RGPS

as the year draws to an end, i think this is a good time to finally look at my schooling life up to now.. i'm going to be 21 next year already... a landmark, i guess. and a time better than any to finally read those chapters of my lifestory which i thought i left behind but never really have. 1991-1996.. RGPS.

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we've come so far, and we've reached so high

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a young girl.. i didn't know much. i didn't know anything. but i guess i was preparing for it already.. after 2 years in newton kindergarden and a fuzzy picture of memories in the pink checkered dress, i was ready for the big world.. in my white and navy uniform. little did i know, the rest of my uniformed schooling life would revolved around those 2 colors (thankfully too).

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why is my primary school even worthed a mention? i'm not an ingrate. some of my best memories were forged that in cream and light green school (back then at least..). firstly, my classes.. i still remember the order. 1A, 2A, 3D, 4B, 5C, 6C. had classmates that were with me for quite a few classes.. one was yuzhen.. she was in all my classes save 4B if i'm not wrong. hazel and i were in the same classes until pri 5. she was merely next door then. caifeng and i were in the same class for our first and last 2 years.

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and we've looked each day and night in the eye

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if anything i was a boring child. i never colored my cookies pink and hair was never blue to me. too practical for my good, i guess.. while everyone was showing off their multi-colored muffins, i had reasons for my colors. if the little circles on the muffins were red, they were cherries. if they were brown, they were choc chips. never creative at art. in fact, i found every chance to get pop or mom to do my art for me. if it was anything i liked, it was simple addition during maths or story-telling during english. i even vaguely remember one english project during pri 1. while my 2 friends drew and colored pictures, my other friend and i worked on the story. nevertheless, we loved all our teachers. whenever a teacher was not around, we somewhat tormented the relief teacher. we rarely paid attention. the only relief teacher i liked was our principal then, Ms Bandara.

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it was pretty much this way from pri 1-2. pri 3 introduced science and i fell in love with the subject. it explained the unexplained to me. i loved nothing more than to raise my hand up in class to ask until i finally had my all answers. there was no such thing as a teacher's pet in my class. everyone loved asking questions at every class. plus, we had a wonderful science teacher, ms maria loo, one of the teachers who really held my attention at every class. i do recall sitting up in front of the class, next to her, as she brought specimens for us to look at and play with. she was the first teacher to bring us to the zoo as well.

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but we're still so young and we hope for more

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pri 4 is pretty much a blur save for that year's Speech day skit. it was the biggest thing for me. i had done class skits in front of either the afternoon or morning session. but the speech day skit was for the whole school and parents as well. we did Annie that year and i played an orphan. i didn't have much lines so u could imagine how upset i was when a girl stole my line during one of the full-dress rehearsal in front of the school. i didn't speak to her and made sure i spoke before her at the actual thing. we had to sing as well and i tell u, the adrenaline in me made me consider being an actress for the longest time. my stories during composition got longer and better at the same time.

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we've come a long way.

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the last 2 years were magical. i have to say i was a superficial little girl. i was close only to those girls who liked the same type of songs as me which was more than half the class. i wasn't close to really anyone else.. but thankfully, those girls i was close to were friends i could depend on. we would chat on the phone, go to each other's place for lunch and to watch tapes or even play games. recess would be netball until one hazardous game which left one injured and me with a very very red nose after the ball hit me. after that, we started playing badminton and dog-n-bone. even our pri 5 camp was a success with our trips to the night safari and goat's farm. watching les miserable while eating the cookies Ms Bandara baked for our class. all fun as leisure was, studying became harder for me.

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i still loved english. chinese was middle.. our teacher was ok.. not fantastic. but hey, she still remembers me. when i was walking home from sch just last mth, i only noticed her after she called out my name. maths seemed tough i was disheartened. i missed topping the class for maths tests and exams and felt that i could no longer do it. science wasn't easier. pop was stressing me at home as well.. while my composition improved, i failed 2 maths tests at the start of pri 6 and failed to get full marks on my model test which i normally topped.

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but we're not too sure where we've been

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my maths teacher guessed it in a way. let's address her as ms leong. she started to give remedial to those who failed the tests, which included me. and as a result, i had to quit mini tennis as the timings clashed. i was really upset for i had missed the team selection by one wk. i guess things would have been different if i had gone for the team selection and got in. i might not even be here blogging away. then she spoke to me one remedial, and told me that if i needed help, i could always approach her. she was always smiling and always nice to me. one incentive she gave the remedial class was that if we finished our assignments quickly and correctly, we could go home early.

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one day, she didn't show up for class. our form teacher came to tell us that she was in the hospital for throat infection. her throat was bleeding. remedial was cancelled that afternoon as well. i went home and cried while doing my assignments. it really pushed me to work harder for her. she returned shortly after that and was pleased that my assignments were completed. for the next test, i topped the class with full marks. i remember this best for that afternoon, i went for remedial again. she told me that i didn't have to show up anymore. but i told her that i wanted to help the rest of the class.. No one went home before others that day. those who finished first stayed back to help the weaker ones.

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we've had success

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my class started passing all our tests with flying colors and i was getting my full marks all over again with my bunch of other friends. science was another headache and our form teacher kinda realized it in the middle of pri 5. before we knew it, we were having chinese during science just so that our last periods were free for us to go to the zoo or science center for classes. everything was so much more hands-on. we got to run amock in children's world before it was opened in the morning to the public.. catch insects to study how they move and live in their environments. science became fun. i started to take interest in the books pop "forced" me to study. it was nice.. to gain back that kind of inquisitive-ness. i felt that i needed to know more if i wanted to advance in my studies. and i was looking forward to secondary school as well. that yr, my form teacher commended me for my "conscientiousness". a new word i picked up with glee along with "industrious". i was using a thesaurus to figure out the meaning then. hee hee.

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we've had good times

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our trip to Penang was a blast.. even the encounter with the ghost did nothing to dampen our mood. and it was seriously freaky. we were playing murderer in the dark. during our third game, the "murderer" killed 2 ppl and stopped. when i finally switched on the lights, a friend came out of the toilet, said that she was one of the two "murderers" but had no chance to kill anyone. upon asking, no one else was a "murderer". then, we realized that one "murderer" card was missing. when we found it, it was under the bed. even though we had 12 ppl playing, there were 13 cards. the two "dead" then said that the "murderer" did not tap twice lightly on the shoulder as planned but instead, pressed down heavily on their shoulders. we stared at one another before squealing silly and all jumping on the bed. even charmaine's vision of a hanging girl in our bathroom on the first day added to it. the finaly night saw 4 girls squeezed in the rooms despite the 3-in-a-room rule as by the teachers.

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but remember this

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but on the last day of pri 6, i didn't want to go to secondary school suddenly. as much as i was interested in growing up to feel important, i felt like i was leaving behind so much. there was a little platform between 6D and 6E on the top floor so my friends, even those from various classes, sat there, just staring at the road. then a song started in my head and i cried. my friends around me saw me and burst into tears as well, hugging each and everyone. i was scared.. really scared. it was too fast. we ended that day in class with "Never forget" by Take That, the song that was running in my head. hm.. wave of nostalgia runneth over me. but lemme just take this chance to thank my dear friends for the memories.

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i understand the meaning of "i can't explain this feeling"

now it feels so unreal...