While I was In Sandakan, Sabah....
Very young
When i was really little, say before going to kindergarten. 1st priority while going to the supermarket with my parents was to go to the toy department, chose a toy, go home to play. My infamous conversation while holding a new toy in one hand and pulling my mother's skirt with the other:
Noreen: 'Let's go home'
Mum: 'But I haven't even started shopping yet.'
Noreen: 'Let's go home' (so that I can start playing with my new toy)
Mum: 'Papa, you settle her'
So, the next scene of this routine will be at the bench outside the supermarket. Some days, I'll be busy playing with my new toy. Some days, I'll be eating ice-cream. My dad will be shaking his head looking at me. Ice-cream came into the scene when I ended up with too many toys at home that they couldn't fit into my toy cupboard anymore. By the time I finished the ice-cream, my mum will have finished her shopping. Next activity when I got back....play!
*****Kindergarten
Kindergarten was a place for me to play, not study. I doubt that I'd learnt anything during that 2 years. School was a fun place where I got to see my friends, play, and the toys there were different from what I owned.
I was really quiet. I speak English at home and every single kid that went to class with me spoke a certain dialect of Chinese, mostly Hakka or Cantonese. One thing good about playing at that age is that, it is universal, you don't need a common language. I didn't know how, but I did pick up Mandarin in the end.
I used to go over to my neighbour's house to play the swing they had. We lived at the government quarters where the houses had legs and was suspended 1 storey above ground. (I don't have the photos with me) In the end, I asked my dad to make me one and he did! Loved that swing so much that I had to go on it everyday after school.
My house was a wooden house at that time, and there was a huge termite nest under the house, near my swing. Used to be so fascinated with them. I am a very cruel person when it comes to insects. Used to use a 'cangkul' to destroy the termite's nest and see them scrambling about.
It does look like rocks. And it is super hard. That's why I needed a 'cangkul'
I loved helping my dad clear the dry leaves and unclog the drain every once in 3 months. I could find at least 3 earthworms each time we did that together and my dad will give me some biology lessons. Like, if you cut the earthworm into half, it'll becom 2 earthworms! Or, the more earthworm there is, the more fertile the soil would be.
Playing with ladybirds and other insects seriously helped me learn about them a lot. Like, how the ladybirds had their defence mechanism where they secreted a fowl smelling liquid when they sensed danger. Hated that smell but still loved to catch them. Have never told my parents this, but I did earn some pocket money selling ladybirds to my friends. I didn't think it reached 5 ringgit even for my whole ladybird catching career.
Kindergarten was a place for me to play, not study. I doubt that I'd learnt anything during that 2 years. School was a fun place where I got to see my friends, play, and the toys there were different from what I owned.
I was really quiet. I speak English at home and every single kid that went to class with me spoke a certain dialect of Chinese, mostly Hakka or Cantonese. One thing good about playing at that age is that, it is universal, you don't need a common language. I didn't know how, but I did pick up Mandarin in the end.
I used to go over to my neighbour's house to play the swing they had. We lived at the government quarters where the houses had legs and was suspended 1 storey above ground. (I don't have the photos with me) In the end, I asked my dad to make me one and he did! Loved that swing so much that I had to go on it everyday after school.
My house was a wooden house at that time, and there was a huge termite nest under the house, near my swing. Used to be so fascinated with them. I am a very cruel person when it comes to insects. Used to use a 'cangkul' to destroy the termite's nest and see them scrambling about.
It does look like rocks. And it is super hard. That's why I needed a 'cangkul'I loved helping my dad clear the dry leaves and unclog the drain every once in 3 months. I could find at least 3 earthworms each time we did that together and my dad will give me some biology lessons. Like, if you cut the earthworm into half, it'll becom 2 earthworms! Or, the more earthworm there is, the more fertile the soil would be.
Playing with ladybirds and other insects seriously helped me learn about them a lot. Like, how the ladybirds had their defence mechanism where they secreted a fowl smelling liquid when they sensed danger. Hated that smell but still loved to catch them. Have never told my parents this, but I did earn some pocket money selling ladybirds to my friends. I didn't think it reached 5 ringgit even for my whole ladybird catching career.
*****
Primary School
Playing was still a big part of school life. The games were always either Catch, play getting married (if this was official...I think I'd lost count of the number of husbands I have), jump rope, 5 stones (but we increased it to 7), even fighting with the boys with long rulers.
Some how, studying wasn't as fun as before. There was pressure to get good marks for papers and there were competition going on.
