Autobiography (Part III) - From Tween to Teen

When I first entered Standard 1 in St. Michael's Institution Primary School, I was totally blur about the condition around me, for I knew not a word of Bahasa Melayu then. I was brought up with Mandarin and English, and initially I was supposed to enrol into a Chinese primary school. However, as there were many "little dragons" (I was born in the year of the dragon), the enrolment for the primary school was closed (full).

I wasn't sure about anything during my first few days of school. I understood not a word of what my teacher said because it was all in the Malay language. Fortunately, for the first day, my mother was right outside the classroom to keep a watch in case I suddenly become upset. I remember clearly that I asked her how to ask for permission to excuse myself to the lavatory in Malay. My mother immediately taught me how to ask for permission and that was my first time I asked for permission to the lavatory in Malay. It was also my first time speaking in proper Bahasa Melayu.

I recall that I didn't do well at all for my first semester examinations. I ended up in the 21st place in the whole of Standard 1. It is also very comical to think that I actually thought that Port Dickson was the name of a man (I had never been to Port Dickson before), which explained why I constructed a sentence with "Encik Port Dickson". You could tell how rather unintelligent I was then.

However, in Standard 2 and onwards my results improved due to proper guidance and some tuition classes. At Standard 6, I finally secured the third place, which was quite an achievement for me indeed. And my very first joy of studying came when I was blessed with straight 5 A's for my UPSR examination.

After UPSR, I moved into a new phase of life, as a teenager. However, unlike any other teenagers who would have already got interested in things such as Rock, Pop or Heavy Metal music, I was more towards the Classical side. I have a large collection of Classical pieces. This is all most probably due to my type of upbringing. It was also during my Form 1 life that I realised that I wasn't really myself. My mother had been away in the USA to work for about 22 months when I was Standard 4. During the 22 months, I had been conditioned by my father to be quite a sensitive, extremely serious, quiet and queer person. It wasn't until when my mother observed that I changed that I, too, in return realise what had happened to me. I was so serious that even the best of jokes failed to make me laugh (even now I might not laugh at certain jokes because I still possess some of my old qualities).

I was also conditioned to be a straightforward person, without any cunning. More often than not I had been used by other people to do some donkey's work. It was my mother who tried to instil some cunning in me so that I don't often get cheated so easily. But even now, I still tend to offer a helping hand if I can although it may not benefit me in any way (or even to my own disadvantage).

My Form 1 year wasn't any memorable, but Form 2 was the beginning of a sweet memory, when I got to perform as a pianist in the drama Flower Drum Song. At that year, I was known as the youngest student to actually participate in the annual school drama (now not anymore when a Form 1 boy took up the role as Clopin's puppet in last year's drama The Hunchback of Notre Dame). My Form 2 was also perhaps my downfall for I had missed classes almost every day, because I was in the afternoon session and my classes were also in the afternoon. Therefore, my results were far behind.

In Form 3, I made a come back. I paid more attention in classes and it's needless for me to say that I had managed to score straight 7 A's for my PMR examination. It was also the most memorable year for my school as we managed to have 99 students scoring straight A's for the PMR examination (we aimed for 100; so we were short of a student). It was the best result ever in the history of the school, and still is the best. That particular year 2003 marked the year when we were second only to Ave Maria School.

Form 4 marked the year again when I participated in the school drama The King and I, but my examination results were maintained at the appropriate level. Again I played as the pianist, but this time as the lead pianist (a big responsibility indeed, as the pieces were not easy to manage, and my absence would normally mean that the practice would have to be delayed).

My Form 5 year marked my own emotional downfall. After going out with friends for Chinese New Year, I became suddenly depressed due to loneliness. I wondered and pondered the reason to why it happened, and for six months I told nobody about my depression, and I saw my own examination results dropping right before my eyes. After June, I became emotionally stable again and did immensely better for my trial examinations. And soon afterwards I sat for my SPM examinations. I could only wish that I had scored straight 1A's, but I ended up having nine 1A's and two 2A's.

After the SPM examinations, I was busy attending tests for the ASEAN Scholarship as well as the PETRONAS Educamp. It wasn't long after that that I obtained offers from both the Singapore Ministry of Education and PETRONAS, which in the end I decided that I would accept the offer from the latter.

I could have expected for a great university life, but unknowingly again, things take a turn quite often, and although we may learn from history, there are things that will be repeated.

To be continued...

This entry also marks the 200th entry in Egghead's Cracks.