Rei Ho – Class of 2024

Rei Ho (23-I2) served her class as a peer support leader whose care and compassion for her classmates was crystal clear to all, be it in her daily interactions or the thoughtful activities she organised for them. Moreover, Rei showed remarkable resilience as she navigated a health setback in the family, spending as much time with her family while balancing the rigorous demands of her JC2 year. Unfazed and selfless, Rei truly was exemplary.

“I’ve always believed that we are all fabrics of the bits and pieces that we pick up from the people we cross paths with throughout our lives, and I owe a big part of who I am today to the people whom I love and the ones who love me with all that they have. My biggest source of inspiration and one of my strongest pillars is undeniably my father who never fails to tell me how proud he is of me and that he is always cheering me on. Through his support and unwavering faith in me over the years, I have been able to build myself up safely and securely, and grow at my own pace. I carry with me the lessons he taught me, and more importantly a deep love for life he inspired in me. My mother, who has taught me all about womanhood and the resilience of life, as well as my brother who drops everything to play with me, hang out and have conversations about life, school, and everything in between, have been nothing but loving and supportive of me. 

I am also eternally grateful for my best friends who are unconditionally there for me – they are the people who would stay up all night with me to talk about life, and who never fail to give me a warm hug when I need it, and when I don’t. To the girls who have seen me through literally everything and never fail to remind me that they are always here for me, Yu Xin, Chern Yee, Taria, Kayla, Rianne and Clarisse, I hope you know that it has been, and always will be such an honour to be laughing and growing alongside you. My teachers, who have given me boundless grace, empathy, understanding, love and support, as well as all the people whom I have crossed paths with in the past 18 years, have all made a genuine difference in my life and have taught me all I need to know about love and navigating life. 

The feeling of home that would not have been possible without 23-I2. I have truly met the kindest, sweetest souls, my friends and teachers, in this class. Over the two tiring JC years, we bonded over how difficult the syllabus is, how many tutorials and lectures we have yet to complete, and then back to how hard the syllabus is. But it is also within the two years that we built small, everyday moments of bonding and support that made this journey so worthwhile. From “Chope-ing” entire rows of seats in the canteen just so we could sit together as a class for lunch every day to celebrating each other’s birthdays together (and teachers giving us 5 minutes of time in class to do so!). It is a great honour to have been the Peer Support Leader alongside one of my closest friends Kayla, and seeing every member supporting each other. Their genuine compassion for each other has made a culture of care, and I am honoured to have found a home in my civics group. 

When I think about my two years in EJ, I think about growing up. JC has been a process of putting yourself in difficult situations and finding ways to overcome them, a process of pushing your limits while also accepting and reaffirming your boundaries, and a process of reaching your goals together with a whole school – whether close, mutuals or strangers you have probably brushed shoulders with a thousand times in the canteen. It is in these uncomfortable moments that you find within yourself the tremendous potential for growth, and come to recognise that you are not alone in the process of growing up.”