lifesong
Everyone needs compassion
Love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Saviour
The hope of nations
Saviour, He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
So take me as you find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender
Shine your light in
Let the whole world see
We're singing, for the glory
Of the risen King
Jesus, Shine your light in
Let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory
Of the risen king
Sunday, November 06, 2005
-11:15 am
It's strange how I'm not feeling sad or reminiscent, having ended my secondary school education two days ago. On Friday, people kept asking me if I was reluctant to leave and somehow, I couldn't bring myself to admit that I didn't feel what they felt- a sense of loss and nostalgia.
Formal farewell was on Wednesday and I must say, it was indeed as special one because we bade farewell to our dear VP, Mrs. Chan, too as she will be retiring at the end of the year. I discovered that besides our school having a rock band of teachers, we also have a mini choir/ chorus called EnSombre comprising of Ms. Yeo, Mr. Sham, Mrs. Cheriyan, Mr. Toh and Ms. Tan BC, who were all wearing black, hence the name EnSombre. (Quick laugh, it's a pun!) Not to forget, Ms. Leow provided a hilarious portrayal of Mrs. Chan, even donning an IJ uniform and a wig.
It was an immensely entertaining performance and I must applaud the teachers for managing to come up with this musical of sorts despite busy schedules and heavy workloads from options, writing our tesimonials and getting our final reports ready.
Despite singing the very cliché Graduation song by Vitamin C together with my class during the finale, I didn't feel anything at all. Most of my classmates were in a sentimental mood, albeit the fact that there weren't that many tears, if there were any at all.
As for my lack of sentiments with regards to my departure from RGS, I guess it is perhaps because I know that most of us will see each other in RJ next year. If we were all going to different JCs, it'll be a totally different story all together. I find that I'm looking ahead instead of looking back at my four years in RGS. The future excites me and I tend to focus on that, trying not to think too much about leaving my alma mater and dear teachers behind.
Friday was our last official day in school and we had a special treat lined up for us, or so I thought. Two (supposedly well-known) bands Ronin and West Grand Boulevard came down to perform. Power 98 DJs Jeremy Ratnam and Soo Wei were there too. West Grand Boulevard (I've never heard of them before this) took the stage first and turned our girls into screaming, boyband-mad groupies who all ran to the front and gazed adoringly at the "cute" guys .
It was the same when Ronin came on and everyone, sans sane people like myself, Sara, Av and some other people who detachedly watched the madness from the back of the hall. Goodness me, I was positively shocked. I've never seen such a concentration of raging female hormones all in one place before and I tell you, it's really scary. Rachel Ang came back from backstage quite traumatised and told me that the backstage was swamped with starstruck girls who were all clambering to get autographs from the bands. It was like a scene of mass hysteria, the screaming throng at the front of the hall, people flashing the three-finger love sign at every moment possible, the frenzied jumping and cheering.
Actually, I found it all pretty amusing. The antics of those girls who were infautuated with the guys were entertaining. Perhaps everyone just went wild and let their hair down because it was the last day of school. Besides, as the blonde frontman of Ronin said, "Your teachers gave us the go ahead to let you girls misbehave. (You'd) better enjoy yourselves now before you get your results". He was quite foul-mouthed as well. He openly sweared every now and then, only stopping short of using the four-letter word starting with F. When he said, "You girls are a freaking, kick-ass audience," the crowd went wild. It was unbelievable how chaotic the hall had become and the feeling was surreal because after all, we were in a school hall.
The music was pretty good, except that Ronin's style was a little too heavy metal for me. Not to mention that the volume was on full blast too. West Grand Boulevard was more teenager-friendly rock with songs like Flights of Fancy. It was really funny though, how the lead singer's cap kept flying off his head when ever he started jumping around madly. Mrs. Chan came in when Ronin was performing (I think) and went out after less than a minute. I guess she couldn't take it too.
Though the mass hysteria was hard to resist, I refused to join the crowd and go mad for those bands. If I were to ever go mad like this, I'll only do it for God. It's a totally different thing to sing, dance, jump and cheer for Jesus. I merely sat at the back and watched the scene without actually getting really into the music. I mean, songs like "You've Got Mojo" (guess, by which band?) are hardly worth singing along to right? I prefer alternative rock (Christian bands like Switchfoot and Kutless) as the music agrees with me better and the lyrics have a deeper meaning. I left the concert with an incessant ringing in my ears. I'll have Ronin to thank if I go deaf.
We got back our results after operation clean up (I had to clean all the window sills myself because we didn't pass the clean check and no one else was around). I guess I'm pretty satisfied with what I got because I improved for all my subjects, especially Maths and Bio, with the exception of Social Studies (my EOI was too botched up). I got back my Bio options quiz too. Before Mr. Chia handed it back to me, he was like, "Oh yea, this one is the insane one." I was waiting in trepidation because I thought he meant I did horribly. But miracles of miracles, I got 23/25, the highest of the classes who took the enriched modules and did better than 90% of the students who took med bio, according to him. Surprising eh? Considering that I didn't quite study for it, at least not as hard as Cynthia.
Since Friday was the 4th of November, we had class dinner to celebrate our class' birthday (4-11-05 --> 411 of 2005, get it?). Met Hamsie, who wore faded jeans torn at the knees, at the train station and we went to Swensens at Suntec for the dinner. Since we were too early, we strolled around and window shopped for a bit at city link mall. Six has really beautiful jewelry but I'm not spending anymore on accessories. Dinner was really fun because Mr. Chia turned up, missing CG so that he could come and have a last supper with us (awww... so sweet!). I'm really going to miss him next year. When he's hanging with us outside of school, he's not a teacher but more like our friend- a really cool, funky and humorous friend. His brand of dead-pan humour is truly unrivalled.
Mrs. Chew, our maths teacher, brought her too kids too! They're so cute! That includes Mrs. Chew too. I can't believe her daughter thought that Mr. Chia was my boyfriend. At first she was like, "So who's that boy? Is he a new boy in your school?" I was quite bewilded and it took some time for me to realise that she was referring to Mr. Chia. Then, she went, "Is he your boyfriend?" I got to shock of my life! Mr. Chia is married with a one year old daughter! You should have seen his face- a mix of shock and amusement.
Haha, it's either I look a lot older than I really am, or that Mr. Chia looks younger than his age (I think he's in his mid/late-twenties). So I asked her how old she thinks Mr. Chia is and she said 19. Haha, I wonder if she thought I was 19 too. When I expressed my surprise, she went, "No what, I think you're very pretty, you're very suitable what." Hahahaha... that was the joke of the day. When Adelyn and I were trying to convince her that Mr. Chia is our bio teacher, Mr. Chia played along and tried to make her believe that he really is 19. It was hilarious!
Dinner was a huge blast and I'm so glad I sat with Avonne, Sara, Mr. Chia and Hamsie. We laughed until our sides split (it was mostly Avonne and Sara laughing at me though- they kept suaning me) and talked about the most nonsensical stuff. And Avonne, thank you for telling Mr. Chia and completely embarrassing me. He kept teasing me after that. He told Mrs. Chew's daughter when she asked if he was my boyfriend, "No lah, I lost to some other guy already. *winks*"
!!!!! I was SOOOO EMBARRASSED!
I'm so glad I made it for this class dinner and am heartened (somewhat pleasantly surprised too) that almost everyone turned up. I love my class and that's an understatement. Being in 411 has been a great experience and I must say that the two most enjoyable years I've spent in RG are my sec 3 and 4 years. I'll miss my really weird, funky, unique and anti-physics classmates.
411, thank you.
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