This was the period where I was really crazy about Sailormoon. Used to borrow the video tapes and comin books. I had a collection of cards, stickers and even miniatures which I treasured a lot. My room was decorated with posters of Sailormoon characters.
The exact same picture of one of the posters I had. Now I'm wondering where did all of them disappeared to
Playing was still a big part of school life. The games were always either Catch, play getting married (if this was official...I think I'd lost count of the number of husbands I have), jump rope, 5 stones (but we increased it to 7), even fighting with the boys with long rulers.
Some how, studying wasn't as fun as before. There was pressure to get good marks for papers and there were competition going on.
This was the period where I was really crazy about Sailormoon. Used to borrow the video tapes and comin books. I had a collection of cards, stickers and even miniatures which I treasured a lot. My room was decorated with posters of Sailormoon characters.
The exact same picture of one of the posters I had. Now I'm wondering where did all of them disappeared to*****
Secondary School
Studying was getting less fun. More subjects to study, more competition and more pressure to get good grades. However, this was the time when I was crazed about playstation I and started watching dramas. Initially, my memory was really good that I could remember all the storylines and endings of every drama which I've watched before. My mum used to ask me what was the ending cause she couldn't remember. Nowadays, I'm like my mum. Can't remember anything at all.
I loved Final Fantasy role playing game. Finished playing Final Fantasy IX and halfway through VIII. Gave up cause I didn't have time after Form 3. Totally stopped playing since I went to college and uni. I used to play the car racing game with my sister but this was really funny. Instead of racing against each other, she'll go the opposite direction to cause accidents to my 'opponents' so that I would win the race.
Studying was getting less fun. More subjects to study, more competition and more pressure to get good grades. However, this was the time when I was crazed about playstation I and started watching dramas. Initially, my memory was really good that I could remember all the storylines and endings of every drama which I've watched before. My mum used to ask me what was the ending cause she couldn't remember. Nowadays, I'm like my mum. Can't remember anything at all.
I loved Final Fantasy role playing game. Finished playing Final Fantasy IX and halfway through VIII. Gave up cause I didn't have time after Form 3. Totally stopped playing since I went to college and uni. I used to play the car racing game with my sister but this was really funny. Instead of racing against each other, she'll go the opposite direction to cause accidents to my 'opponents' so that I would win the race.
*****
I transferred to Kuala Lumpur at the end of Form 4. Started my final year of Secondary School in my mother's hometown but an unfamiliar place to me. I used to go back once a year to visit my grandparents, but to live there is a completely different story.
Gone were the days of slow-moving lifestyle I had in Sandakan. There was so much pressure in trying to keep up with the syllabus which they had covered in advance as compared to my former school. Students in KL were much more competitive and for a small town girl like me, it was over-whelming. I broke down into tears at lunch time after coming back from the first day of school as I was so scared that I couldn't catch up. My grandmother got a shock and my sister with her usual attitude, laughed at me for being a cry baby.
Study wasn't fun at all. I was bottom of the class for most subjects especially Additional maths and physics. No, that wasn't fun at all. The results for the first monthly test was a big blow to me. I practically begged the teacher not to announce the results and names when she was giving out the Additional Math paper...but.....
'Highest marks this time goes to A with a score of 100'
My jaw dropped.
'Second highest is B with 98 marks'
These people are crazy.
When it came to mine....it was 2 marks above the passing mark. I could predict that Form 5 will be hell for me.
I didn't have a life in Form 5. I didn't really fit in, and most of my friends already had their own cliques. I was lonely, depressed, stressful, and dreading school each day. But along the way, I managed to make a few really close friends. I studied like crazy cause there wasn't much to do anyway. I wasn't the type who'd go out every weekend to hang out at the shopping mall. There was only 1 shopping mall in Sandakan, if you can call that a shopping mall. I didn't go to cinema to catch the latest shows like what typical teenagers my age would do. Plus, I've never stepped into Coffee bean or Star Bucks at that time.
My first time stepping into Coffee bean, I was dragged there by M and H after they found out that I've never been into Coffee bean before and I treated them to coffee, which cost me about.....let's see...30+ ringgit. That was the time when we were preparing and buying things before we went to the UK. The 3 of us met up at M's second home - MidValley Megamall.
First time stepping into Starbuck was in Edinburgh, while my whole group of friends were waiting for the new year countdown in 1st year.
Reason why I'd never stepped into these places - the average of RM 10+ for a cup of coffee is way too expensive for me. Plus, I'm not a big fan of coffee.
