Denise's College Archive

  “There’s something wrong with her back..." Sometime around the latter half of 2012 when I was just 10 years old, my life changed with that one line coming out of my mum’s mouth. A visit to the nearest clinic further confirmed her assumption was right. There’s something wrong with my back. I was later diagnosed with an S-shaped Scoliosis . In conjunction with Scoliosis Awareness Month , I’m here to share my scoliosis story. We’ve all done it — Googling our symptoms when we don’t feel well. And we know how Google gives us the worst-case scenario when we look up what’s wrong with us — in fact, any symptom will somehow be related to some sort of cancer. So imagine an innocent kid searching for a disease she’s never heard of before in her 10 years of life. Back then, I seriously thought I was going to die, especially after seeing disturbing surgery images my brother showed to scare me. But, thanks to my sister’s explanation I understood what scoliosis is. Image Source: Scoliosis SOS...

Father, I love him. My father is a hardworking man. I rarely saw him until dinner on weekdays. But he made sure to spend his time with us on weekends, bringing us out on day trips, buying us good food, and making sure we slept well in a comfortable house that I could call home. Mother told me he cut off cigarettes when she was pregnant with their first child —  that’s also something I love about him. Father said he used to fight when he was younger, I’m still not sure if that’s true or not. He seems proud and confident but Mother always says he’s over-exaggerating. He carried me to bed when I fell asleep on the couch; he let me sit on his shoulder when I couldn’t see the stage performance in a crowd; he rushed me to the hospital when I broke my wrist; he taught me how to ride a bike; he bought me a year pass to an amusement park; he said it’s okay to get a bad grade as long as I have improvements; he gave me more than I asked when it comes to pocket money. I’ve always been happy gr...