Graduation/Bittersweet

"Parting is such sweet sorrow"
 -Juliet from RnJ
AND
Mr Paul Edward Osgodby, my dearest sec 4 English teacher.

So if haven't inferred from the title i actually graduated! Now the thing is i always looked forward to graduating from this school, but now that i just did i'm already regretting to have thought that way before. It made me not only sad but it made me reflect all that i've been through in BP in order to answer the question of "Why" am i sad? The answer is simple.

Memories.

Distant, tiny droplets from a passing cloud
Cascade gently down the threads in the sky
Pelting down, into the soil of my earth.
Weaving into tendrils
Blooming in the leaves.
Moisture may leave, but what remains
Is the vigour of a tree
Ready
To face the fog, of a future
Unknown.

I've been thinking about crafting another poem ever since i left my last night study two days ago, and i've finally completed it! I've also decided to take a walk down memory lane and thus i'm about to recount all the things that constitutes my BPian-Experience...

Secondary 1 - Foetus

I more or less categorize this stage of my life as foetus simply because i was still a foetus -- just out of primary school. My passion for Chinese was still burning strong and i still was round and chubby as a fishball.

you can pretty much tell which one i WAS. and i thought i was a legitimate coolkid98 -cringes uncontrollably-. One truly memorable thing back then was my epic English teacher-- Madam Jee. She was very strict and super-duper formal with all her lessons like she even had pre-lesson requirements before she would be willing to even start:

1. Ensure fanspeed is 2

2. Ensure the floor is spick-and-span

3. Ensure all bags are on the floor

4. Ensure all EL Lecture notebooks are on the table.

Her lessons were good i'm not gonna lie but it felt like i was in some posh university/educational institute for two years haha. Our class didn't hate her in fact we loved her very much! To the point where we couldn't help but host a mock-EL lesson with Keith as our teacher after school one day. It was funny as heck. But these are the little things that help make a teacher a memorable wouldn't you agree? I also didn't exactly have a group of friends i hung out with, except Jonathan haha we were literally nerds-united[COOL NERDS BTW]. He was also the one to introduce me to the whole ace attorney game franchise and OMG IT CHANGED MY LIFE---BUT ONLY LIKE 3 YEARS LATER WHEN I GOT REALLY OBSESSED AND AHHHHHH.

Anyway, that year my home econs partner was Mahn Teng. Being a vegetarian she couldn't eat like 99% of the food we made in class so that made her by default the best home econs partner bc FOOD. I was also surprisingly good at DnT? Like my drawings were crap but i always got 8/10 for my assignments and i don't even know how i did it. Chinese lessons were a blast too because my teacher was Zhuo lao shi and she was like bilingual which meant that she WAS THE PERFECT CHINESE TEACHER, oddly enough she reminds me of the hosts of your typical channel 8 chinese travel-documentary TV programmes you see nowadays! I also became a councilor that year-end which paved my road to EXCO-ness and a hell lot of stress yet powerful lessons of friendship and leadership learnt. I became a fencer that year too and met my fencing mates who, unbeknownst to me, would become so close friends with me in the years to come. My lit lessons that year were interesting to say the least, the two texts that we were taught contained vulgarities and my whole class, being the immature twerps that we all were back then, couldn't get over them. The second book was quite graphic in nature though i mean the guy got smashed in the face with a bat for heaven's sake if that isn't tragic enough for a 13 year-old to read about as an examinable text i don't know what is.

