Happy 40th Birthday to Me!

earworm: [*NSYNC – God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You]

When I look back on my twenties and thirties, I realise much of that time was spent building foundations – learning, teaching, making mistakes, and developing skills that only make sense on hindsight.

Turning forty feels less like a milestone and more like a quiet transition.

This year feels especially meaningful for three reasons.

1.      My puppy is now 18 years and 2 months old.

I bought her when I was 22 years old, using the allowance I earned from my Ministry of Education (MOE) Teaching Internship while I was an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

This photo was taken by my sister on puppy’s first night with us. She was four months old then.

She is an Australia-born Japanese Spitz. The average lifespan of a Japanese Spitz is between 12 and 16 years.

Today, she is 18 years and 2 months old, and I have just turned 40.

In many ways, we have grown up together.

At the time she was just a tiny fluffball, and I had no idea that she would end up accompanying me through my entire young adult life – right up to now, which is almost half of my life so far.

That is why she has always been in my profile photo.

She has been there through my undergraduate and postgraduate years when I would write long assignments late into the night. She has been there through my entire career so far. She has been there through several relationship heartbreaks – and ultimately when I met my husband (that’s another story for another day).

After a few serious health scares over the past two years, every day with her now feels like a precious gift.

We love her very much, and I am sure she loves us back.

I found her wonderful veterinarian by chance in 2019, so she has been under the excellent medical care of Dr Fong since she was 11 years old.

I am fortunate that she still wants to be here.

She is still alert and recognises all of us.

During a recent vet visit, I asked Dr Fong whether puppy could still see and hear properly at her advanced age of 18 years.

Dr Fong smiled and replied,

“She can see you. She can also judge you. When she looks at me, her expression says, ‘Oh, it’s you again.’”

I burst out laughing.

2.     家和万事兴 — when the family is harmonious, everything else can flourish

I recently came across a Chinese saying:

家和万事兴 — when the family is harmonious, everything else can flourish.

I have always known that my immediate and extended families are close-knit.

Knowing that my family is always supportive – even if quietly – has given me the strong foundation to go out into the world and contribute meaningfully.

It has given me the confidence to explore new experiences that have shaped who I am today.

13      The next chapter of my career in my 40s

As I step into my forties, I find myself increasingly drawn toward work that helps others.

Over the years, I have worked across a wide range of education-related roles: teaching, lecturing, sports coaching, para-counselling, and examination moderation.

Each of these roles requires technical competencies.

However, what has always mattered most to me has been something else:

• the explaining and storytelling in teaching, lecturing, and sports coaching

• the listening in para-counselling

• the thoughtful exchange of professional perspectives during examination moderation

In other words — the human touch.

Perhaps that is what the next chapter of my career in my 40s will be about.

Inspiring and helping others.

For now, I am deeply grateful — for puppy, for family and friends, for good health, and for the quiet joy of everyday life.

A Message From a Former Student - On Teaching, Statistics, and the Moments that Stay with Students Longer than We Realise

One of the quiet joys of teaching is hearing from former students years later.

After my recent post about studying psychology, a former student reached out with this message (shared with permission).

During my years supervising research projects, his group was the only group who pushed the boundaries and ran a proper two-way ANOVA for their analysis. Most groups would typically use Pearson’s correlation, t-tests, or occasionally a one-way ANOVA.

I still remember lending them an ANOVA reference book from my NUS psychology statistics days so they could explore the method further.

What I also remember about him was his student leadership. Long before he entered my class, colleagues had already mentioned his initiative and reliability. By the time he appeared in my classes, I already knew I was teaching someone willing to stretch himself.

Moments like this remind me that teaching is rarely just about content.

Sometimes it is about helping someone realise they are capable of more than they thought.

Messages like this are a quiet reminder of why teaching — and helping others realise their potential — will always matter to me.

I Chose Psychology at 15 – Twenty-Five Years On, It Still Feels Like Home

earworm: [S Club 7 – Bring It All Back]

Last week, the GCE A-Level results were released.

It reminded me of my own results day in 2005 — although I had chosen my path four years

earlier.

In 2001, when I was 15, I chose Psychology — when it was far less popular than it is today.

This photo was taken in 2001.

At 15, I helped design this mural with my school Art Club team, which we later painted at

the Christalite Methodist Home.

The following year, I became president of the Art Club.

I didn’t have the language for it yet, but understanding how people think, decide and

behave felt instinctively right to me.

When I attended the NUS Open House in 2004, I went straight to the Psychology booth.

Alone. My classmates weren’t interested. I was.

At the booth, student leaders mentioned that Psychology majors would need to take two

compulsory statistics modules.

The following week, when our A-Level Math syllabus covered statistics, I paid attention

differently.

At the National University of Singapore (NUS), I eventually majored in Psychology and chose

to minor in English Studies — an uncommon pairing then.

I found myself drawn to research design, survey methodology, and the discipline of

measurement. I read the Methods and Analysis sections of every journal article carefully,

often during the 1.5-hour train and bus rides to and from campus.

I didn’t know then where it would lead — into research, teaching, assessment design and

conversations about behaviour. I only knew it felt right.

Twenty-five years later, I’m still doing the work I chose at 15 — and it still feels like home.

Some decisions feel small at 15.

The ones that fit quietly shape the years that follow.

That curiosity has stayed with me ever since — and continues to shape the work I do today.

The Voice Within

This reflection was first written in June 2025.

I’m sharing it again here as the first post on this site — a space where I write more slowly
about psychology, learning, and assessment, and how ideas translate into practice.

It felt right to begin by continuing a line of thought, rather than starting something new.

---

[earworm: Christina Aguilera – The Voice Within]

🌺 Coming back on social media — after 8 years

It’s been 8 years since I last showed up on social media.

I didn’t set out to disappear. In late 2016, I had just started as a full-time psychology and
research methods lecturer at NP, while attending night classes for the WSQ ACTA — and
later, for the Master of Education (Educational Assessment), where I wrote my dissertation
on Rasch / IRT.

For five of those eight years, I also had a three-hour daily work commute.

Somewhere along the way, life kept moving:

• I got married, almost relocated (husband was based overseas), stayed, bought a resale flat,
and renovated it

• I earned my second black belt in kyokushin karate — I took part in the grading in the
second month of my lecturer role; my first black belt is in Japanese jujitsu

• I became a certified Yin Yoga instructor after six years of practice — to balance out the
full-contact martial arts

• And now, I’m the first and only Assessment Specialist at a local university — full circle,
from assessment to teaching and back to assessment

I’ve always said that writing is food for my soul. I started blogging in 2000, when I was still
a teenager, and stopped during my undergraduate honours year when the study load became
very heavy.

Recently, I’ve come to realise I’ve lived through some lesser-known, hard-won experiences
that others are curious about.

For example:
• How did you get into assessment? It’s so specialised.
• Why did you major in psychology?
• How did you stay in full-contact martial arts for 18 years as the only woman in the dojo?

So I’m back — to write, to reflect, and to share.

Long-form, just like I used to.

See you soon.

#comebackstory #lifelonglearning #martialarts

[Views are my own.]