refrain from toxic words that I don't mean just because of the heat of the moment!

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As always, thank you so much for reading, if you've stayed till the end, you're a real friend! <3 This post has been pretty boring as it's just an update, so be sure to check out some of my other posts! Also feel free to comment down below (anonymously if you'd like), what are some of the things you'll like to see on my blog or on my YouTube! Let me know what you think of my new blog design, what 2016 has been like for you, your new's year resolution and any questions that you wanna ask me! 

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube (enable notifications) and follow my Instagram to know when I next update my blog! (Hopefully soon!)

youtube.com/jermaineleejiaxin
http://instagram.com/ughjermaine

I arrived bright and early at 8:30am to help set up for the day! I started off sooo awkward as I was not really sure what to do. I was so intimated when there was a sudden horde of Singapore Polytechnic students!! It came to my realisation later that they were volunteers from SP's LEO Club (Leadership Experience Opportunity) and were also volunteers for the learning camp :)

I was asked to join a random group and there was a briefing for all of us to be role models for the children. We were banned from using any vulgarities (errr well we tried), and we were advised to build positive relationships with the children within boundaries and expectations to protect them.

In my new group 1, we sat in a circle and awkwardly avoided eye contact when I finally suggested for the group name to be 'pineapple' inspired from PiPPer Standard's Pineapple Power and one of the little boy's shirt. In the end we decided on 'Pineapple Kia' (Pineapple Kid)! 

We watched a video to raise awareness about recycling and learnt more about how PiPPER STANDARD is socially, environmentally and economically responsible. The Earth's resources are finite and we should obviously play a part in protecting our environment. Many products we use daily are harmful to the environment and we should try to the best of our abilities to use products that are environmentally friendly!

Next, each group created a poster about the environment to send the message of what we learnt. This was also a group bonding activities and we worked together harmoniously. Everyone contributed a lot of valuable ideas! In my team, one boy was very artistically talented and he drew very nice cartoon pineapples!!

The teams were assessed based on teamwork, cleanliness after we finished the poster, creativity, the short presentation of our poster and the number of likes our pictures had on PiPPER STANDARD Fan Club Singapore!

Pictures from PiPPER STANDARD Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/pipperfanclubsingapore/

For the second part of the day, we played an ambitious 'Game of Choice'. Basically it was about the deals between buyers and sellers and how we have to make our decisions wisely of what 'contracts' to buy and sell! There is a strong element of luck involved in this game and whe we couldn't figure it out, we guessed our way through the game HAHAHAHA

Well, I learnt that it is not how you start the game but about how you end, which relates to how the decisions we have made in life, have already been made. We should take control of our own future and not dwell on the past. Quote by Benjamin Franklin: 'If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.'' No one ever plans to fail but many fail to plan, yet most of us have nothing to lose and all to gain.

We can all start by using our time wisely, so as to determine the future and Carpe diem (seize the day)!

We ended the day by packing some PiPPER STANDARD gift packages that was distributed by some volunteers to raise awareness about the event and vote for our 'Team Photo Competition'! Everyone showed great teamwork and worked very efficiently and speedily :)

When I arrived at the MightyKFC Centre, the children were already there! They were so enthusiastic and happy to see us, asking questions excitedly - it really brightened up my day! We were going to have an amazing race!!! I was appointed assessor for the group and was tasked to observe the children and their buddies' behaviour and award or deduct points from them.

Due to the train delay on the East-West line, some volunteers arrived late but the delay did not dampen our spirits!

My 'Pineapple Kia' group solved the puzzle quite quickly and we began our rush to Habourfront MRT to go to the VivoCity rooftop! What really surprised me was that the little kids were leading the way! They were very independent and could also communicate effectively with us.

After we completed our game at VivoCity, we proceeded to Bugis+ rooftop. However, most of us were pretty hungry and one of the girls actually got giddy in the midst of playing Charades. Troy quickly ran down to buy some fries for her, and even got extra fries for the rest of us as he knew were hungry too!

Although we bought Old Chang Kee and ToriQ on our way back, we couldn't eat them on the train back to MightyKFC. I ended up having gastric pain and was feeling a little down but my friends helped by cheering me up and asking if I was okay :)

When we alighted at Tiong Bahru MRT, we saw an old man and the little kids took out their wallet and generously gave him their meagre pocket money on their own accord! 'No amount is too small for a random act of kindness' :) I also noticed that although we had to walk a lot in the hot sun, the little children had no complains at all throughout the whole trip! This really got me reflecting, especially since I have younger siblings of my own.

These children, although, may have been a little cheeky and playful, maybe a little rowdy, but they were not spoilt at all. Not once, did they ever complain, not even when they were noticeably hungry! Instead of us mentoring, we gained so much from the children!

After a catered lunch at MightyKFC, some of the children asked us to play catching with them and it makes me happy seeing how energetic, active and happy the children are :) Ahhh it triggered memories of my fond childhood!

We ended off the day by writing cards for each other. I wrote cards for them all, thanking them for the wonderful time I have had with them, blessing them to be good children and most importantly, to be happy.

Since I was not technically their buddy and more of someone who just tagged along to have fun and take pictures for her blog (HAHAHA), I didn't receive any solo cards :( One of the little boys wrote a joint letter for my friends and I, and it was so sweet, he wanted us to come back to MightyKFC to play with him and said that he loves us! Thinking of him and the other children and my friends now, I feel like tearing up... :(

After this, I had dinner with my group friends! 

Frankly speaking, when I first realised that we would be mentoring children, I thought of those trouble-causing, naughty kids who always skip school to hang out and vandalise playgrounds. Yet, my misconception of them changed drastically. Compared to other children I know, they were not spoilt at all and listened to us. Kids are kids, regardless of age, they just require our guidance, love, care and concern. This principle is the same for ALL of us!

Within two days, there was a strong connection between the volunteers and the children. It was definitely an amazing experience for us as we brought a genuine smile to the faces of many! I forged new friendships, learnt more about different people from diverse backgrounds, and so many more enriching life lessons :)

Without any hesitation, I would definitely volunteer to do this again in a blink of an eye. I am so grateful to MightyKFC for supporting our communities. Thank you also to PiPPer Standard for sending me there! To the SP students I got to know, Alex, Troy and the others, thanks for being so friendly and accepting, hopefully I'll see you at SP next year!!!

Thank you also to you reading this! I hope you can take this blog post as an motivation to do something little that can go a long way by volunteering for a good cause! You never know until you try and the memories made will surely be unforgettable! Let me know what you think of this blogpost down in the comments section below! All pictures were taken with a Samsung NX Mini or Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3.