First day of school in Sec 1

On the first day of school, I woke up early in the morning and came to school by 7 am. Upon arriving to school with my mother, I felt nervous as I thought of what was going to happen next. Just then, a sound of giggling and laughing caught my ears. I glanced sideways, catching a glimpse that some upper secondary students around pointing and giggling at me.

In my six years of education in primary school, there had not been Malay students in my school. Occasionally, I would think of the behaviours of the Malays had if they were in my school. As I was still forming an impression on them, those upper secondary students had just given me a bad impression of the Malay race.

I took no notice of them and carry on walking towards the hall entrance. There I came upon many unfamiliar faces and felt that I am lonely.

With great difficulty, I managed to find my class and settle down. After a while, Mr Koh came to the stage addressing the whole school. My legs felt numb as I had been sitting down nearly for an hour. He kept talking about school rules and honoring it. When he finally ended his speech, I thought it was freedom at last. The thought of standing and walking back to class made me excited.

Just before freedom came, Ms Sujeetha and Ms Chamb were still standing in the way. They continued their sermon for about another hour and a half until it reached about 9.45am. By then, the numbness in my leg was gone. I can’t feel anything anymore. Classes were starting to be dismissed. Ms Jaime Lim was our form class teacher.

A first glance at her face, I thought she would be very strict. She began to introduce herself and her expectations. She wasn’t fierce at all! As they say, “Looks can be deceiving”. Everybody was supposed to introduce themselves about their name and primary school. After a long interval, there was this boy name Ong Hoe Hwa. When it was his turn to present himself, he spoke his name to fast that none of us including Ms Lim could grasp his name.

As such, Ms Lim asked him to repeat, but when he finished saying his name, he immediately took a seat. To me, the name sounded like “Ong Kok Kok” when he kept repeating due to the fact that none in the classroom could grasp his name. My guess is that he is shy in front of total strangers. But I pitied him; he had to repeat his name so many times until he kept sitting and standing. Everybody in the classroom was laughing loudly but Ms Lim was looking at him solemnly. The day went by quite fast itself. Remember how I had formed bad impressions on Malays? But not anymore as I managed to make friends with them. They were not as self-centered as I thought they would be. They are in fact quite similar to us Chinese and I’m starting to get along with them.

Letter to Mr Musyoki

Dear Mr Musyoki,
How’s life for you? I hope you have been well. Do you still remember that you came to my school upon the invitation from Ms Heng to give us a presentation on Kenyan’s lifestyle? Well, that was 2 years ago. Since then, I have been leading a hetic lifestyle of studies and balancing my time after CCA. Today, I have written this letter to tell you the changes I have experienced since school reopened this year.

Firstly, the school implements this policy of having an iron on badge, apparently due to the forget ness of students to bring their collar pin.

Secondly, my history, social studies and English teacher is Ms Heng! It came as a surprise to me as she teaches well in all three of the above subjects, so I guess I’m blessed?

Thirdly, I have noticed that recently my friend had been chummier towards me. It must be better mutual understanding towards each other since last year.

Fourth, Ms Chamb, the previous principal of our school has been transferred to another school. Then, Mr Koh Chong Mong took over. This was two years ago. Last year, after adapting to the school values and is doing perfectly fine as a principal this year.

Fifth, all the sec four express and 5N students are seated at the gallery and watching the whole school on a higher ground (laugh).

Sixth, the graduating classes, meaning the sec 4 express and 5N are getting the best subjects teacher. Of course, the school wanted us to do well in ‘’O’’ levels and they also wanted a high percentage of students to enter polytechnics and in Junior college.

Seventh, some of the canteen vendors had changed, although the dishes stay the same. I miss the chicken chop made from the previous owner as the current one’s standard is still far from the previous.

Eighth, all canteen food prices had raised by 20% of its usual price. I think it was cause by the high import prices from other countries.

Ninth, it is now harder to obtain pork meat as China pigs had been suffering from some kind of disease. As such, pork prices in canteen rose rapidly too, making it harder for many people to purchase.

Tenth, I overhead this conversation between two cleaners. They were saying water and electricity bills have been skyrocketed by more than a hundred percent. And as for the cause, I’m mot familiar with it.

Lastly, it seems to me everything in the world rises rapidly. That includes prices, except salary, which is the only factor that rose the slowest over the series of year. I hope to hear from you pretty soon, until then.

With respect and love,
Edmund