Last Saturday, I went back to Anglo-Chinese Junior College to play in the Past versus Present event where several sports would invite their alumni (the past) to play against the present students. It was definitely weird to be considered "the past". I can still vividly remember when we were the "present" but that has got to be almost 2 years ago now!
Walking through the school gates once again was really nostalgic, from the memory of being late almost every single day which resulted in me running as fast as I can to the school hall to the school flooding so much at the end of our last A levels paper that we could barely get out and had to call a cab. (why does it seem so negative, I promise AC has left me with positive memories as well, haha)
Even though university is still a "school" in that sense, the feel of going to class in university differs so much from that of going to class in Junior College. In JC, teachers were stricter and cared more about your well-being and academics, classmates were constants and you knew familiar faces along the corridors, timetables were more structured and skipping class was a big thing!! However, now in university, in attempt to make us Singaporean children more independent and less of the "Strawberry Generation", we are made to take charge of our own education. The feeling of freedom, yet this freedom is accompanied by fear and much confusion.. JC students are definitely too used to being spoon-fed with politically correct answers and guidelines.
Any hoo, it was sooo fun being able to play with this bunch of people again! Being in different universities has forced us to become opponents and this opportunity to be on the same side of the court as them was something that I really missed.
Isn't this picture adorable!! Heheh, if you can't tell, we are being killed by the potent fart.. it was fun goofing around since we had to take advantage of the good natural lighting.
We also had lunch together at some restaurant in some hotel (I'm clueless???). The formal principal, Mr Wan offered to treat the Old Boys Association (I guess, Old Girls included as well) to commemorate Founders Day I suppose. We had really delicious food and a huge cake!! And we also stood around the cake and sang the ACS Anthem. Seeing the old boys sing the anthem with so much gusto and their effort to fit this event into their busy schedule (we had an old boy fly in from Hong Kong just for this!!!) really led me to appreciate ACS so much more. The school pride that these people have, the way they carried themselves and really the camaraderie amongst all the old boys, the reunion was definitely a pleasant one. One of the old boy actually kept a letter written by their volleyball coach almost 40 years ago. It was written before their crucial match, encouraging them to sacrifice a little of their time to train harder. 40 years later, he laminated the letter with a type-written letter in response and gave it back to his coach for keep-sake. I felt that it was such a sentimental gift and it really showed how much they valued and respected their coach and teammates to the point where they still bothered to organise this Past versus Present event to meet up and play volleyball together after so many years. ACS FOREVER. We bleed RED, BLUE, GOLD.
Oh, I also managed to talk to one of the old boys and he shared that he graduated with a major in Economic Sociology and that he had a passion for sociology. It made be thank God once again for putting me into this course which I honestly felt ashamed of in the beginning. It was also very refreshing and assuring to know that there is a future with my Sociology degree.. I do enjoy studying Sociology despite the assignments and exams that come along with it. Without Sociological Imagination, I doubt anyone can understand how Sociology actually shapes the way we view human relations ;-). Also, there was an old boy (the one that flew in from Hong Kong) that asked to take a picture with me so that he could show his wife that a girl was actually as tall as him! Haha, sometimes I really don't understand how people are so fascinated with my height.. I mean I'm constantly so self-conscious of it that I hardly see it as a plus-point, yet people who do not have the height wish for it.
The past we inherit, the present we create, for those who hope, work and play, the Best is Yet to Be!
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