Leaving (it all behind)

Today was farewell to two really wonderful members of the school - Vice-principal, Mrs Phuah, and one of our best teachers ever, Miss Soh.

Call it fate, but this morning was the first time I've ever been rostered to set up the PA system for prefect duty (a very important duty, might I add, because if I decide not to press the 'play' button, the whole school canNOT sing the national anthem and the school song! HAH! I feel powerful!), and it was also the last time Mrs Phuah would ever be standing in front of the school in the position of VP, looking at the (sleepy) teachers and (badly groomed) girls, and singing the school song, which I'm sure she must have grown to love very much after all these years. As I stood up there together with her, it hit me just how hard it must be for her to leave the school - a part of her life - behind. After so many years of hard work and dedicated service, after so many mornings of calling the school to attention, singing the national anthem, the school song, saying the pledge, making the announcements, giving out the prizes, what must it be like to know that you're doing all that for the last time? Ever? It was a definitely a poignant moment for her; one that she'll never forget. I know, because I'm pretty sure I saw tears in her eyes when I turned to look at her as the familiar tune of the school song began to play over the loudspeakers this morning.

I might not have known Mrs Phuah very well, but along with everyone else, I've grown so used to seeing her up there in front of the student body every morning (or most mornings, at least). I've grown used to her voice even, how she says, "School. Attention.", and recently, her subtle sarcasm (I know sarcasm is meant to be rather subtle most of the time, but this one was so subtle it made what she said way funnier than it was supposed to be). It was just the other day when the Bio Brain-ers went up to present their prize money, and Sophia said they'd donate "a litt...a sum of the money" to the school, to which Mrs Phuah went, something to the effect of that they eagerly await to see "the sum" that the school will be receiving. Haha! She made me laugh (: And today, she nearly made me cry with her little speech after the concert, especially the bit about how she hoped "heaven [was] like this". Darn, I hate it when people do things like that. BUT, I am not overly emotional, so I didn't cry in the end. Not really. Well, I went over to her to shake her hand after that, and wish her good luck/take care/thank you, etc. and she hugged me/I hugged her, which was really, well, very sweet. Yup. One of those things I'll remember about secondary school when I'm old but not yet senile - the vice-principal hugged me! Haha.

Well, today was also Miss Soh's last day. She was such a great form/English/Literature teacher last year, that it's really sad to see her go. Still, I'm happy for her, because she's got an amazingly bright future before her, and a life which I'm sure will be well-lived, to its fullest. She's such a dedicated teacher, not only to her work, but to all her students as well - truly an inspiration to us all. Plus, she knows her stuff so well! Narayan and transcendence and all those incomprehensible themes about it being futile to cling onto earthly things and children are the best guides to living, etc, etc, etc, etc, are sure to stay etched in my mind forever. (And ever and ever. Who forgets strange things like that??)

Seeing Mrs Phuah and Miss Soh leave the school today somehow made me think of what it'd be like when I have to leave in a few months.

I've been an SC girl for nearly ten years now, and the thought of leaving school and moving on (to JC) is very hard. I still remember the first day of primary one - I was truly, genuinely, extremely excited. That's kinda hard to believe when I think about it now, since I'm not as truly, genuinely, extremely excited about coming to school these days, what with exams around the corner and all that. But back then, it was such a novelty coming to school, really. I think there's just some things in our school life that we'll never ever forget, me included...

