Shyness is in my genes.

As a child, I seldom spoke in class or laughed out loud. Despite my taciturn nature, one thing I could not have enough of was singing. Of course, I did not dare to let my tunes be heard in public. I sang to myself for self-amusement while I was all alone. Giving free rein to singing either in my own room or on the way to and from school, I was often amazed by my own voice, but very few people, even my parents, were aware of my vocal gift then.

In primary school, I dreamed of becoming a famous vocalist one day. My favourite singer is Taylor Swift. In Grade 7, I downloaded a music app and installed it on my phone. On the app I could record a song and post it. With great anticipation, I sang several of Taylor Swift’s tunes and recorded myself. I played them back and they sounded great. I shared my clips on the app, never expecting to have any audience or followers. It was not long, however, before about 50 comments and over 150 likes found their ways onto my page. My confidence was boosted. So exhilarated was I that I suggested my parents sending me to a music academy. They laughed it off, though. In their eyes, their naïve girl could never maintain herself by singing.

Having graduated from middle school, I carried my singing dream all along to YYHS. Regrettably, with a punishing workload in high school, music was simply not a priority, and I had to put my singing talent on the back burner. Even though a campus song contest was available each term, I did not sign up for it because I thought my grades outweighed my unique voice. I did not want to have my attention distracted from academic studies. Consequently, here at YYHS, most guys around me still had no knowledge of my musical flair.

Last month we seniors took a music test for graduation. A pass was a must if we were to be awarded a high school diploma. In the test room, when it was my turn to perform, I cleared my throat and started off. Going along with great panache, I did Justin Bieber’s Love Yourself. The moment I came to the last note of the song, the judges acclaimed my excellent skills and gave me an A. Word got out.

Since then, a lot of schoolmates around me have been talking about my beautiful voice thanks to the publicity. I am not sure whether my initial aspirations to become a famous singer will come true or not, but I will keep alive my passion for singing for the rest of my life. Come an opportunity, I will rekindle it.

I love it.