Here comes the Bride!

Joanne (my JC classmate)'s wedding @ Wesley Methodist Church today.

Photos!

Joanne's Dad walking her down the aisle to give her away to the groom. They were walking mighty slowly. It took about 4 verses of Amazing Grace for them to complete the walk.

A badly taken photo - all blurry and fuzzy (because the photographer was me)

From L to R: Jasmine, Lynn, Andre, Joanne, Me, Liwei and Stan

This one came out better (because the photographer wasn't me)

The wedding service was short and sweet.

And very Christ-centred. Immediately after the exchange of vows, the Reverend told them that the first thing they should do as a wedded couple was to kneel in prayer to the Lord.

Then later there was this moving bit in Joanne's speech where she thanked her Dad for always being so encouraging. Her voice was trembling as she recalled the incident after her PSLE when she felt she didn't do well and called her Dad, in tears. Then her Dad spoke kindly to her and told her it didn't matter. And how her Dad never compared her with other children.

That made me think about how stressful a lot of school children are with all the expectations from parents, some of which are overly high. I think though academic scores are important, especially in a meritocratic society like ours, whether or not you eventually succeed in life, or whether or not your life has quality depends not merely on your grades but also on other factors like strength of character, perseverance and luck. Personally I think faith in religion is very important too. That's why Joanne's Dad did the right thing in not comparing her with other children and not fussing over her grades.

I think school children today are lucky, especially IP students, because they don't need to go through the burden of the O Levels, and can thus spend time on enrichment stuff. Similarly, project work and daily classroom assignments count towards the final score, so that the final paper doesn't seem that 'all important' and stressful.

Anyway, congratulations Joanne on being the first person in our class to get married! Will always remember the lame jokes we shared whenever we sat together during lectures and how you recommended 'Jane Eyre' to me though you were not a literature student. All the best on your married life to Andre!