I chosed this photograph not because it was picture perfect as her wist of hair was in the way, but because it gave Teresa a warmer touch of humanity. She is not perfect but she is beautiful in striving to be as best as she can. What more can we ask of her?
Another stage photograph of Teresa in the middle of her countless performance over the last two years. I will be adding this to the slideshow on my blog as soon as I get some sleep.
Radiance of a star.
I went to attend the abovementioned event for one single purpose - to show my support for Teresa, whom I truly believe is worthy of being THE Campus Superstar. After finishing and publishing my blog post on the performance reviews of the CSS 2 revival round, I reached Bishan Junction 8 around 2.30pm and was watching the rehearsal of the event by the various schools, including some interesting dance and percussion groups. At around 3pm, the rehearsal came to an end and I was answered by one of the nice and polite first-aiders present there that the event would officially start around 4pm. So I decided to take a short walk inside the shopping mall before the start, lo and behold, I saw Teresa and her family eating ice-cream inside Haagen Daz near the entrance back into the mall!
At The Table With Teresa and Family:
Since I know Mdm Tseng and Teresa already, it would not be nice not to wave my greetings to them and to my surprise, Mdm Tseng waved me over into the ice-cream parlour the moment she saw me. Needless to say, it was quite a pleasant surprise further that she asked me to sit down with Teresa and the rest of her family and friends at the same table when I approached their table. I was honoured by the fact that I have earned enough trust and respect from all of them to be invited to sit down at the very same table and I was just as delighted that Mdm Tseng was showing me all these in a public setting, in full view of everyone else in the parlour and those walking by.
With Mdm Tseng, Teresa, Haowei (Teresa's brother), Thomas (Teresa's family friend) at the table, the feeling was indeed strange. What is my relationship with Teresa and her family? Even till now, I can't put a finger on it - Supporter? Singing Enthusiast? Mentor? Friend? Maybe it's a mix of everything. I don't know. I suppose as long as Teresa understands my presence in her life can confer constructive benefits to her, I don't want to care about such titles of relationships anyway. As far as I am concerned, it's an expression of trust, respect and faith that binds me and since it is extended by Mdm Tseng through her gesture, it would be just as right to continue the reciprocation. I must say that I was so bowled over by Mdm Tseng's kind gesture that I totally forgot to formally introduce myself to Thomas and Haowei right at the start before sitting down so I'll extend my public apologies here to both of them for my gap in ettiquette at that point.
Teresa beamed at me and waved her greetings before quietly resuming eating her chocolate ice-cream sundae which she shared with her brother whilst Mdm Tseng and Thomas were talking to me for the earlier part of the coffee talk.
Fanclub Activities:
Thomas then went on and off throughout the one-hour table talk over coffee to brief me on the future events and public appearances for Teresa in the coming months and I quickly took mental notes of those details, which I will relay to the rest of the faithful supporters of Teresa on the idollic.com/teresa forum as soon as I worded my post. So for all supporters, new and old, of Teresa, please stay tuned to the mentioned forum as I will relay the updates on Teresa's activities as well as a major request by Teresa to the fanclub members regarding photographs.
The Reason Behind Teresa's Upbringing:
Initially, since the rise of Teresa as a contestant and her eventual crowning as the Female Champion of Campus Superstar Season One, there has been constant flaming and doubt that the supposed refined character of Teresa was just "faked". Today, I was absolutely convinced that I truly know the reason behind Teresa's modest and unassuming character - the quality of her upbringing by Mdm Tseng.
Mdm Tseng was conversing me about how grateful she was to all the people who have been supporting and "doting" on Teresa ever since her rise to Superstardom and she was jokingly telling me that she would poke fun at Teresa that the latter would not need a mother's doting anymore since there are so many people willing to "dote" on Teresa in her stead. I smiled and replied politely (and honestly) that no amount of love from other people can replace a mother's love for her children.
