Margie

Margie

I had only studied there in my final 2 years of Primary Education.
That was because the school was rebuilding its campus and needed a temporary place to relocate. So in Primary 4, we had to take their examination papers to qualify entry to the school. Some of my friends didn't make the mark and were transferred to other schools.
Why was it that we were minding our business and they needed our campus but we were being absorbed? Oh ya,, my former school had a population so small that it was invaded. I guess it wasn't economic to run a small school. It was hard to adjust because I remembered being very sad that when I returned to school one new term, 90% of my teachers were gone. Sometimes, I don't understand why the adults don't take the heart to explain stuff to me. It may be a very minor thing, you know, it happens, people get retrenched, transferred, axed, whatever, but I never get to say goodbye to my teachers. Of course being such a sentimental creature like me, I was affected but no one seemed to matter. So anyway, it took several months to get over it.
But it is very interesting to note that I made my bests of freinds from my new school. I love them even till today. I remember their names, Fong Yee, Imelda, Linda. But I didn't keep in touch with them as they all moved on to the same secondary school and i went to one gangster school. I often think about them because I think I had so much joy playing with them. You see, I was from the "poor" community while they were the well-off ones. They had all the travelling to Japan & Europe and often bought me souvenirs from far away lands. They taught me to swim and fool around with the piano when I visit their homes. Fong Yee would alight from her Big Yellow School Bus and walk with me whenever she spotted me along the road. That is until the driver uncle told her mom and her mom forbade her to do so. Anyway, I often wonder what was the higher purpose for me to have studied there. As Kung Fu Panda says- "there are no accidents". I was surprised that i still have the PSLE result slip, although yellow with age, clamped in my report book. I think i didn't do too bad for my PSLE and I wondered why I enrolled myself into a gangster secondary school. Can you imagine the only reason I chose that school was becase it had the most number of SBS buses from home. CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT??!!! I cannot fathom that I was so boh chap about myself and I am also aghast that I was left to mind my own life at age 12. Well, I had a lot of FUN there, no doubt about it.., Just that sometimes I do wonder about my life's route and how some timely or untimely decisions shapped my life. Like I am still a little angry with my mother for unwisely FORCING me to drink BRERRACOL (spelling) cough mixture for a cough i had on the morning of my O levels English paper. I struggled to stay awake and was drousy like a drug tripper fighting to stay focus. It was fortunate I had a B but that was with a swaying mind. I think I could have done better, but well, let's not talk about it. I made a lot of mistakes at my gangster school, mainly was about me not putting an effort in my acedemics. But the rest of the time there was PURE HAPPINESS. I could count my secondary school life as one of my best times. I was an Ah Lian in an Ah Lian group. But we were not the "bad ah lians", we don't join secret societies, don't shoplift, don't smoke nor do sex. The only way we were seen as Lians was due to our loud "fashion" as well as our unruly manners. I do look back at my Ah Lian fashion sense with good humour nowadays. Those unthinkable fashion sense we had. I guess this is part of growing up and I am very glad that I had gone through that phase. There are many qualities on honour, reliability, teamwork & comrade which I learnt and enjoyed. I have always felt very fortunate to have lived the 80s. I do see a rehash of the 80s candy fashion a few years back and I'll tell you, it's not even close to the real thing. Nothing compares to the loud colours we had, the baggy to slim sleeves, the psycadelic colours for accessories to eyewear (ya, i had big rimmed glasses in both brown and white). the big hair and pale lipstick colours. oh how the fashion moved. the noisy Japanese clogs, I had my school blouse first in small, then in XXLarge, and back to small again. Ya, then came the "alibaba" pants, and later those high-cut sports shoes. I bought mine from Bossini. ya, they had footware some 19 years ago. and yes,, the suspenders and tie phase. the nerdy straight fringe phase, did that, done that, you name it. when we were students, we didn't have money to go to the saloon, we just bleached our hair with hair bleach. the effect is very nice. the hair looks brown under the sun but not indoor, so we could skip being apprehended & reprimanded. maybe i could try this again. So you can see, i had spent all my time having a ball. I only have a hint of regret that I didn't put my brain in good use but I would like to not think of it like that. Oh well, that's life and this' me.

=)