Hello World, this is Tanglin.

I am extremely honored when I was told I have been selected to be a ROCKstar because being a Rockstar is one of my unfulfilled dreams. (This is where I start singing “It’s my lifeeeeeee… It’s now or never, I ain’t gonna live forever, I just want to live while I’m alive… It’s my lifeeeeeeee”)

My definition of a Rockstar is someone holding a mike on stage, screaming the heart out with the audience jumping up and down. Well, I think dream and reality do have their differences huh, so instead of holding a mike on stage, I will now use my hands to type out my ROCKstar story. Lol.

I was born in Malaysia, as the eldest to two brothers and one sister. My mother wanted her children to have better education so she sent the four of us to Singapore to receive education (me and Lai Sen Hui were first to come over because of the age gap).

However, because the cost of living in Singapore is high, both my parents had to work. She put us under the care of my auntie who, at the same time, had to take care of her own daughter and two other cousins of mine – that’s five of us in total.

Being the eldest of them all, I had to do the household chores and be their role model. While the rest took naps after school, I had to do the chores. When the younger ones made mistakes, it became my fault too. I remember once when my auntie’s daughter decided to iron her own clothes and messed it up, my auntie scolded me instead. While her daughter could choose her own CCA in primary school and grow long hair, mine was chosen by my auntie and my hair was cut short like a boy.

I don’t have a pretty face to begin with, so cutting my hair short like a boy made me look uglier. Heard of the story “The Ugly Duckling”? I totally can relate to it.

I didn’t have a happy childhood. After my O levels, I worked in a fashion shop. I worked very hard, but the supervisor showed favouritism and was biased towards this other girl who joined later and was always on leave. Well, I guess the reason was because I am not as pretty as her.

While studying in polytechnic, I took up part time jobs in the F&B industry and had this really hurting encounter with this manager. He bought me a mask and asked me to use it to cover my ugly face. Seriously, to him, it may be a joke, but to a girl who grew up experiencing favouritism that led to low-self-esteem, that was the final straw and I lost my identity for a long time.

Nonetheless, with a smiley face God is fair. Though He didn’t give me outstanding pretty features, I have long legs which helped me win several big and small medals during my schooling years.

I still have the fondest memories of me diligently running at the school campus stadium barefooted, to train my stamina for an upcoming competition.

That was the time when I really put in effort to achieve something for myself — to win first in my category in the Karate cross-school tournament. In the end, I got first-runner up which left me crying because I had put in so much effort, only to lose a match that I was confident of winning.

Anyway I moved on and decided sport isn’t for me. Lol. But running is the most convenient, and also the cheapest and easiest sport. So, when one of my colleagues wanted to lose weight for her wedding, she jio-ed the whole department (including me) to sign up for a gym.

In that same year, Weiying also jio-ed me to run various races. I started running races in 2012 and then stopped after my full marathon in 2014. At that point I realised I had enough of running as it was too boring. I stopped for three years until Weiying jio-ed me AGAIN for the full marathon at the 2017 SCSM.

This time round, it wasn’t just me and Weiying anymore. Through the SCSM Women Squad organised by ROCKrunners, I got to know like-minded friends who share a similar passion in running. I came across different paths of people that inspired me more than I can imagine; like Wendy and Gwen, mothers of two who juggle different roles of responsibilities yet are able to squeeze out time to run a better timing in races than me.

Now, I enjoy running with my #ROCKfam every Tuesday and Saturday. Running with them also pushes me to achieve my Personal Best which I never knew I could achieve.

Well~ I am still a work-in-progress. Sometimes I do care a lot about what people think of me because I want to be accepted by society standards. But most of time, I know I am beautiful just the way I am, especially when I am running, because that’s the time where I am most “naked”. Lol!