1. Thinking that the school was VERY BIG on my first day and that I would definitely get lost.
2. Being the only girl in class who cried when we had to get an injection in primary one (definitely one thing I wish I could forget).
3. Getting bullied in primary two by a girl who would order me to help her take her water bottle from the cupboard every day after school, and while I did so, she would erase what I had written on my PETS worksheet, so I'd have to stay back and do it all over again.
4. Finally telling my teacher about my getting bullied, and getting scolded by her instead for crying (though she did switch my seating place in class in the end, thank goodness).
5. Getting bullied in primary three by another girl, who once threw my hair tie into the big green dustbin in the canteen. I never successfully retrieved it.
6. Somehow or other causing this girl to become so scared of me so that the next time she stole my hair tie and I screamed at her, she quickly returned it. (POWER! Yes!)
7. Writing a book for a teacher I really loved in primary three, together with a few other girls. I think she might still have it!
8. Getting an E for my shuttle run for napfa in primary four, which resulted in my first BRONZE. Year 2000 was a bad year for trying to run fast.
9. Being called fruity tooty prostituty (if that can even be spelt) in primary five and six because...okay, never mind. Let's not go into that.
10. Getting 60-something marks for a math test (while everyone else in my class scored 80 plus), then proceeding to prance around the classroom, doing a little jig, to which my math teacher went, "Why? Lesley? Got very high, is it?" Ouch.
11. Getting caught for passing notes during Higher Chinese lesson.
12. Having math remedial in primary six (refer to point number 10) and hiding from the teacher, who week after week, despite our ALWAYS hiding in the same place, could never find us. Also, while she was solving a question on the white board, the few of us would come up with some random number for an answer (I particularly remember one where we decided on 68 kilometres per hour), then when she asked each of us what answer we had, we'd all give the same WRONG answer. It worked because she got rather bewildered - until we started laughing.
13. Surpassing my target score for PSLE and getting into SC secondary! Then again, my target score wasn't VERY high or anything.
14. Being all by my lonesome self in 1GY while all my primary school friends were in 1SE and 1PE.
15. Sitting beside the garbage bag on the bus trip up to Malacca in secondary one. And feeling homesick.
16. Asking the teacher-in-charge for Drama what would happen to my workshop fees if I decided to quit (that was after attending a few sessions and finding it rather boring and unsuitable for a strangely quiet me in sec one), and having her tell me that I was not allowed to.
17. Practically helping Su Yin write entire zuo wens (I'd narrate, she'd write) in secondary two.
18. Coming in 2nd for talentime (2CO! We Go Together - Grease!) and 1st for the open category (Don't something something something...argh, I can't remember the title of the nice song).
19. Being a class rep in secondary three. A very interesting experience.
20. Literature trip to New Zealand in secondary three and all the things that happened while we were there. E.g. The famous: Fuzzeh calling out very excitedly, "What's the password?", when there was a knock at the door, only to be greeted in return with the teacher saying that it was her (i.e. not whoever Fuzzeh thought it was). The funny: Thermal (Li) Choo and her interesting dances. The VERY funny: Alina falling into a ditch at The Luge and having to scream at the gardener to help her get out. The not-so-funny: Specially waking up earlier than everyone else so that we could dash to the common toilets at the backpackers and not have to fight with the crowd.
21. Becoming a prefect for the last year in secondary school. STRANGE.
22. SYF 2005, "Like Mother, Like Daughter" and MADDCAP! The best year ever for CCA bonding and going wild on stage.
23. Canoeing at MacRitchie with LL, Shan and OP, and our amazing stunts, haha.
24. CIP at SGH and nearly causing a poor man in a wheelchair to fall into the drain. Don't ask.
25. DRAMAFEST 2006! 'Nuff said.
26. Chinese talentime, both years (secondary three and four) being just as embarrassing. I have NO idea what I was doing in a singing competition when I can't sing.
27. Emceeing. It's fun most of the time. EXCEPT for a particularly unforgettable Literature Symposium.
28. All the teachers!
29. All the friends!
30. The VERY BIG school which, as it turns out, isn't so big after all.

Gee, I'm really really REALLY going to miss SC! Primary and secondary school, though different, are both so fun and life in each has been just as memorable. I think a contributary factor to my going to miss it so much, is that next year I'm going to have to go to JC. High stress level and introduction to the male species. I'm desperately trying to think of a worse scenario.

Typed out exactly as my sms to Fuzzeh yesterday read: "Haha yeps. In a way i really want it all to be over asap but yet there's a part of me that wants to stop time right here right now cos i know that once the O's are over time is just gonna fly by like nobody's business. Sec sch life will come to a close and we'll soon find ourselves in jc. Sigh." True to my sms fashion - the less punctuation the better. But seriously, that's how I really feel.

Well, there's still a couple more months till the secondary fours get tossed out the school gate, so I'll enjoy the remaining time as much as I possibly can and study in my free time.

Haha, okay. Kidding. (about the studying in my free time thing)

For now, I just want to wish Mrs Phuah and Miss Soh all the best for the future! Good luck and God bless!

And I'm pretty sure that I'll have another entry nearer the end of the school year that has something to do with leaving secondary school. It's definitely not a topic that one simple entry like this can cover.