08SO3J

I do wonder when will anyone ever see this post since the blog has been dead for so long and it has become some god forsaken link so desolately abandoned on Wang Zhikai's blog. Like the class spirit which was once vibrant, if not jubilant, the blog previously thrived and never failed to invoke laughter in any reader who happened to chance upon it. However, again similar to the fate of our class spirit, the blog slowly lost it's integral contributors whose passion and will died down like how blazing flames turned to mild smoulderings and then completely put out by the capping of a stifling cover which we conveniently called the "busy JC life".

In Retrospect.

I first met all of you in 08SO3J on 9th January 2007. Missing orientation had left inside of me an awkward mix of anxiety, uncertainty and excitement, which were overwhelming whenever I met new people. From experience I knew that my rather 'dao' exterior had given many people unfriendly first impressions of me and therefore I was very careful when mingling around, wary of not to jeopardise any inchoate establishment of new friendship by a dour face. Hence, I smiled more and talked more; joked more and laughed more; played more and sang more (surprising but yes! 'How To Save A Life' and 'Welcome To The Black Parade' remember? Hahaha... you wanted to cover yours ears because the singing was so bad, yet you wanted to listen on for the comical effect =) . True enough, I knew and made a lot of new friends, or more specifically, guy friends.

Why guy friends specifically? Here is why.

The gender segregation phenomenon in our class was so obvious and rampant that even an outsider could see it at once. We sat together for meals during empty blocks: gals and guys in two distinct clusters at one table. The guys crapped, sang and subconsciously tried to somehow impress, while the gals listened and laughed occasionally at the pure stupidities and immaturities in the guys. Oh well... If you needed another example of spontaneous reactions, the way our class divided ourselves naturally and automatically into guy and gal groups was an excellent illustration. The worst case I remembered was how we even got into two different empty classrooms adjacent to A54 before our econs tutorial started on Mondays! Were we just too shy or simply could not be bothered? What was stopping us from coming together and talking to people of the opposite gender unreserved? The same old childish and puerile presumption that being gregarious + chatting with the opposite gender = despo + flirt? I guess so. Four years in a single - sex school had indeed made most of us into socially inapt individuals and caused the collateral damage of, in the case of our class, spontaneous gender - divide problem.

Apart from the hellish promotional examinations, another highlight of the second semester was the Class Adventure Camp (CAC). We zealously embarked on the 'journey' with so many ambitious goals in mind, ardently and hopefully thinking that CAC could be a Panacea to all our gender - divide problems. Did it?

Those three days at Pulau Ubin were undeniably memorable, exciting and parts of them emotional. We braved our greatest fear, the dark, during the nightwalk; displayed teamwork when we cooked and pitched tents together; showed compassion and care towards one another during the sharings. Admittedly, all these had more or less eventuated in deeper understandings among ourselves. We did bond and get together as a class, as one 08SO3J; however, all were ephemeral. Shortly after CAC, the phenomenon somehow worsened. People started to get into cliques and subsequently even the big yellow Nike bag or the yellow Nike bottle failed to bring us together in the canteen. Besides being physically together at lectures and tutorials, the mental and understanding gaps between cliques and individuals in the class drifted further and further apart. The class spirit, as if it had caught a terminal disease, was slowly dying and the situation exacerbated day after day. Everybody saw it and understood, but rarely anyone bothered. No one was to blame and all should just be imputed to the promos preparation I guess. And... before we knew it, the holidays were here and there went all of us hastily into our shielded individual lives.

My Recollections.

Orientation. Ice breakers at amphi. Class gatherings. Truth or Dare. 'I Never'. Singing in canteen. Jokes. Mural painting. Take 5. The first chemistry lecture test. PW groupings. IHC. Dota. Gunbound. Maple Story. Lan Outings. The Guys. The Gals. The P2s. The HIV. June holidays. CTs. PW surveys. PW interviews and transcripts. PW WR. PW WR printing. Basketball. Dripping boys walking into the lectures. CAC. Rumours. Relationships. Emo. Cliques. SPAs. CCAs. Promos. The GOBLG. The HCL. PnC. The Bridges. PWOP. 31st October 2007. Failed class gatherings. Birthday Celebrations. ISLE. Class Chalet. End of 2007. End of JC1.

To Rekindle

What an emo walk down the memory lane that is! Hahaha... I wrote this purely on a sudden impulse to say something about our class and things which I have observed throughout the J1 year. We have only one more year to be together and people please treasure the time. I really hope things will change next year and we can all attend Grad Night' 08 labeling ourselves as a class, 08SO3J, which by then hopefully will be better and more snugly mixed.

Alright I shall cut the crap right here.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!