It is perhaps apt that right before (give or take 2 weeks) I leave Singapore for abroad, that I attend a mini school reunion. Just like how days earlier I was getting really excited about how it was the anniversary of one of the most dreaded days of my life, these past few months have often reminded me in the strangest moments how much IB in general has shaped my life.
My Dad used to tell me the reason Michael Jackson was so messed up (this was even years ago before he died) was that because as a child he never got a chance to attend school and mingle with his peers, to grow up dealing with people and all the mini trials and tribulations school brings along. To this I cannot help but agree, school for me provided a safe place for me to grow up in and to understand the world around me.
I learned un-pc truths like how incompetency and inefficiency in endemic everywhere, gained regrets at all the missed connections and things that could've been but never will be, discovered the more unpleasant sides of my psyche, lost my mind, struggled through the most mentally exhausting experience of my life, felt disappointment so many times I can't even count the number of times anymore, got to know the best lot of people ever, became friends with the best lot of people ever, grew as a person in trying to understand myself and most importantly I survived.
The reunion today felt strange. It felt like a year onwards nothing much had changed. It also felt like nothing would ever be the same again, that everything had been forever fully altered. It felt a little like something good that had been left out for a bit too long. It made me wish a little that I didn't go because what I had preserved in my mind was too good and anything further could only serve to taint my memory.
After the reunion most of us from .9 ended up drifting towards the bus stop where mild chaos unfolded as multiple snap decisions were made to take various buses and 'go where the bus goes'. In the end we boarded 166 supposedly to go to Arab Street, but we ended up alighting at VivoCity. Dinner was at White Dog Cafe (I think) followed by more aimless drifting about towards Timezone. After dismissing it as utter rubbish, the group splintered up to go meet the KKK, go home and go to Elliot's place.
In the end only JLC, Patrick, Gerald, Justin and I ended up at Elliot's place. They started playing Scrabble "wah SEX ruins everything" - Elliot while I channel surfed. We ended up watching Iron Chef, the rice special, Prom Night (good God) and finally the last 10 minutes or so of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In the end Elliot sent me home.
I don't remember anything very outstanding about tonight. It was a night like most of the class outings. The same people, personalities, innuendo laden conversation, laughter. Yet I know I would have been so much more worse off had I not attended.
I'll miss 6.9 2008.
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