Basket.

"Fear not for the future, weep not for the past." -Percy Bysshe Shelley

So, it has been an entire year. A tumulutous one too, but more on that later. 27th November 2002... the very last day I went to and left RI as a student of the school... it is amazing what has changed since then, as well as what has not.

RI was an incredible four years. It was indeed, as our Sec 1 Orientation was named, a Journey. One long one of 1,425 days, from 4th January 1999 to 27th November 2002. The passage of time was swift and unforgiving indeed, and has been since then as well. It seems amazing that it has all passed so fast but left me with so many lasting memories and experiences.

I still find it hard to believe at times that it has been nearly five years since I first stepped into RI on that windy January morning as a Secondary one student appropriately decked out in clean white shirt and shorts. Still twelve years old then, I was a very different person, much more ignorant of the world and the people around me. RI, and the natural process of development, was to change all that.

But for the moment, I was still an ignorant newbie stumbling around the Astro Turf looking for the place where the Sec 1s were to assemble. I was not to find it until a PSL dragged me through the crowd and dumped me with the rest of the Secondary 1 cohort. We were then led into the Hall for our very first Headmaster's address as students of RI.

And for some reason, what he said, the anecdote he used at least, has stuck in my head since. But I am not alone in this, for ask any RI guy in the school in 1999 and he will be able to tell you about it. That speech has simply made a very deep impression, because no one remembers any of the rest of his speeches quite so deeply.

The speech done, the rest of the day was simply ice-breakers and introduction to the school. I recall that the three people whose names came before mine for the ice-breakers were Roy, Abiel and Zihao (yep, that's him alright), and initially no one could remember my name.

The next day was more of the same, then it was off to Sarimbun for Orientation Camp. The weather was the worst possible: initially very hot (I got heatstroke on the first day). Then heavy rains turned the place into a muddy hell. It really sucked. NO, IT REALLY DID. The mud acted like a sentient being, actually sucking your feet down as you walked. I still wonder if any of my batchmates actually got devoured by the beast, resulting in our batch having the very odd number of 399 students. Or maybe it was just the Tiger Year at work.

I also remember that once, I went to wash my feet at the toilet, and when I returned, the path was so incredibly muddy that despite all the care I took to walk through it, my feet ended up as dirty as before.

After three days of wild, muddy fun (riiight), we returned to school and it was time to begin lessons.

Nothing memorable there, but plenty memorable in the years ahead. From Sec 1's Project I-learning (we made the papers) through Sec 2's homeroom system (an abject failure) to Sec 3's SMP (a tale that will warrant a very long blog post by itself) to Sec 4, the penultimate and most momentous year of all, RI gave me so many memorable experiences. This is not even to mention the countless moments I enjoyed with all the friends I made there, be it playing chess, bluff, bridge or simply sitting around and talking crap. Yet these events were major ones, so I shall go into them in some detail.


A week of no school! No matter how the school admin tried to justify their decision and warn us I-learning was not an extra week of holidays, that was the only thing everyone though when it was announced to us early in 1999 that RI would be introducing a pilot programme where one week of lessons would be replaced by one week of virtual learning; get the homework from the Internet and do it.

It was certainly a new experience; five weeks of holiday. But we were sec 1, so we were very nice and good, and I did not leave my I-learning to the last minute (I never do believe in doing that anyway). I would say that it certainly was a refreshing change from the typical classroom situation, but not necessarily for the better (maybe if they did not use Common Town for instance). At that time I only had a shitty 28.8K connection, so I boarded and finished the thing at Daniel's house.We had fun, and I do suppose we learnt quite a bit.

The whole I-learning experience kind of sums up my Secondary 1 year: something new. The work may not have been that much of a change from primary school, but the environment, the people, were completely different. It is also ironic and sort of amazing that without the wonderful invention called Chinese chess I never would have become friends with Zihao, or it might have taken much longer.

Actually in sec 1 we did not know each other all that well at all. We just played chess with each other every recess, and later every morning as well. However we did not really have a friendship until secondary school. Yet the chessboard provided the necessary beginning.


Secondary 2. More bright ideas by Headmaster Wong. "Why don't we make students walk instead of teachers?!" The homeroom system was born.

Now that I have gone through another year in what is virtually a replica of the homeroom system, I realise it isn't that bad after all. But then, it was something new and a real pain. RI is not a small place, and we had to walk around for practically every lesson. The rules were confusing too; we had a homeroom of our own, but were not allowed to linger in there during recess. Not like we cared; we spent virtually every recess down there playing chess.

