All my life, I thought being rebellious was just a habit, or an effect of teenagehood. But recently I realise that's it's not a bad thing. I used to be afraid of speaking up against people I wasn't very close to... After what happened at WSMS, I convinced myself I should be as nice and sweet to everyone as possible.

I realise too that I can't live that way anymore, and never could fit into the cookie-cutter mould.

Society can be so backwards at time. By how I look, you judge that I'm not worthy of the name of my own race. You don't know anything about me. You want to see that half of my race? Cut me open, watch me bleed, that blood in me is what you're looking for.

I'm proud of my family. We don't go to churches or temples very often, we hardly abide by traditions, we don't have superstitions and we don't fear much. We're a strange lot, but we've got what it takes to survive. Pluck any one of us out, and we can stay alive. Our love is not normal, because we're all not very good at expressing our affection. But you know what? I don't have to bow down to people I'm apparently related to, because who are they to just come in and think they have rights over me? They don't. They never will. They're as good as non-existent to us.

My mom's a fighter, she really is... In many ways, we are so similar. She taught me the meaning of justice, of fighting against what you feel isn't right, of survival of the fittest. She's made it through the kampong, endless discrimination, and the intolerance of the other side of my family. I want to be like her. God forbid if I ever encounter half the obstacles she has, I will handle it when the pride and dignity that she did.

My dad's a philosopher. He looks at the sky, and, also like me, wonders why we've come to a world without stars. We love open spaces, we love doing nothing and silently contemplating, we love solitude and warmth. The part of my dad that I have, is that we do nothing without passion. We just can't do something if we're being forced to. We always find a way to love something in anything we do, we try at least. That's why when we truly love something, we set our hearts and souls and give everything up for it.

It's not that I don't appreciate them, I do. I disobey them not out of disrespect or of angst or revenge or whatever pathetic excuses I've heard before. I disobey them because of who I am as a person. When you put rebellious people together, what can you expect to get but a riot?

But I don't care. Don't you dare insult them, or me, or the riot is coming your way.