Secondary 2 - Post-Foetus

I'm not gonna lie, this was the period of time where i felt like i had become less-foetusy though a hint of it still remained. This was the year i actually gravitated towards a group of people in my class -- Ita Wah Lou. With me and Azizul being the only two guys in a group of 7. We were tight and we were hella rad HAHA. The group had Me, Azizul, Elene, Dorcas, Lee Yen, Lydia and Nameera and we always ate together during recess and our favourite past-time was throwing shade all over the place and gossiping to our hearts content muahaha. This is a pic of us before and after:

Dorcas is gonna kill me for this but this is MY BLOG :DDDD

Also this year we had this subject called Inter-Disciplinary Project Work aka IPW. So my group was known as the Happy-Tree-Friends for REALLY unknown reasons but we just stuck to that anyway! Our IPW project title was known as "Ordures Tableu" or something which was basically "Rubbish Table" translated into some other language and we thought it sounded way cool haha. We really fooled around and laughed wayy too much during all the DnT and IPW lessons(we were also selected to present our rubbish table idea to some entrepreneur guy but we turned it down because we were all too lazy)

                                      

Please don't mind my awkward pose, i was still post-foetus REMEMBER.
Also this was the last year i got to be part of an amazing class known as 201'12 #201Lives2Own. We did some pretty amazing things together and i loved all of the people in that class whom i've become friends with. 

After 2 years we still look like such twerps ;) PS. Missing some souls whom couldn't make it in time for the photoshoot, we still love you haha!

Secondary 3 & 4 - Seniorhood and the journey to Os

This was a time where i was fresh out of a total foetus and actually became a senior in my school.
I was totally unprepared and not ready for this.
My first encounter with "A.Maths" left me bedazzled and confused all at the same time and i became an EXCO of the student council. This was also the year that many epic things happened, and i shall elaborate on everyone of them:

1. Printed Melodies
2. EXCO-ness
3. AMaths
4. *We change the name too often we dont have a fixed word* clan
5. 304/404
6. Bio-group/gang
7. Fencerz
8. Teachers
9. Close friends
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1. Printed Melodies
This was a group formed at the back of the class known as 304 as we realised that we had a talent for singing so beautifully it made everyone around us cry tears of appreciation and wonder.
NAH
We couldn't actually sing but we tried. We just loved to do the most random crap and it was a hella fun time but then i had to move away because my results were bad[curse you amaths] and we had to be separated :(((. Those two people still became my close friends York Tat and Jessmine. I mean they even had me eat oreos with toothpaste in them with saltwater-water afterwards like omg best friends RIGHT?!?! HAHAHA. Through them i also met my friend Jia Wen who is incredibly unique to say the least :P

2. EXCO-ness
I became Head Of Liaison of the 31st student council and met my wonderful EXCO members who learnt how to put up with my annoying-ness and eternal proscrastination cum lateness in handing up proposals and stuff but we became pretty good friends. Also i was the only guy in the EXCO but then it didn't really matter in the end we still worked together and got scolded together(by each other too lmao ELIA) and we pulled through a whole year of event planning and execution. I wanna thank Elia, Nadiah, Wen Qi, Pamela, Natalie, Aisyah and Young Sun for being such co-operative EXCOs who supported one another through horrible(events :P) times! Always remembered #TreeLoverClub

3. Amaths
Amaths has always been my bane since the start of sec 3,i made a blog post about it sometime ago i think but now i'm like cool with Amaths, he is no longer my archnemesis and enemy but a friend whom i've just come to know in time before O levels!

4. --- Clan
This is basically my Humanities Clan, we stick together during History and Literature lessons. We are very lame people but that's the reason why i love them so much because I THINK LAME IS FUNNY IF YOU DON'T AGREE THEN BOO YOU. that is also the reason why we change our name like 24/7 and we always make fun of Mahn Teng[PS. she thought Beyonce was WHITE if that isn't a crime i don't know what is] regardless of the shade, we are still close till this day, our inside jokes are mostly by yours truly,  I FEEEELZ HUMAN, and also at our naiveness at life. TING CLAN. I will never forget how lame we were during all our humans lessons and also our talks about the future and stuff :D:D

