A Trip Down Memory Lane

Today was my primary school's fiesta, where the current SAPS students (Or as I like to call them, kids) set up booths to raise yearly funds. Booths are also given to affiliated schools like St Pat's and St Theresa, and some students are invited back to help out. It was a huge event with many people participating, and the guest of honour was Dr Amy Koh.

As I left my house this morning, I thought to myself: Wait a minute, how do I walk to school...? I walked to the bus stop before taking a left turn down the familiar route. I looked at the bus stop. We took the bus every school morning back then, and we knew the timings that the bus would come like the back of our hands. I waited at the bus stop with the same few people every morning, kids of different levels. I remembered all their faces, but I had no clue what their name was, or who they were. It's something like an unexplainable, silent friendship.

I continued walking down the familiar route. Here, our old 6-1 gang will walk from school to the MRT. We talked about any random thing we can think of. I remember when we used to discuss diabolic plans to "make trouble" for the teachers after PSLE. We just ended up laughing a lot, and even though we were the top and supposedly most competitive class, our bond was there ;).

As I walked closer to school, I saw many people walking towards the school gate, and the loud cheers from inside the school. I recognised the same old security guard. I smiled to the him as I walked in, bearing in mind that he was that same guard who chased us out of school during the countless times we tried to go back in and see our teachers. Ahh, people don't change.

I walked towards the canteen, where I saw the familiar room (I think it's called E space?). For 3 months of our lives in P6, we spent every school day in school until 5pm (Which was late for primary school) to finish up our script and props for the Odyssey of the Mind competition in April 2009. We were allowed to enter that room and use the computers to do our scripting, while others admire in awe that we have access to it. It was a really fun experience, and although we got 5th, it was good for a school like us, considering the first 4 places were dominated by kids from schools who established their reputation.

I remember when we used to complain about the Band CCA next door. We could hear them practicing and repeating the same song daily, and we were sick of hearing it. But now, I miss those melodies.

At the canteen, I finally met people I knew. I saw Chin Fan, Russell and Hubert there. They brought along two of their SJI friends. How cool, all 4 guys are SJI prefects. Over time, many more people came and went. I really appreciate their efforts to come, especially when there's someone who's heading off to Sabah for some OBS trip in the afternoon.

Nevertheless, the same response I get when seeing an old friend is this: Wait, I thought you were taller?

Along the way through many stations and games, our group got bigger, adding Wei Quan, Wasi and Xavier in it. Although not all are in 6-1, we had "fond" memories with 6-2 too :).

Upon seeing St Pat's and St Theresa's booths, Russell shouted "Hey no fair, why don't we get a booth?. He's just this comedian who's super hyper and funny. It was today that I got to know that he's apparently the head prefect, and Hubert's the deputy head prefect. Wow.

I had a few rounds of games, challenging an old friend to basketball, hitting marbles into the containers, and catapult. I think we were pretty tied haha. I miss the nonsensical squabbles we had, and how we ended up laughing at every one of them. 

We spent some time looking at the school pond. It was beautiful, with many plants and fishes. What I enjoyed most was looking into the water, to see the reflection of the clouds above.

We camped in the carpark because we didn't know what else to do. We just stood there in a circle, just talking. Two of the guys brought DSLRs. Surprisingly, it's mostly the guys who camwhore haha. We hear cheers from the other side of the carpark, so decided to head there. Turns out, our 6-1 form teacher was about to get dunked. She was up on the chair shouting, come on, you can do better than that. Of course, she finally got dunked. Among the crowd, I spotted my old teacher, Ms Goh. After talking to her for awhile, she said, "Where's Ben Ben?". Haha, nicknames never get old.

With so many games my brother played, he went to redeem this huge yellow, fluffy duck. At first glance, Russell screamed, snatched it away, took out his phone and camwhored with it. We all started laughing, bringing back the old laughter we had 3 years back... It's that uncontrollable laughter where everyone sounds and looks retarded, but we just enjoyed ourselves.

Today was really insightful. It was a long time ago since I went back there.

This was a trip down memory lane, reminiscence of the old times, reliving the old memories, and creating new ones.

Crescit Eundo, Growing as we advance.