truth_matic

It is a new year
Some things happen overnight...while others seem to be overnight though they happen over 18 years.
12 years of formal education has whizzed past.
From the lil boy who cried on his first day of school in primary 1...to another lil boy who is typing this blog entry

(the boy who didnt look at the camera)

Lower primary at Ai tong was a quiet time where I kept to myself...frightened of every single soul. Didn't even dare to talk to strangers while waiting at the sidegate for mummy to pick me after school. The whole world was just me..and myself. My childhood viewpoint of the world was a dangerous place where everybody was waiting to kill me.

Upper primary was a time of peer pressure...Tamiya cars...wrestling cards, pokemon, digimon, playstation and all that stuff where kids play at school. I became more naughty and playful. My mom had to bear with complaints whenever she came to pick me up. There was a point of time when the class was "guys vs girls", we would tease the girls, and obviously the girls would complain to those damn p-school teachers who were ALWAYS siding with the girls.

(2nd row, 1st from right)

SJI is a family tradition, so I was (am) proud to be enrolled into the school. Secondary 1 was a year of learning, all the guys stuff that you can never find in your textbooks or from your parents. The SJI community was warm and family-like, the teachers and seniors were just different from Ai Tong. My class had lots of Nanyang primary school boys then..like godwin, mattheus, yan xun...and aitong schoolmates like jov and arthur too. It was the explosion age where ouch! we all became sort of allergic to girls, can hardly talk to them, let alone play hide and seek anymore.

Secondary 2 was the time where there was the "syndicate" as printed on the 204 t-shirt which i still keep. We wrestled in class, sometimes friendly, sometimes fought with hostility. Throwing chairs, walls of jerichos, spears, punches. We would tekan those who stood in our way, and make fun of those who suck-up to teachers. In a way...yup, I was kinda like a bully. Attaining high placing in my cohort also proved a point that you don't have to be a goody gay boy to produce excellent results.

Secondary 3 was sjab time, even stopped being active in legion of mary to commit more to sjab. Improving my skills proficiency, training my fitness level, grooming my leadership capabilities, and building more unity among my squadmates. There were lots of politics, propaganda, alliance formation, breaking of friendships, but it all redounded to invaluable experience as a Josephian. My results were experiencing a "depreciation" then.

Secondary 4 was time as a senior member of the student community. The passion and service of love towards the mission. The imparting of knowledge, skills, and mentoring so that newer and better leaders can be developed from my juniors. It was the year I really felt the camaderie with different groups of friends. But it had to end in the O levels where I picked my books up and braced myself for the battle which was eventually won

(1st row, 3rd from right)

(1st row, 4th from left)

confirmation class (back row, 3rd from left)

It was perhaps the end of Sec4 that I got more involved in church youth activities even though confirmation was in Sec3. In the sec3 days, the sji peeps would just click together and other than the altar servers, I hardly knew anyone in church. It merely started with the email from aunty liz asking for facils for the confirmation camp...which led on to more activities and committments...suddenly being a part of the fuel council and so on. And Ive seen how FUEL has changed and grown for the past 3 years...pretty amazing...from the "once in a blue moon" gatherings for con3 05 ....to the weekly friday sessions for post-confirmants.

Life in nj...Ive blogged pretty much about it.

It was something that I had not expected it to be. Initially thought of a dull environment where everyone just muggs, and if I acted or behaved the way I did in sji, people would look at me as if I just broke out of asylum. Well, people did look at me that way..but it never did matter since we were the infamous njpda.

Outdoor activities club was a whole new experience, being totally different from sji-sjab. But there were many lessons to be learnt and fun times enjoyed too.

Overall, the njc life was....to put it in a single word...WONDERFUL

but the school still does suck though...