Possibly

For someone who has never passed a class test on algebra or understood their history textbook, there are many concepts and other things in the world that continue to befuddle the thoughts of my teenage mind.

One of those rather tricky topics is gender equality.

While people on tumblr bravely post text posts after text posts of their views on the issue, I find myself sitting on my bed attempting to separate everything into black and white.

That's pretty much the point where I give up thinking about such things and decide to go watch cartoons instead.

With issues like this, I can never seem to clearly define a good view or a bad view from a neutral point. I'm always finding grey parts in everything.

I never wanted to decide on my opinion but there has to be a day when you have to take a firm stand to speak out against something.

That day came sooner than I thought.

I was at a camping trip organised by my school this week. One of the things we were required to do was to go to a school to teach the students. At one point of the lesson, my classmate decided to give out prizes to the kid who raised their hand the fastest and answered the question correctly.

The kid who raised their hand first was a boy. 

After giving the prize to the boy, my classmates decided to allow only the girls to receive the next prize.

I suppose that from my classmates' point of view, it was only fair to allow a girl to get the next prize after a boy got one.

That was when I found myself protesting to it before I could fully process what they has planned.

I lost the battle anyway. Everyone against one.

I know that discrimination against women is a much bigger problem than discrimination against men. According to the lessons we have back in school, women are always in much more danger than men and the situation for girls are often worse in many parts of the world.

But still, at that moment, I wanted to stand up and fight for the boys in that class the very moment my classmates announced that only girls could get the prizes next.

You might disagree with me, but I believe that just because one boy received the one prize, does not mean that the rest of the boys are denied to chance of winning one. It's just unfair, being unable to receive a prize because of your gender.

Despite the fact that we were taught that boys will mostly have more privileges than the girls, I still couldn't let this go. I argued that it was unfair to the other boys. If another boy raised first, that would still be fair to everyone.

The second problem was that my classmates felt that the girls would not be able to raise up their hands as quickly as the boys.

I can't help it if this makes me sound silly. I felt that the girls are able to do things as well as the boys. Just because we're girls and are considered physically weaker does not mean that we can't do something like raising our hands as fast as boys can.

I was relieved when the next fastest person to raise up their hands was a girl. Number one, it was still considered fair to everyone as she was the fastest among both the girls and boys.

Number two, it proved my point that the girls could raise their hands just as fast and there was no need to act like they needed a help for something so simple. They're just as capable.

As much as there shouldn't be any discrimination towards the female population, there mustn't be any discrimination towards the male gender either. There shouldn't be discrimination towards anyone. I think that it's important to keep things fair as much as possible.

I am still bothered by the choice made by my classmates and when I tell people about it, they simply laugh and say it doesn't affect my life anyway.

I still can't help but wonder if the students learnt from the bad example. After all, my classmates never explained why they had suddenly allowed only one gender to claim the prize.

I hope that they don't learn anything from it. Because even this could affect the fight for gender equality. For all you know, the boys could have denied a girl a chance to do something in the future and vice versa for the girls.

Whatever it is, everyone deserves a fair chance. No matter your race, religion, sexuality, gender or financial situation, I feel that to achieve as much fairness in society as possible, we need to set the example of being fair as much as possible.

I wish I could have put my thoughts down in better words. But the point is, I'm still trying to figure out certain issues. And even when I'm forced to take a stand, I can't help but wonder if it's even possible.

We Come In Peace, 2013

I'm a little late for my annual greeting but nevertheless, it's better late than never.

So, hello there 2013! You must be a little surprised to be here. 2012 just ran past us really quickly!

And I believe you will too-as soon as we find a pair of expensive sneakers for you.

All jokes aside, I will now send 2012 off with a thank you for being such a lovely and eventful year. In reference to the post I made to greet 2012 last year, you have indeed lived up to the expectations of 2011 and I can't wait to see you pass that excitement to 2013.

I hope that 2012 has set a great example to what may be ahead this year. For 2013, you are an important year in which I must absolutely have to stick to my resolutions.

Also, THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE O LEEEEEEVEEEEEEEEEEEELS!

I literally jumped onto my sofa and shouted that in a rather agonized voice after the countdown.

There are great expectations, 2013. But I believe that you and I can get through this together.

With the help of some others of course.

This year, we'll correct some of the things that needed improvement from 2012 and we'll remember the good things from it too.

But most of all, I think we'll be able to accomplish some things that no other year had ever done before.

Oh it will be busy alright, 2013.

But somehow I know that we can definitely get through the year's obstacles.

And off we go, to a new year!