Hi everyone, I’m Chloe. 🙂 . I just finished my PSLE exams and gotten my results, yea! Pretty happy with my grades after working hard and just hoping that I will get into the school I’ve applied for in the coming new year. I’m going to be sharing how a twelve-year old started a passion, for an unusual subject – rocks & minerals!

The first thing that may come to your mind is, ”Why rocks?” Little do you know that there is a whole other world surrounding them, a world that not everyone has seen, how Mother Nature has put them on this earth, for us to unravel their beauty, their hidden beauty.

Around the time when I was four-years old, my parents bought all three of their children each a necklace, each holding a different type of gemstone for all three of us. My sister had a clear quartz, my brother a tiger’s eye, and I had one of the most common gemstones – amethyst. The moment I wore it, I knew I was going to have a certain relationship with it. I wore it everywhere I went, I even wore it to kindergarten!( even when i wasn’t allowed to ) I remember how I would hold it up to my eye and look at its amazing purple colour, and its inclusions inside of it would make it look like a landscape ( especially since purple is my favourite colour ) . It helped me calm my nerves and kept me at a peaceful state when I looked at it, even when my parents were fighting.

When I started Primary school, I started focusing more on exams and tried my hardest to to be best in my classes, and most of all make friends. I stopped wearing my necklace and completely forgotten where it was. I did work hard, but I felt like something was missing.

After four years of primary school, my family went through some changes and we had to move house. As I was unboxing the boxes in our new house, I found one of the most precious thing to me. The necklace still fits perfectly around my neck even without adjusting the size at all for four years. When I found it, I remembered the times I spent wearing it around with me as a kid. I realized that I had a passion for gemstones and did my research on everything about them.

During my research, I noticed that alot of people mistreat or misuse them. We can’t expect them to make our problems go away or give us superpowers just by holding them. They are on this earth for us to appreciate them, not to use them as a tool. That’s how I discovered The Gem Museum, I learnt that I can chase my dream and that I can pursue my passion at this place. I decided to spend my holiday in a meaningful way to be at The Gem Museum to learn all I can and be with people that share the same passion! I know there are other twelve-year olds out there that don’t know what their passions are, I encourage you not to give up on finding it no matter how long it takes. 🙂

Good luck 🙂

Chloe Wong, the rock enthusiast.