By MaryAnn Soh

He was described by his mentor as intelligent, independent, quiet and reserved.

Dressed in a casual tee and jeans, the lanky 17-year-old was far from being relaxed as he took non-committal steps towards our meeting table.

He met me with peeping shy looks and a terse greeting.

Cautiously, the O-level private candidate pulled out a chair with his left hand and shuffled into his seat.

With the same hand, he reached out for a packet of soft drink, unwrapped the straw, inserted it and began sipping away.

He positioned his other hand at the edge of the table, protectively under the shadow of his chest.

Brandon Cheng was born without a fully formed right hand.

Compared to his functional left hand, the palm of his bow-shaped right hand was smaller with only a short offshoot of the thumb extending from it.

Life without a functional right hand

Despite losing the use of his right hand at birth, the teen beat his self doubt and overcame his deformity to bag two A2s, two B3s and two B4s in the O-level exams.

Life for this quiet achiever had not always been smooth sailing.

At the start of last year, Brandon, dropped out of school during Secondary 5 because he lost interest in his studies.

However, three weeks after quitting school, Brandon changed his mind.

He decided to re-enrol himself privately with City Harvest Education Centre as he realised it would be hard for him to find a good job if he did not have at least an O-level certificate.

Miss Joli, his mentor at CHEC, believes that an incident at his former school caused the gradual loss of interest in his studies.

"He might have suffered a blow to his self-esteem when he was advised to switch from the Express stream to Normal (Academic) due to unsatisfactory grades," the 29-year-old Indonesian shared with AsiaOne.

Recounting a vivid memory from his childhood days, Brandon also admitted to having a lot of self-doubt in the past.

"I never tried tying shoelaces before. I kept thinking I was not able to do anything because I have only one hand."

Though the frustrations were real, the self-learner would "innovate ways to do it (tying shoelaces) by looking at how other people do it."

But picking up the pieces from where he left off at his last school was not easy for Brandon.

"I found it hard to focus in school, but little by little, I got used to it," he said.

Gaining confidence

Indeed, through his year-long journey with CHEC, Brandon has since come to realise that life is "a process of learning how to persevere".

Brandon, who will be applying for a gaming design course in Temasek Polytechnic, credits his progress to his family friends and teachers at CHEC who tirelessly encouraged him not to give up.

The mature teen also does not mind when strangers pass remarks about his right hand.

He said: "It is normal for people to ask because they are curious. It is okay.

"I am more confident now to do the things I want to."

"And it stems from the belief that I can do what I set my mind to."

MaryAnn is an intern with AsiaOne.