And now, we return for more Temasek Times…
You know how in certain television shows the protagonist returns to his old haunt and the old haunt has obviously changed in a hundred and one ways and then you get that moment where everything becomes fuzzy and you see the place through his eyes, as he remembered it in the past?
Well, that’s how it was for me on Wednesday, as I walked through Temasek.
The obstacle challenge structure wasn’t there in 1996.
Neither were the extensions that now surround LT 2.
Ditto the sports complex extension.
As you can imagine, it was a rather barebones structure we had back in 1996, and I imagine the school looked pretty much the way it did in 1996, as it was in its inaugural year in 1977.
It was old school.
But, hey, as they said in The Incredibles, “There’s no school like the old school”.
One thing that has remained unchanged is the courtyard.
Walking across it on Wednesday, I realised that it was actually a rather small space. How one thousand five hundred students and teachers managed to squeeze onto it every morning, I’ll never know.
Truth be told, morning assembly was one of the best things about junior college life.
Any thoughts of staying in bed and missing a day in school when my clock unleashed its shrill, peace-wrecking alarm were banished immediately once the prospect of morning assembly came to mind.
Was the Temasek anthem so melodious a tune that it drew students into the rustic confines of the school, like sailors in the times of the ancient Greeks crashing onto craggy rock, having been bewitched by the song of the sirens?
Was it the rousing spirit and gusto mustered by the denizens of Temasek as they sang the national anthem?
Was I simply barmy? Who looks forward to going to school anyway?
None of the above.
Morning assembly, ah, blessed morning assembly was all about the search for the elusive scrunchie.
White, peach or black?
It’s simple things like that that helps one get by in school.
It really is.
I look forward to going to school!
well,not all the time.(COMMON TESTS = PAIN)
Sometimes it just seems fun and the day’ll go by just fine.
KHS (Kong Hwa School.Home of the Iron Maiden[s]) seems so small now to me,so I guess I get what you mean.Even the students seem to be shrinking by the cohort.(I think it’s just me growing taller,rising into the ranks of average adult men height -.-”‘)The library’s changed (No studying allowed inside.How strange.Next up:No reading.)its wooden tables and plastic chairs for beanbags and sofas.The books are newer,shinier.The old ones are condemned to the incinerator.Disturbing,really,change is.
The change in KHS,in particular,is disturbing.Especially since all the emo people are gone.People who go in might think the IMF World Bank meetings are still on,the way people smile at you there. (I mourn the emo people.I was on their side back in KHS.The teachers hated me for it.Now they can only stare at me and wonder how the weather is up here.)
Thank goodness for you your school song was nice.The KHS school song was full of emptiness (oxymoron intended),addressing KHS as one’s “beloved school”,which it was not in several students’ case.These people went on to eschew the school song in their later years in KHS.
(Major digression: When is a person said to have mastered a language,if at all?My father claims to have mastered the English language,and he went to college for business,and not English.)
the elusive scrunchie…now that sounds familiar to me
A GIRLLLL!!!! Was this what you were referring to? Thanks again for just now yeah. and OMG YES. I still do rmb Mr Chan G.E. That was a good mix of smart funny and yes. Lame. Hahah.