Gone were the days of slow-moving lifestyle I had in Sandakan. There was so much pressure in trying to keep up with the syllabus which they had covered in advance as compared to my former school. Students in KL were much more competitive and for a small town girl like me, it was over-whelming. I broke down into tears at lunch time after coming back from the first day of school as I was so scared that I couldn't catch up. My grandmother got a shock and my sister with her usual attitude, laughed at me for being a cry baby.
Study wasn't fun at all. I was bottom of the class for most subjects especially Additional maths and physics. No, that wasn't fun at all. The results for the first monthly test was a big blow to me. I practically begged the teacher not to announce the results and names when she was giving out the Additional Math paper...but.....
'Highest marks this time goes to A with a score of 100'
My jaw dropped.'Second highest is B with 98 marks'
These people are crazy.
When it came to mine....it was 2 marks above the passing mark. I could predict that Form 5 will be hell for me.
I didn't have a life in Form 5. I didn't really fit in, and most of my friends already had their own cliques. I was lonely, depressed, stressful, and dreading school each day. But along the way, I managed to make a few really close friends. I studied like crazy cause there wasn't much to do anyway. I wasn't the type who'd go out every weekend to hang out at the shopping mall. There was only 1 shopping mall in Sandakan, if you can call that a shopping mall. I didn't go to cinema to catch the latest shows like what typical teenagers my age would do. Plus, I've never stepped into Coffee bean or Star Bucks at that time.
My first time stepping into Coffee bean, I was dragged there by M and H after they found out that I've never been into Coffee bean before and I treated them to coffee, which cost me about.....let's see...30+ ringgit. That was the time when we were preparing and buying things before we went to the UK. The 3 of us met up at M's second home - MidValley Megamall.
First time stepping into Starbuck was in Edinburgh, while my whole group of friends were waiting for the new year countdown in 1st year.
Reason why I'd never stepped into these places - the average of RM 10+ for a cup of coffee is way too expensive for me. Plus, I'm not a big fan of coffee.
Had my graduation, went for graduation ball. I think I might have looked like the odd one out as everyone wore really beautiful formal dresses, high heels, make-up with hair done up nicely. I went in really simple black shirt, black skirt, black shoes. No makeup cause I didn't have any. Nevertheless, I did enjoy myself and the food was delicious.
*****
College
While I was waiting for SPM results, I went to Taylor's college to start on A levels first. Taylor's was quite a distance for me and I had to travel 1.5 hours each way by bus. Hated travelling, but that was the only way I could go to college. I don't think I had any craze at that time as I wasted so much time on the bus and by the time I reached home, I was exhausted.
The unexpected
I was never the top student in my class, and this was seriously unexpected. It was my best achievement and it totally changed my life. I got top grades in all 10 subjects which I've taken. Until now, I still think that the examiner must have been lenient to me.
I didn't even know that I could apply for a scholarship until my chemistry teacher told me about it. I didn't even know how to apply for it. My poor mum had to asked her collegue what was this scholarship all about and she has to rush to the bank during her lunchtime to buy the application form as the dateline was in a week's time.
That was how I ended up dropping A levels and doing IB in Mara College Banting instead. There is still much story to be told. But I think I'll leave those to next time. It was the start of the anime and drama craze which I have been addicted till now.
While I was waiting for SPM results, I went to Taylor's college to start on A levels first. Taylor's was quite a distance for me and I had to travel 1.5 hours each way by bus. Hated travelling, but that was the only way I could go to college. I don't think I had any craze at that time as I wasted so much time on the bus and by the time I reached home, I was exhausted.
The unexpected
I was never the top student in my class, and this was seriously unexpected. It was my best achievement and it totally changed my life. I got top grades in all 10 subjects which I've taken. Until now, I still think that the examiner must have been lenient to me.
I didn't even know that I could apply for a scholarship until my chemistry teacher told me about it. I didn't even know how to apply for it. My poor mum had to asked her collegue what was this scholarship all about and she has to rush to the bank during her lunchtime to buy the application form as the dateline was in a week's time.
That was how I ended up dropping A levels and doing IB in Mara College Banting instead. There is still much story to be told. But I think I'll leave those to next time. It was the start of the anime and drama craze which I have been addicted till now.
1 comment:
amazing how u remember what went through your mind when you were young.. wat happened even as far back as kindergarten!? ( ahha or its just me who doesnt)
i find it almost bewildering to know how friends who seem just-like- anyone-else have sad stories in the closet of past.. of course most people would have had something painful in the past.. i guess we often overlook it because they have all grown out of it or have at least found something happier to hold on to.
I'm glad you have because when i c u i c someone who has joy in what she does
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