It was the year 2025, our protagonist, Tom has already grown up, and is trying to adapt himself to the age of being thirteen. After all becoming thirteen years old is a new start for every citizen of Singapore.
Singapore was getting along well with the enhancement of technology , the education system level was also increased in order to keep up with the times. Kids these days were good in their studies but now it had become a must to do so in order to live in this society of theirs because everything was expensive and you needed a white collar job to sustain yourself, but with more people competing for those jobs one had to be the best of the best. Parents were training their children to be all rounded to give them an edge in this modern island city.
Now we come back to our protagonist, Tom, Tom during his primary school days was nicknamed as a pig not because he was dirty or anything but because he behaved like one, but certainly not about the gluttonous behaviour of a pig, just the fact that he was extremely laid back and lazy.
Tom’s parents were very worried about his future ,thinking how could he, a person as lazy as that forge a bright future ,but here is a twist ,Tom was a genius ,he could take any test standing on his head but his daily behaviour cost him his grades. He loved to play, if his parent confiscated his IPhone 8 he would play with his ps7 if not his Nintendo after all games were taken away he still had card games, books etcetera, the list went on, the point I am trying to make here is that he could always find something to entertain himself. This caused him to neglect his homework and get demerit points, which in turn affected his grades and so gave his parent the illusion that their son was not doing well academically.
The children of his time were so focused on their studies, leadership skills and many more in a bid to be the best of the best, that they always stayed at home revising doing homework and they do not go to the zoo at all for tours as they were very concerned about their studies. Tom obviously had not seen a pig before but he had an inkling what it was, from what was in his general knowledge but knowing him he would probably be just too lazy to do any research on it to find out why he was being called a pig. Tom then asked his mother what do pigs do to help us. Well he went off with the answer that pigs provided them with pork which left him wondering “Since pork is so good to eat in what way could pigs do bad? So why was he being called a pig?”
That very afternoon after much heated discussion Tom’s parents decided to take him to the Singapore Zoo to show him the animals and most importantly to see the pig that was being housed there under the farm animals section.
Tom after seeing the pig wanted to observe it trying to understand why he was being compared to it. The pig was smelly, fat and lazy. Tom after seeing the pig did not want to be known as that animal.
After PSLE, Tom achieved exemplary results after much hard work in a bid to get rid of his nickname (which he failed)and got into Hwa Chong Institution, a Secondary School that has implemented measures to keep up with modernization and therefore kept itself at the top of secondary schools.
As we say at the age of thirteen you experience bodily changes, become mature and also you begin a new school life so Tom decide to take this opportunity to begin a new chapter in his life to create a new social image at Hwa Chong to not be depicted as a pig, a lazy bum but as a leopard because of his alertness his speed in doing his worked with accuracy but also to his old classmates to show them a side of him that they were never aware of. Working towards his goal, he amended his bad habits along with his schedule. He cut down on his gaming and started to focus more on his studies.
With his intelligence, Tom easily climbed to the top of his class Tom’s parent were relieved and pleasantly surprised to see the sudden change but they were contented and wanted it to be that way. Tom’s parents felt assured that he would stay like that.
Tom after putting in all that hard work never wanted to be called a pig again, although his primary school classmates still call him that sometimes to tease him.
