Old School Memories.. Linking up with Adora, Gingerbreadmum!

When Adora first brought up the topic, i was really excited to join and share about my old school memories… and then the time came and went by.. and today is the LAST DAY that she is keeping her linky open so i just gotta churn this post out. and of cos, i’m totally unprepared.. haven’t had the chance to head back to my mum’s to dig out all the photographs when i was a kid.. so, here goes a rumble jumble of memories and whatever photographs i can find online. Hmmm.. where shall i start?

How about the schools?

Primary School memories..

I don’t remember much of what happened in the first few years of my primary school except for the really fierce form teacher called Mrs Regina Tan. I thought the most good-looking guy in class is this guy called Weiyi (i’m still in contact with him now) and he also happens to smartest kid in class. He always sits opposite me in exams (we have the same surname) and when i don’t have the answers to my script, i’ll just stare at him hoping to catch some of his answers that he has written on the paper. I hope he isnt reading this!

I am a latch-key child and am often found loitering in the streets or sleeping at the corridor of my house because i forgot my keys (thank goodness i stay in the corner unit). I often stay out till 7pm because that’s when my mum gets home from work. I simply spend my days hanging out with my friends, at their place or just roaming the streets.My best friend was this girl called Hongli and this other girl called Siew Yin. Siew Yin transferred out of the school in Pri 3 and i remember being really upset about it. We often exchanged letters after she left and till today.. i still have those letters!

Anyway, below is an old collage ripped off one of my old blog entries, and it documented the day i met Hongli after many years, together with Agnes (who is currently my colleague and my primary school classmate).

I was also in every other eca activity from monday to saturday. I can’t remember them all, but i was in the gymnastics, athletics, PE club, table tennis and i can’t remember what.

In the upper primary, sports ruled my world. I was busy running and training. When i wasn’t, i was busy playing catching, zero-point and playing table tennis. I was really competitive back then and wanted to excel in everything. I also wanted to be as fast as my bestie (who is then the fastest in school). We were both in the school’s table tennis team as well so we literally stuck together for a good 6 years. My mum also worked in her mum’s factory!

Oh, we were also brownies! You know? The brown little ones that sing and dance around a straw toadstool? I’m the sprite by the way and i still have my brownie handbook with me! Err.. anyone remembers… “Sprightly Sprites we’re on our way, play and laugh and help today”???

The most memorable event in my primary school life is…

1. Getting a medal for long jump in the nationals.

2. Beating the record of a 10-year consecutive win of some school (was it amk primary?) in district table tennis (can’t remember if we won or not). I have a medal for table tennis at home but i can’t remember what it is for. Haha.

3. Getting into my first choice of school (presbyterian high) along with a lot of my other classmates, but bestie not included. 🙁

Some other random memories included squatting along the drains with our color mugs to brush our teeth after recess each day.. and oh! I was also the school prefect and i love walking around and booking people with my little blue notebook and pen. I also love writing letters and cards to my friends and especially love it when the letterheads are scented! So girly right?

I still keep in contact with about 75% of my classmates in primary one? Recently, the most bizarre thing happened. A colleague who i have been working with for the past 5 years, turned out to be my primary school classmate. He falls into that 25% that i don’t remember. AT ALL!

one last one – i was one of the shortest in school. #truestory

Secondary school is pretty much the same. Except that i seemed to be getting into trouble with all those ah lians who somehow didn’t quite like me, no matter what. They just keep picking on me so much so i do have a fear of bumping into them at the corridors. I wished someone would tell me why they loved to pick on me so much. Probably because i was still one of the smaller sized ones around and they probably didn’t like the look of me. One day, my esprit school bag got stolen with everything dumped along a stairways. I remember being super upset because the bag was quite new. I never got it back. I also bought a new wallet one day with my part time pay and got suspected for stealing cos a day prior, someone lost the exact same wallet (what are the odds!). It was kinda hard, dealing with this sort of stuff and puberty and crushes on guys at the same time. I don’t remember them to be anything fun, but i was glad i had the right distractions in my life to keep me on track – athletics and being part of a uniform group.

I have got to mention this! I NEVER, EVER in my wildest dream would want to be part of a uniform group. NEVER, EVER! All thanks to my first friend made in my class, and also my best friend in school. She has been persuading me to join st john with for the longest time, but all i wanted to be part of… is the school athletics team and table tennis team. and her, being the monitress of the class… collect our eca forms (the ones that we submit to the teachers and indicate what we would want to join), and she cancelled out my options and put st johns in there.

#bestplayedjokeever. THANKS EH.

and i was stuck with st john because my school had a stupid policy that you are not allowed to quit the eca regardless. i have so much to thank this girl for. I still managed to get into athletics and table tennis, but unfortunately there isn’t even female players in the school to form a team so i eventually drop table tennis and got forced into chinese dance by my chinese teacher because there werent enough participants. -_-”

Secondary school sounds like the years i was forced to do a lot of stuff that i didn’t enjoy doing, but there were also a lot of fun. and the irony? I had a lot of fun in st. johns. Camping, campfires, outbound obstacles, kayaking, marching, foot drill competitions, first aid drills.. i look forward to saturdays because that’s where all the fun is.

here’s an old collage ripped off one of my older blog entries, all pictures scanned from my school’s year book.

Thinking back. I think i was quite complacent in sports. I knew i was the fastest in my school so i cannot quite be bothered to compete/train/prep and it was through many set backs that i learn endurance and humility, and that winning isn’t it all. Well, i was the fastest in my school, but it didn’t matter because we had combined school sports day and i had to compete with athletes from 3 other schools. Obviously never win all the medals that i thought i would, but i did make a lot of friends from the other schools and knew that the world is much bigger than the walls of my school. (P.s. my primary school athletics team always bag the champion in the national school meet so when i went to secondary school, i was in for a rude shock)

I used to carve love notes on the table that i am sitting on, declaring my love for so and so! Did anyone of you do the same thing? Totally not shy. I wasn’t at all pretty. If anything, i was short, stumpy, frumpy with terrible hair, and muscular legs. I didn’t have much luck in love back then.

I spent the worse years of my life school education wise and while i played hard, i trashed the books. I literally burned midnight oil for every single, freaking exam that i have. I start studying at midnight and not sleep till the end of the exam, cramming in everything last minute. You can guess the results. I always fail my math and my chinese and i am surprised that i managed enough scores to get into business school in polytechnics. I didn’t know how i did it but i remembered my classmate putting in a lot of effort to coach me in math, and some other ones studying together with me for accounts.. those were the days where i really huddled in fast food chains and studied from morning to night, just weeks before O levels. Very thankful for my helpful friends!

I had a band of girlfriends and we called ourselves 十姐妹 (10 sisters). I’m #9 i think. Hilarious and totally silly. Well, they are still all on my facebook and you can go start guessing who they are. 😛

and i think that’s all i have! my old school memories. Boring much? Do share if your old school memories with me! What is your most memorable incident in school?

P.s. Read the original school entries here & a found a note i penned on my blog about the memories of my maiden school (video went missing, not sure why).

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