When I was younger....

This post was inspired by a post "Do you remember?" from Kaori's blog. Previously, I have also received emails titled "If you remember this, you are an 80s child" or "We went to school in the early 90s". While Kaori's was a more personal recollection of her primary school days, the emails contained more generic reflections of school across Singapore at that time. Since I can't seem to fall asleep, I will try to select a few interesting incidents or phenomenoms in my primary school days that might bring a tear or smile to those reading it. =p Maybe after reading these, you can start recollecting your own primary school experiences? I know that for some of you, Primary School life is more than 10 years ago? For others, it might be only last year when you were in Primary School! Tell me more about what you remember as well and maybe there will be similarities!

- when i was in pre-primary(the current equivalent of k2), we used to have afternoon nap time. basically, what happens will be all the students bring their bathroom towels to school and then lay it on the floor. And then, everyone is supposed to go to sleep! I seldom ever fell asleep, always so alert and mischievous in looking around the class and seeing who had fallen asleep and who hadn't. But I loved the rainy days, with the rain pattering down on the metal window frames, the wind blowing into the class.

-in p2, we used coca-cola cans to play football. there was once when the "ball" was kicked into the air. I intelligently attempted to head it into the goal, and was left a gaping wound across my head. I cant remember if I scored.

- in p3, there was a bilingual story telling competition in which I represented my class. I was supposed to tell the story of a pair of spectacles. I cant remember the storyline, but there was a part where I was supposed to take off my spectacles and place them on the floor. (or that was what the teacher told me). On the actual performance, I simply took my glasses off and threw them onto the stage. Immediate audience reaction! Lots of "Wahs! Wows!" Truly, a born performer. And I got first.

- in p4, I was rather saddened that my academic position for the standard had fallen out of the top3 (i.e. no prize!), but apparently, the school decided to establish a new award from that year on( the best in subject award). I remember it was raining when the teacher came to my class to inform that I had won Best in Science for the standard! I ran out of my seat, ran out of the class, and ran back into the class, and thanked her profusely. Now,this is very unlike me. Normally, I was very low profile with my results because I did not want to upset those sitting around me.

- the first and only slap in my life. p5. first day of school. my form teacher Mdm Yap was talking to the class, while I was happily talking to the classmate next to me. before I knew it, I received a tight slap across my face. what a start to the year!

- ACES day aka Childrens'Day aka Great Singapore Workout Day. p6. all students receive Aces Day Caps, and the practice was to go around getting your friends and classmates to sign on the caps. I loved this day. I would purposely walk around school during recess, and all the younger students would come running after me asking me to sign their caps. (Fulfilling my ambition to be a STAR!) But the most important signature was always reserved for the girl I liked. She didn't come up to me to sign her cap, but asked another classmate of ours to pass me her cap. I was extremely happy! But I was too shy to ask her to sign mine. =p

- Prize Giving Day. p6. Everyyear, the night before Prize-Giving, I would not be able to sleep. Too anxious about the moment of glory the next day. p6, was the extreme as it would be my last year and I was receiving no less than 5 prizes. I liked to be seen as very busy when I was in the spotlight. And I was. Running on stage, going back stage, going into the queue to get the next prize.

- what did students at that time play or liked to do? table tennis (I was hopeless), catching (I was not too bad), football (I was okay), Rubber War with country erasers (I was hopeless), Rubber Bands (I never played), read Tintin comics (I never read) , Paper Connect Four (everyone would represent a country, inspired by World Cup 94, I was always Italy and always lost in the semi-finals), Arm-Wrestling (I was hopeless), Talk about computer games (I knew nothing), Discuss which of the Four Heavenly Kings was the best (I also knew nothing at this time, except that I bought a ruler with the face of one of them - Surprise surpirse! It wasnt Jacky Cheung, but Leon Lai! =() , Tease boys about girls and tease girls about boys (Every year, it was announced that I liked the girl sitting next to me. For the record, not one year was that ever true. I did have crushes though.)

It can go on forever. I really have to stop writing because I do not want the entire blog to be of this post. But I think something that is easily noticable is that my Primary School Experience must have been very different from the rest of my peers. In a sense, I was really in my own world. But then again, I always knew what was going on around me and did participate in the normal daily pursuits as well.

As frivilous and comical all these incidents may seem now as I write them down, they meant the world to me back then. And actually, they still mean alot to me now. I attempted many things later in life, not because I am born confident, but because my primary school experience told me that I could do them. In Primary School, I didnt really volunteer for anything, everything was upon selection by the teachers. And that is partly why I always respect and remember my teachers, for the countless opportunities they gave this short little talkative boy, for the memories they provided him that never fail to bring a smile to him when he thinks of them.