It¡¦s been sometime since I last wrote, but that¡¦s mostly been due to the rigours of JC life. I often find that if I¡¦m not feeling like a pack of hounds is snapping at my heels, then I¡¦m feeling awfully lazy and indulgent. Which is precisely why I hardly write anything these days.

Anyway, I felt I had to write something to do justice to my rather colourful year in school; preferably something more substantial than a post-promotional exam list of things to do and so, this is why I¡¦m here at the moment¡Koiling my rusty hinges.

Needless to say, this year has been a very, very eventful one. Of course, changes to your environment do always make you feel a little off balance, and one does always need some time to adjust. But for some reason, I¡¦ve felt that adjusting to JC school life has been, in many respects, harder for me than adjusting to school in a different country. Ironic, I know.

The move from secondary school to junior college is really quite a huge leap, partly because it¡¦s a completely new environment, and partly because there is a sense that you¡¦re moving into a new and different stage of your life. I think part of the reason why I found it particularly hard to adapt to this new life was because of my strong attachment to SC. I¡¦m not saying that all the rest of my SC friends aren¡¦t as attached to SC as I am, far from it. Just that I am, by nature, a very loyal person, and having spent a large portion of my life overseas, have fewer memories of Singapore compared to my friends. So, when I think of SC, I think of her as my first school, and the place where I made my first clear memories of life in Singapore. This could also be why I poured so much into SC, and also why I found Hwa Chong a little hard to accept at first, because it was so different from SC.

Loyalties can do funny things to your head. During the first few months at Hwa Chong, I must admit I was quite miserable. And why? Mostly because my brain constantly compared Hwa Chong to SC, and I often felt myself missing SC terribly, going back at every available opportunity.

Most of the time, I felt rather displaced, like a homeless refugee who had gone to another country only to discover that he didn¡¦t quite belong. To be perfectly honest, my initial impression of my class ¡V and one that lasted for quite some time ¡V was that they were a group of elitist, snobbish and proud people; I felt completely out of sync with them. Half the time, I felt out of my league and out of my depth, surrounded by all these seemingly brilliant students. And I often wondered if I had come to the right place, if I had chosen rightly in taking up the Direct School Admission (DSA) for Hwa Chong, and if I should have just gone to St. Andrew¡¦s instead (meaning no disrespect to those who do) ¡V this last point I confessed to a friend of mine in a long mutual complaint session, during which he laughed at my proffered solution and told me he thought he ought to be the one leaving Hwa Chong.

It was during this period of time that I found a friend in one of my ex-SC schoolmates whom I had never been more than an acquaintance with in SC. It¡¦s funny and wonderful what a change of environment can do to people. As Offred was fond of saying in The Handmaid¡¦s Tale, ¡¦Context is all¡¦. This friend of mine is Yim Tong; who very much enjoys her triathlons and canoe, and yet calls my Tahan training sessions a way in which I ¡¥torture¡¦ myself. She is also (surprisingly!) similar to me¡Kand whenever I think about this, I can¡¦t help but smile because the two of us spent four years in SC, coming within talking distance once in a while because of mutual friends, but never exchanging more than the usual hullo¡¦s. And yet, the moment we hit Hwa Chong, we suddenly realised that, hey! This friend of a friend isn¡¦t so different from me after all. It¡¦s like a dam breaking.

Context is all, indeed.

In any case, since then, we have had numerous interesting and funny conversations together, most recently attempting to solve her ¡¥mystery of life¡¦. A most fascinating issue indeed, and one that requires much thought (haha.). I must say that I am glad I have found such a friend to accompany me through the hell and high water of the A levels.

Funny thing is, after the ¡¥Shanghai Story¡¦ and the Asian Young Leaders Summit, I went back to class, and suddenly found my class much warmer and friendlier than they had seemed before. I guess the ice just took a longer time to break - and I¡¦m so glad I waited - I find it rather ironic that the people who spoke to me first on the first day of class orientation are the people whom I hardly speak to now, or try to spend no more company in than absolutely necessary. Funny how situations change, isn¡¦t it? And the people who I hardly spoke a single word to during the first few weeks of school (i.e. almost everyone) I now count among my firm friends.

The thing that I like about my class is that there are no cliques; no overly tight-knit, closely guarded group of friends. You know, the kind who glare at you suspiciously or pay you scant attention because you aren¡¦t in their ¡¥inner circle¡¦. My class is a comfortable class; a class where everyone is at ease with everyone else¡Kthese days it reminds me of a worn but dear, old woollen jumper, the sort of sweater you curl up in on winter days, a mug of hot chocolate in one hand, and a deliciously warm fire crackling merrily at your feet. Also, I like that my class has character; a whole lot of it. We¡¦re an odd, unique and quirky bunch of people, who may not do as well collectively as the other class, but who get things done all the same, and have fun doing it at the same time.

I think our attitude is best represented in a floorball game we played during one of our PE lessons. We were playing guys vs. girls. Hee, Greg and Syl on one team, versus Lis, Denise, Veron and I. We laughed, joked, insulted each other, tripped over our sticks¡Khad fun, lost, but played with all our hearts anyway.

I really do like my class now, and I particularly like our ¡¥extended family¡¦ of 4O guys who drop in once in a while to liven things up (as if they needed anymore livening up!). some of those who come by more often would be Yarn, Tim, Alfred and Tay. Here, I must explain something. 4O is the humanities class in Chinese High, which is affiliated to Hwa Chong. There are a large number of 4O guys in my class. There is also a fair number in A11, my old class, and scattered throughout the Science classes.

Anyway, these fellows cannot seem to stop themselves from popping their heads in every so often, and it is quite pleasant to find that your class has expanded by twenty people or so during Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, and other school celebrations because the 4O guys have made their way over. Indeed, these chaps join us so often, I sometimes think they should be made honorary members of my class!

My teachers would get a nasty shock, walking into the lecture theatre to find three more rows of guys than they should have. Hmm¡Know there¡¦s an idea! Next year¡¦s April Fool¡¦s joke perhaps¡K?

Ah yes, here, I must say something about the Chinese High guys whom I¡¦ve met so far in Hwa Chong. And I¡¦m not lying; nor am I being influenced by anyone or anything¡Kso far, all the Chinese High guys I¡¦ve come across have all been quite polite, friendly, courteous and fairly mature. In other words, they open doors for you, they are able to hold proper conversations with you, they offer to carry things for you; heck, they even order your food and carry it to the table for you! One wonders then, what happens when they enter NS¡Kare they brainwashed?

Heh. That¡¦s the thing about Hwa Chong, and my class. Here, I do things that I would never have done in SC; but mostly because the timetable and some rules don¡¦t quite make sense. Sometimes, I leave school before the official time of 1pm because my lessons are over and I see no point in staying for another four hours with nothing to do. Sometimes, particularly post-promotional exams when we haven¡¦t any activities, I don¡¦t come to school at all, because there is no point; it would be a waste of time and fuel. Just the other day, I walked out of school with yet another new-found friend, Jin Rong, to make good on the bet we had made¡K

Yes, I do many things in Hwa Chong that I would never have dreamed of doing in SC.

Why? Well, it¡¦s quite simple really; SC is my second home, but HC is my playground. SC gave me the values that will stand me in good stead now and in the years to come, but HC is a new playground - with wonderful company - that still has many unexplored corners.

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