A few weeks ago, I had a random conversation with someone I was a little afraid of. In the conversation, he said that because of what I had done (pointing out his peeling nose was freaky), he now hated all MGS girls. Instead of getting offended however, I instead replied that it was alright with me, I didn't really care for that school myself.
And then last night, Adeline started talking to me on MSN, and showed me a video shot to publicise MGS (I was about to use the word propaganda, but I realised that the only school really deserving of such a term is the one I'm in now) which can be viewed here. As I watched it, I felt myself alternating between cringing for bad music and lousy camera work and complete apathy.
Then a few nights ago, a close friend of mind mentioned he was feeling rather down. After some further enquiries with someone he had met that day earlier, it was made apparent that he was feeling down over the fact that this was his last year of being an ACS boy.
All these events made me start thinking about how I felt when I left MGS: I remember feeling sad because these were people I had gotten used to, for better or worse, and they used to me. I remember linking almost everything significant to that school, 'it's here where I did flag raising and screwed it up', 'in P3 I fell down here' and even random things like 'this is my favourite toilet in the entire school'. I felt like life as I knew it was over - I now had to behave myself and act like a lady.
Now almost 2 years down the road, we know how the 'behave myself and act like a lady' bit went. If anything else, I became weirder and less lady like (but I am STILL not a lesbian). I feel happier now, where I was once tolerated I now feel accepted and have even more catalysts for my odd behaviour. In essence: I enjoy myself more here.
I returned to MGS a few times last year, mostly to visit my juniors in Guides. As I wandered about school, I felt rather disconnected. All the faces I saw I didn't recognise, even the canteen looked gaudier, and Hock Seng the school institution had been downgraded to a mere snack seller. I only felt sentimental when I saw my juniors, stuck doing the same random guide shit I had been making them do just the year prior. It wasn't till then that it really struck me how much Life Goes On. The school without the people meant nothing to me anymore. Sure, I experienced 10 years of my life on that campus, but all these memories didn't amount to much without the people they were with.
In a similar fashion, as this rather chaotic year is really slowly (hey, there's still more than 6 months of this left) inching towards an end, I know I'll leave with my memories and love for friends intact - without any false notions of great ties to the school.
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Meanwhile, this is the most wtf art project I have read about, more wtf than the artist who took an already starving/sick dog and chained it so food was just out of reach. Instead this one is about a yale student who repeated induced miscarriages for the sake of 'art'. I wonder what Kierkegaard would have made of all of this.
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