Despite the system, which often resulted in vast human jams along the stairways and corridors, Sec 2 was fun. My most fun year, bar Sec 4. Zihao, Yen Yeong and I hung out together, played chess with each other, studied together and at times simply sat down and talked crap. It was fun times, alright. Those recesses (virtually every day) spent in the 2E homeroom playing chess, those times after school when we chose to remain and do work or talk crap with each other, those times before the exams when we studied together: they will remain as some of my happiest memories. In addition, of course, to the great moments in English class with Mrs Jasbir Koh; she stays still as my most favourite teacher of 11 years in the Singaporean education system.

Then, before I knew it, I was in secondary 3. The lower secondary honeymoon was over.


Sec 3 began with us being fried to a crisp at Sentosa. So was the food, which made it virtually inedible. All Mrs Selvan's bright ideas, and I guess having to do many push-ups under the blazing sun gives you severe sunburn. Everyone got it, except those Indians who were of a particularly dark skin colour. I peeled the skin off my ears and rubbed it off my nose. But I wasn't the worst case, I saw plenty who got it very bad indeed.

The camp was not memorable (except the food), but the year sure as hell was. New subjects (Physics, Chemistry, not to mention the stupid SS module) that would be the bane of my life for the next two years, new teachers, new classmates, new room (and an end to the homeroom system, which they admitted rather euphemistically to be an abject failure) and new experiences to be felt.

One of these was, as a matter of course, SMP. Science Mentorship Programme, in which students worked under a mentor from NUS, Ngee Ann Polytechnic or other academic institutions to produce a report on a certain topic. I must admit, I never really understood it at all. But it was great fun, as I formed a group with Zihao, Yen Yeong, Zhiyang and a later addition being Goh Wee Ping (yes, him). We went down to Ngee Ann every week and did experiments on fish, basically, which we had to keep alive for the course of the project.

It was an adventure, though I did not expect it to be so initially. Even though we never managed to hand in on time something we spent countless hours slaving over, we had a ball of a time on the way. From thrilling vehicle chases to giant spiders and turtles to undead tilapia, it was a wild, wacky ride that at times touched the borders of the surreal (ie we couldn't believe this was really happening). Like the tilapia that began breathing while opened on the table with its guts literally out of its body. We stabbed it to death with scissors and forceps. Or the astonishingly huge and deadly-looking giant spider we saw at the overhead bridge to Ngee Ann (it looked capable of killing and eating any one of us). Not to forget our lovable lab technician, Mr Narayanan TK (we have a joke about his initials and it is hilarious). The fish were cute too (even though we knew we had to kill them and slice them up), and we missed them when the whole thing was eventually over.

Again, this project was representative of Sec 3, and Sec 4 too. It was a wild, wacky ride that ended only on 27 November 2002. I really enjoyed being in 3E-4E 2001-02, and I enjoyed my last two years of secondary school. Be it playing chess in class, bridge and bluff in Zihao's class or simply sitting around to talk dirty during Social Studies class discussions, I had a great time.

Yet it all had to end some day. Eventually the Common Test came and went, the Prelims came and went and the Os... went by soon enough too. 26th November 2002 was Graduation dinner, not particularly remarkable except the food sucked and we ended up playing bridge in the hotel lobby instead of remaining to watch the insipid programme (seriously, the only thing good about it was the pair of emcees, Jireh and Amogh, who did a wonderfully funny imitation of our poker-faced O Level Chief Invigilator that had everyone absolutely in stitches).

Too soon the night was over and 27th November came. We went to school and got all those funny forms and shit, then the rest of the time was ours. We played dai dee in class, then went down to the LT which Mr Ng had booked to watch Fellowship of the Ring. It was an excellent movie, and when it ended at 5pm or thereabouts, I left RI as a student for the last time. RI was the past. I would soon be starting another year at another school studying for another exam with another set of batchmates and doing another set of subjects under another group of teachers at another, higher level. An end and a beginning.

The one year since then has been nothing short of incredible as well. It has been another hell of a ride, yet despite this similarity has been very different from any of my years in RI as well. I would say I have seen much more of the world and all the various colourful characters it contains. It has been a rich experience indeed, and this present class has been great. I think life only stared in J1 when I met them. Be it the times we spent talking more nonsense with each other (MSN Messenger is the new tool), writing appeals for classmates or simply going through a tough syllabus together, this year has given me more than a few happy memories as well.

Thus, the quote above: "weep not for the past". Sure we have to remember and cherish the great times we had, but we must always live in the present and look to the future. It is the only way to exist.

Those (close to) 4 years, 1,425 days, , 34,200 hours, 2,052,000 minutes, 123,120,000 seconds I spent as a student in that campus in Bishan I will remember forever. So too, will I look back fondly on a JC 1 year that has been nothing short of memorable in its own right.

Thanks everyone, down the years.