Mdm Tseng explained that it was then all the more important that she kept reminding Teresa that the latter must learn to appreciate all the good that has happened to her thus far and be ever more humble and modest about her achievements (in short, not to take things and people for granted). Mdm Tseng's sincere expression of her values of upbringing on Teresa to me was genuine and I really respect the lady's determination to make sure Teresa's character development remains upright, in face of such success, fame and achievements. All the while when that was going on, Teresa remained quiet and never interrupted her mother's nor Thomas' conversations with me. I eyeballed Teresa, who was still carefully eating the sundae and even rationed her intake and gave the bulk of it to her brother (good manners and good thinking for Teresa - too much cold food before a performance will numb the voicebox).
Michelle, another faithful supporter of Teresa, rang me up on my phone and soon after, she was sitting with the rest of us at the same table, listening into the rest of the coffee conversations. I bet she was just as delighted to be given a chance to have such proximity contact with the Campus Superstar she so admired and respected.
My Conversation With Teresa:
The coffee talk would seemed incomplete without talking to the girl herself and I waited patiently until she had finished her sundae while looking at what her brother was doing under the table all the while - he was playing some sort of football game on a PSP console - just like any quiet school-going boys like to do I suppose. Since most of the talking had been done by Mdm Tseng and Thomas, I just informed Teresa that two of her recent online troubles (which I would not be bothered to dig up again here) have been peacefully resolved and she looked pretty delighted with the news. I supposed I was glad to be of help to Teresa somehow in those two matters. She became quite animated as she started talking about how the two matters came about when Thomas added that one of the perpetrators were actually her schoolmate but both Mdm Tseng and Teresa were understanding enough not to pursue the two matters because there weren't any malice or damage intented or done. Mdm Tseng then poured some herbal tea of sorts for Teresa to drink to cleanse away the ice-cream in preparation for Teresa's performance at 4pm and Teresa took the drink and redid some of her make-up to ready herself.
As rumoured to be, Teresa is actually a very soft-spoken girl who pays careful attention when spoken too and has plenty of patience and manners when she is not being spoken to. I can deduce that Teresa either is too shy to converse more openly with me (especially when there is so many people around - many passers-by stopped for a second look at Teresa when they recognized her from outside the glass windows) or she is still puzzled about in which capacity she should be speaking to me since we got to know each other all the way since the semi-finals of Campus Superstars Season One. Perhaps when there are more opportunities to sit down and talk leisurely, both of us can finally speak more freely (over ice-cream) than ever before.
Campus Superstar 2:
Oh yes, Mdm Tseng popped an interesting question about Campus Superstar Season 2 while Teresa was quietly sipping her herbal tea. She asked me for my take and prediction on the two winners for this coming season. I gave my personal analysis of whom I considered to be two strongest and high potential contestants and both Mdm Tseng and Teresa listened intently at what I have commented on (No, I will never reveal the two names here because that portion is strictly in confidence to all those present at that table only). Then I watched approvingly at Teresa mentally rehearsing her song at the other end of the table as the time for her performance neared.
I made my introduction to both Thomas and Haowei and made some small talk to the latter about where he is currently studying at (a school which I will not disclose without his permission) and how his student life is at the moment. Another two family friends (whose names I could not catch in time) appeared and Teresa and Mdm Tseng took their leave to meet the event organizers for the final briefing before the event's official start.
After five minutes, I rejoined the other supporters, blanket and JR, with Michelle at the open foyer of Bishan Junction 8, which is just next to the ice-cream parlour and hence the generation of the beautiful photographs at the start of this blog post. My personal thanks to Michelle, blanket and JR for taking the time to make it to the event today. A pity quite a number of supporters had other prior appointments which they could not absent themselves from or the gathering would have been even more fun since opportunities for proximity contact with Teresa were abundant today.
Three minutes before Teresa's performance, Teresa came up to both Michelle and myself and politely informed us that she was about to start and five minutes after Teresa got her certificate of participation onstage from the Guest-Of-Honour of the event, Teresa also stayed back to take photographs with a few of the supporters there and of course, posed for two of the exclusive fanclub photos above. We waved our goodbyes and Teresa went off to the foodcourt with her family members at around 4.15pm.
(Image source: blanket_ma from idollic.com/teresa)
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