I was at a gathering. There was a young girl who didn’t do well in her exams, and her parent (who is a teacher) was counselling her. She said: “If you don’t study, you will go to ITE and have no future”. The entire room went silent, because I was from studying there. What’s more, I was in my school uniform.
I would be lying if I said it didn’t affect me, but I used the hurt to drive me instead.
In the end, I graduated among the top 5 in my course. I thought that was good enough to enter Polytechnic, so I was attending an open house. I enquired about a course of study and the GPA required. The lecturer replied me “What’s your course?”. I stated that I was from ITE. She replied: “Oh, it’s a very high GPA to get in”. I said: “I’m aware, but what is it?”. She brushed it off with a sentence I’ll always remember: “Oh, we don’t really look for ITE students.”
From then on, I told myself…one day I will make the doubters eat their words. It motivated me to work even harder, gain enough experience, and become a lecturer one day. Because I want to make sure no other student ever feels looked down upon solely because of their education background. It’s not right.
Eventually, I went to another polytechnic – SP. They were forthcoming and open to me, and its important to understand that not everyone labels. In particular, my SP lecturer was like a mentor, he believed in me and got me started in freelance graphic design and image editing. I started to pick up skills I could monetize and use.
Everything was going fine till a setback struck. My parents got into a car accident. Both of them had injuries, and my Mum had to stop working because her back was hurting. She was bringing in a sizeable income so that was a major blow.
We eventually had to move out of our home. In the process of doing so, we had to board our dogs. They contracted viruses, and the bills to cure it came up to $7000. They survived it, but contracted another virus in the area they were treated.
This time, the virus was bad. Every day was a pain, I could hardly focus in school. Our family situation was still tricky, and our dogs were dying slowly, and it really hurt. Mine was less than a year old. Eventually, they gave in. Till this day, I tear up when I think about this. I felt that I was a horrible owner, I felt responsible for both lives lost.
I met Dominic in an interesting way. There was a girl that was chasing him, but he didn’t feel too comfortable, so my brother recommended me to be a ‘fake girlfriend’ for the time being. We hung out and it slowly became a thing. During my struggles, we could hardly meet, because he had a dog as well and the virus was contagious. Once, after visiting me, he had to sterilize himself before going back. Regardless, Dominic was a pillar of support emotionally and also encouraged me to volunteer at dog shelters. It served as a distraction and helped me come to terms with my emotions.
During my volunteering period, I realised that pet awareness in Singapore is still very low. Also, shelters have little time to run events because they are busy caring for the strays and abandoned pets.
That was when I decided to give it a shot – to run an independent campaign. It was something new, and the planning was a nightmare. I was about to give up, but my brother told me, you either ‘Go big or go home’. With that mindset, we somehow got a massive number of people on board, from all walks of life and expertise. We even got Kumar to host the event for us. The campaign was called 'Adopting Virtues', which was focused on adoption. We wanted to showcase that adopting a pet is not all rainbows and butterflies; it requires hard work and effort but can also be very rewarding. After the event, about 10-15 dogs were adopted and we managed to raise $12k in total for our beneficiaries.
My pain of losing my own dog is continued motivation. In my eyes, since I was not a good pet owner, I want to make up for it by educating others. This is the least I can do in honour of him.
We registered Bark A Tree in 2017, as the first pet social enterprise in Singapore. We gather different people from the pet community and hold events in malls, community centers or even in the heartlands ! We have since run about 20 events, and raised about 60k for shelters and animal welfare groups. Our mission is to build the bridge & connection between people and pets. To help Singaporeans understand them, care for them, and accept them. Our vision is to help Singapore become a more pet friendly nation, which I believe will also forge a more inclusive and compassionate society.
Ghandi was once said: ‘“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”.
From the hurt of being labelled, to my struggles and the loss of my own dog, I am grateful for them and believe it all contributed to who I am today and the passion to realise Bark A Tree’s vision!
