A life of Schooling

"The best part of your schooling life will be now." I can still vividly recall what my sceondary school principal, Miss Bandara said. She left a few quotes that have since been hidden deep in my heart. "Aim higher, so when u fall, u won't feel that much of a pain."

I'm blessed to have my parents sending me to a gd neighbourhood school. I enjoyed my schooling time in my primary school, Ang Mo Kio Primary School. The games that we played like poisonous ball, one leg, catching, xia yan mao, uno, etc. The funs of not having to think about financial problems nor relationship problems. School work came second to fun. Friends then were also the best of the lots of friends i had. Thou there are arguments, fights but these all forgotten in a moment, probably after a game of those mentioned above. The ban, imposed on ball for football, allowed my classmates to be the most creative of the school. we would buy an exercise book, tore every single page of it, squashed all of them into a ball shape, taped it up, and used it as a ball to kick around. This was also banned after some time. So we used the a plastic bottle instead. And the crack on it after some kicks proved costly, as it cut just under my left eye. We were so innocent then..

Then came secondary school, Ang Mo Kio Secondary School. This is when I started to know the pressure of studying, thou finiancial was still not a part of life then, unlike how kids were now, with handphones. We still play games then. But the games are no longer poisonous ball or one leg, but soccer and basketball. Competition for getting top few in the class were rather intense, with those very good at memorising being the few. Me? I think i'm in the top 10. hehe.. The pride of representing school in most mathematics competition also kept me going then. The participation in my CCA then, actively kept me busy most of the time. Like what the principal had said. I think perhaps why she said that was because, i think, we were more concious of what we are doing while playing and enjoying in secondary school, without having to think much about finance.

The CCA which i was in, NCC(AIR), was rather interesting. Going for courses. These unlike the NCC now, used to be tough, i think probably as tougher as what the tekong people are going thru now in tekong and in the unit, considering the welfare given now as compared to what it was in the past. However, the most lovely part of joining this CCA was the chance that they gave me. Paying for me and the seniors to go Perth, Austraia for 11 days. Then, it was rather rare for them to allow a secondary school student to go overseas. And me being of one of the first few. That was when i was in secondary 4. 2 years later, when i was just starting my first year in poly, i was sent to Canada for an exchange programme with 14 other countries. Only 2 people were chosen yearly. It was an enriching experience. Learning abt lots of other cultures, while making some good friends there. Really gd fun then.

In Ngee Ann Poly, this was when the financial burden stated to come into my life. Studying and working at the same time isn't easy, even now. The main part of my poly, as i can remember, was probably the freshman orientation camp and the skipping of lectures to play basketball or sleeping during lectures. The life of in the first semester of my first year was also the best part of the poly life, as then, i made some good friends.

My schooling in the NS life was tough. We had 136 people in the course, of which 114 stayed together for the 2 years that we were in the NS. There were probably too much stories to tell. However, it seemed that when we were in the NS, we would want to get out of the life there, but after ORD, it seemed a part of my life is still missing the lifestyle and the companion that i had for the past 2 years.

In university, SIM, its totally different. A lot more independant. Everyone's doing their own stuffs. It seemed more of a like, erm.. schoolmate = schoolmate, not really friends that have been happening in the past. Why do i say that? Everyday after school, everyone just study, go home. No going out or a game in sports. Results are rather demoralising also.. hope life there will be better with more inspiring results.

So for those above, you may ask me which part of my schooling life i life. I would say every part of the schooling life has its fun. But for me, i enjoyed my primary school life most. I made 5 best pals there, who were always there when i need them. They accompanied me thoughout my last 15 plus years. Thou we had our fair share of disagreements, but the bond of friendship is still strong. The class of my primary school will occasionally meet up. Its a really good bond of friendship, and i think i have to credit these to the teachers that we had then, Mrs Chong and Mdm Lee.

So above are my schooling life, which part of schooling life do u enjoy most?

Charm: Thru hardships and years of giving and taking, only then friendships will bond.