5. 304/404
This class. THIS CLAAAASSS. I can't really express how much this class means to me like we had so many ups and downs but at the end of the day we became like a can of sardines. When sec 3 started i thought we were the most awkward class like we were noisy and all but we weren't exactly noisy together you know what i'm saying? But everything has changed, it has turned 180 degrees for the best and i wouldn't mind spending one more year with you guys to make more memories but alas it is too late. All of you were such nice people, in your own way haha, and were really good friends to have. Wish you guys all the best in your O levels and MAKE THIS CLASS THE BEST!!! This class has always been competitive, especially in sports. I used to think that was a bad thing but i've come to the realisation that that is what makes this class special. A class like this is hard to find, a jewel polished at the very Heart of the Earth

Never 4gotten, Never 4saken

6. Bio-group/gang
Contrary to the name, we actually don't take Biology, in fact the 6 of us are the only people in my class who don't take Biology, thus every Bio period we get a free period. We usually spend our days talking about the most random stuff even occasionally having lunch together whenever bio is last period. This was also a group of friends whom i had very philosophical discussions about life, religion and other things with, aaaand of course all that ranting :D I remember how we shared our goals for the future and our dreams, i hope i'll be able to keep my end of the bargain of all of us being going on stage on results day, JIAYOUS ALL OF US!!

7. Fencerz
I'll always remember how noob we were in fencing back then, and i believe we have improved by leaps and bounds since then. I never knew how much you guys would mean to me until we stopped having fencing training this year. I really miss the lepaking during training with Melissa, Irdina and Casey and walks to 7-11 with the guys after training and the talking-about-life with Titus and Raynor on the LRT back home and of course Melissa, a friend whom i love to gossip with, we literally started a Titus-shipping business HAHA. Also now she plays ace attorney so WE LITERALLY ARE ON THE SAME WAVELENGTH IN GENERAL. Even though we didn't win any medals or trophies that brought glory in particular together, the friendships and memories forged go so much further than a simple metallic-coloured cup.

Ps. Missing Tae Won, Irdina and Cliven :D:D:D

8. Teachers
Teachers are an essential puzzle piece to any school, and to anyone's learning. Throughout my 4 years in BP i have encountered teachers who became very special to me. Of course i love all my teachers, but here are just a few who had a strong impact on my life and my growth as a person.

MISS ALINA.
Whoa, this teacher is an amazing teacher. Mention her name to any upper sec student in my school and you can see, feel and hear them tremble at the sound of her name. Probably because of her endless detentions for the smallest of things(Imagine going for detention because you missed ONE MCQ question on a worksheet, YEA ITS LIKE THAT). But at the end of the day, the effect she has on her students last a long time. She is extremely capable(i guess that's why she was made our year-head) and caring. My whole class adores her and i believe if she were to teach you chemistry for 2 years, you would feel the same way too.

MISS KANG.
This teacher is a different teacher. She isn't the type to work closely with the school and she has her own way of teaching. She is willing to go all out just to give us the very best she can give, even constantly telling us of her long hours spent making for us the most personal of physics notes. I've talked to her before and she does have a story: She was in RGS but she didn't do well for her O levels as she had spent too much time on her CCA -- NCC(Ripley's Believe It Or Not *epic jingle starts playing*)and ended up going to a poly(NOW WAIT, POLYTECHNICS WEREN'T FANTASTIC, UNLIKE NOW, BACK IN THE DAY OKAY, I MEAN I WANNA GO TO A POLY MYSELF SO DON'T SAY THAT I'M DISSING POLYTECHNIC EDUCATION) and didn't have the chance to go to her dream University: Harvard. It might not seem like it but she loves to study, she loves to learn and having that dream taken away from her like that is quite sad. Sometimes i feel bad just for letting her down, she put all her hopes on us and she is 'graduating' with us in the sense that she'll be leaving BP after our last paper. Truly a teacher worth respect and admiration.

