looking back

come this march, i will be no longer a student of ibrahim, officially at least. heck, we're getting a cert for that, which does sounds like they're kicking us out after 5 years of a hectic roller coaster ride. really, if school life was a roller coaster ride, the last two years was full of loops and missing rails.

the first time i step into any school was back when i was in bukit kayu hitam, and it's worse than lembah beringin. trust me. it was sekolah kebangsaan bandar bukit kayu hitam, SKBBKH. actually, i didn't enter standard one yet, i was there for kindagarten. there's absolutely no other race in that school, only malays, or at least bumiputras. so imagine a half chinese falling from th sky into that kind of environment. day one of kindagarten, i didn't cry, no, i didn't, because i've stop crying a long time ago. met some kids there, who i grew up with, as friends and enemies. there was this baldy who always had something agaisnt me, showing off around, acting like he's the boss. and the best part, i've made him cry. before you think im a bully, remember that we're the same age, and size, just that he talked so big and i proved that he was an empty can.

fast forward to standard one, i learnt ABC...air batu campur. i've known the alphabets earlier than i know what air batu campur is. then standard two and three just blurred. i don't remember what happened each year. i remembered some teacher's son acting smart in front of me, he's got that snobbish look, especially the nose. there's this kid who's insane about hindustan, he can sing any song in hindustan films. i can even pair up some names with faces, theres fatah, suhaila and syamim. the rest are nameless faces now. in standard three, i entered some english story telling competition, because i was all they got, and they got themselves a loser. i got knocked out in the first round. then it was PTS. im not sure if the system applies to other schools, but back in that school, only selected students are allowed to sit for PTS. other than that, the school had two fields, one huge huge taman, some ponds with fishes, a mini soccer field, when i said mini, the goal post is two inches tall. i even remember the parachute toy. the one made of polystrene with a plastic chute. i threw one from the school block and it flew so far it almost made it to the gate. that huge huge taman was in between the block and the gate, so it was very windy back then. the worst part of that school is that we had extra agama classes. it's from 1 to 3, and we had to dress up in baju melayu for the guys and baju kurung for girls. i didn't know one jawi alphabet back then, and i survived three years of that. in the last day in that school, i knew i had to make a grand exit, so i cycled despite the rain and lightning. i was sitting on a metal object, and to get home, i had to go up some hill, because my house is like the highest point in the area. im pretty sure some of them think im already dead.

then, i went to sekolah kebangsaan ibrahim as a standard four student. i almost didn't get it because i was some kampung student. luckily, PTS helped me out. there wasn't much going on in standard four, but the fact the primary ibrahim was an all boys school sure meant it was rather insane. if not mistaken, i entered choral speaking twice in that school, just that i dont remember when. in standard four, i was closer to the malays, because 4 years in bukit kayu hitam made some impact to me. standard 5, got into prefect, standard 6 upsr. nothing special about those 3 years, because it kept getting crazier every year. i used to play in the middle of the field before becoming a prefect, playing aci ligan, whatever that means. and everytime theres pjk lesson, we run around the field, chasing after one ball and spent half of the time arguing who goes which side, whether the ball was in or out and etc. i blame steve and tengku for that. there was a mandarin class in standard five, which i joined for fun. we had a nice teacher who actually bought us stuff for doing homework. i got like 3 plush toys. standard 6, i had my saviour in math, pn khew. i'll never understand fraction without her.

it wasn't long till i got my place in ibrahim secondary. form 1 was really stupid, form 2 was boring, form 3 was hell, and the last two years was the best. in form 1, i was really a nobody, well i am anyway, but form 1 was like the highest point of nobody-ness. at least i got friends there. form 2, it was the starting point for debate. form 2 was still ok, because steve and km were still thre. but when it came to form 3, i was alone. the malay guys are ok, but i wasn't close to them. in fact, the most alim dude in my class sabotaged my kh project by putting a dead lizard there. i didn't realise till after 3 days. so i've got my reasons. the only time i had fun was pj. it was the only thing i looked forward to in school. i always run to other classes when there's no teacher, because it was so boring. i didn't make friends because im not friendly, and because it would be pointless anyway. wear my shoes and you'll know. im glad im not close to most of them now.

form 4 was the turning point. i almost live form 3 all over again because of the stupid streaming system. i got into the wrong class, take my word, i won't survive that one for sure. at least i found my way to 4sn2. that was really fun. i've had one of the best english teachers ever, i had one of the worst ustaz ever, i had the devil for maths, but most importantly, i had someone there. friends who look out for you. i can go for debate sessions at any time, and leave my mess on the table, they'll pack everything for me, carry my bag down and hand it to me. when debate's over, i found another excuse to skip classes. drama. at least i helped out. even ustaz thought i was in drama as well because i've almost not enter his class at all through out the year. thats why form 4 felt so good. form 5 had its pressure on me. spm and debate. at least that worked out well. we defended our state trophy and had time to prepare for spm. well, almost i guess. march will tell me whether it really worked or not.

it's not the best way to sum up 12 years of school for me, but that's the way i remember it.