MR OSGODBY.
A teacher, whom like my P6 English Teacher, left a strong impression on me. Unlike my previous English teachers, he doesn't focus or more accurately, he doesn't LIKE the technicalities of the English exam, he doesn't believe in an answer key even for the paper 2 practice papers! He has been teaching for almost 40 years(?) which makes his belief credible. He believes in learning English as a language, not as a subject and that really struck me as for 3 years English had always been learning about grammar and all that jazz that i don't really like. He gave me confidence in my writing skills again and is also one the reasons why i started this blog in the first place. His is rather laidback and always makes jokes in class(that are too cheem to understand and i have to fake laugh most of the time). He even gets angry when you DON'T get the joke which is all the more awkward for me considering how for 3/4 of the year i sat at the front of the class, directly in front of him every English lesson, if i hand't done all that laughing i would probably be on his black-black list by now haha.

MR PEACOCK.
A fabulous teacher who isn't afraid to voice out his opinions on about almost anything in class. From his confusion and Singaporeans, to how the Science Dept. and the Math Dept. don't work together and how our work doesn't make sense sometimes haha. He is expressive when he wants to make a point and isn't afraid to do whacky things to get us to remember stuff. My favourite memory of him will always be his rants and also his faith for me in AMath, he never gave up on me and i intend not to let him down in the coming exam!

 

MR WONG, MISS TANG, MISS SHIH AND ALSO MRS ANNA ONG HAHA.
These 4 amazing teachers have given new meaning to teacher-mentors. They guided all the council EXCOs in the right direction and since all are English teachers, have an amazing sense of humour and sarcasm. I always seem to be the target of all their insults though which i've come to pass as endearment hahahaha. I'll always remember how they helped push me and the EXCOs through tough times and kept up with our nonsense on a day to day basis :]

MISS TAY
Miss Tay ahha one word - epic. Really, one cannot describe her in words because you might need to hammer *wink wink* the words in!

 

9. Close friends
To end off this long post, i have to make a special mention to a few close friends of mine. 

LEE YORK TAT(aka EggTart or Tat)
Tbh i don't even know how the hell we actually met, i think it just kinda happened during our Printed Melodies glory days. We clicked quite fast and he soon became my best friend in upper secondary. This person is hella sassy and can be an occasional diva who doesn't even know what the heck he is doing but that makes him all the more good a friend. He's always worried about his studies even though he is pretty damn good at it, not to mention his house is literally in a complete mess 99% of the time, the 1% being before it got messy. We take the same subjects just that he takes Bio haha, so we were pretty much going all over the place together. We do the goofiest of shit together and though he claims he is introverted, i believe he is more of an extrovert than he thinks he is. He is Self-motivated to do well and excel, i wish him all the best in his studies IF NOT IMMA BITCHSLAP YOU ACROSS THE FACE WITH A SHOVEL.

MAX NG KAI SHEN(G?)
I didn't even know he existed until one day i swapped seats with Vignesh and sat beside him. Little did i know we would be table-mates for the next 1.5 years. Sometimes our ideologies clash and we always try to prove each other wrong on things. He can be naive as heck i mean let us examine the following examples: HE THOUGHT METHODIST CHRISTIANS WERE CATHOLIC - That is really all you need to prove how naive he can be ladies and gentleman. He is also Christian so we also talk about church-related stuff and God sometimes too. When he believes he is right about something he will believe it to the bitter end until i prove him wrong and then he just keeps quiet haha. I thank God for putting him as my seat mate as i learnt a lot of things from him, especially in A math because let's face it he is a science person. I also thank him for letting me laugh at him in class almost every day.
                                                    

In conclusion, memories are made, not found and i believe my 4 years were made by God to mould me

and Change me.

Godspeed,
Warrick


PS. FOR MR.OSGODBY'S, MISS.ALINA'S AND MR.PEACOCK'S PICTURE, BLOGGER HAS A PROBLEM SO JUST DEAL WITH AWKWARD HEAD TILTING KAY!!!
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"The town was paper, but the memories were not" - John Green, Paper Towns