This might be waaaaay longer than last year's report, as I'll be combining the school's and year's report. If you want a comparison to last year's report, I might say that this year's one sounds more to the point and isn't injected with feelings. One thing's for sure, this year cannot beat last year, whether I write this report with feelings or not.
If 2008 was the year of revelation, 2009 is the year of progress. I'm saying this because I've probably accomplished more things than I did in the past 14 years of my life. The word "disappointment", as I've so often mentioned in the previous year was replaced with the word "obstacles", which later transformed into magical "stepping stones". If I had heard about legendary beings achieving the impossible in 2008, 2009 is the year I meet them up front. If they could open my eyes to my world last year, they also brought me into theirs this year.
It wasn't just the achievements I've made this year, it was the new faces I've met and the colourful experiences they shared with me. For this, I would like to thank the unseen powers above for placing me in 3 Batai, along with many of my long-separated best friends. And what was my first impression of my new class? One word: indescribable.
I quickly realised that while 2 Batai 08 commanded the highest level of competitiveness, 3 Batai was the quirky class, the one whose students steal the spotlight when it comes to general knowledge. Looking at it from afar, we have all sorts of people in the Batai lineage, and the 2009 batch is no exception. (Though there has been speculation that Angsana contains the lala genii, Balau the kiasu ones, Belian the quiet students and Cengal with bimbos.) Even our form teacher completes the picture with her signature quirkiness. She's definitely a teacher I would never forget.
Pn Nomi, sigh. She's just so annoyingly entertaining that I'm not sure if I actually miss her now. She rubs the whiteboard with her bare hands, then wipes her face; she constantly moves her mouth up and down like she's chewing something; she stares at us until we can see the whites of her eyes; she stands on one foot when teaching; and she sounds freaky when saying "Aaaaah?" questioningly. Some people claim she looks like a fish (although that itself is an insult to fish).
But most memorable are the punishments she gives to students. Poor Shafiq had to smile with his 2 thumbs up for 1 hour; Shafiq and Wan Jyn had to click their tongues for 30 times outside the class before she let them in again; she made random students recite the malay "sajak" with intonation (which every student failed to do convincingly). The worst experience came when she let our class out very late for recess when the boys didn't answer her who the prettiest girl in class was.
Yes, that's her. If she isn't weird, I don't know what is....
On the third day of school, I became class treasurer after 2 people resigned from the post. It's actually quite a fun job controlling the class's cash flow (minus the Pn Nomi factor). You see, once I've completed/almost completed collecting the money, she comes up to me and tells me that the money is unnecessary because the books are not ready, not needed, yadayadayada.....Only Madam Tan was able to think rationally at harsh times like these (Treasurer's advice, anyone?). More on the first week of school here.
Aaaaah, Madam Tan...she used to grumble at our class and compare the 3 Batai souls to 3 Belian. She must've previously preferred 3 Belian to us, since they speak an extra language and are very quiet people. She encourages activities outside the schooling world and emphasises general knowledge (scroll down the post). The Maths and Science quiz tested us exactly on that. When the results were announced, 5 out 6 Maths and Science quiz winners came from our own class.
From then on, 3 Belian constantly complains about Madam Tan's wrath.
Friends : They are those people who sit with you in class and talk non-stop until the teacher accuses you of being "a bad student" and blacklists you.....
That was how I described friends last year, also people who mope around with me when I'm down. This year's definition is, however, slightly tweaked. Friends are those who give amusing reasonings to prevent me from moping (like "if you lose something now, you'll gain more later"). Prevention is, after all, better than cure. They are also probably more successful in the art of talking, often managing to escape the teacher's list of "talkative students". They all look like angelic teachers' pets on the outside, yet talk behind their backs. Eg: Jessica still hasn't left a mark on Pn Nomi eventhough she constantly mimicks the dreaded woman wiping her face when moving her mouth.
I know that this year, I cannot really mention names of those who have shared their time with me, simply because there are too many of you, and missing out one person's name wouldn't be very nice. But before I start about my class, I'd like to add something the Balau-ans came up with for one of their essays. For all you know, it could inspire you to no end. And then there is the formation of the IBM gang, which greatly extended my social circle.
I'm now going to touch on the students in my class. Bless all these jokers and sporting people who rocked the class.
When a new game was introduced by our Moral teacher to encourage memorising the stupid values and their definitions, every student had to write a punishment on a piece of paper and place it into the "Punishment box". Who would've thought that soon, Jon Zhen will be dancing with the broom, Natasha would give a sarcastically touching speech about "Why We Love Pn Nomi", Sha Lynn would have to recite the sajak based on Pn Nomi's intonations, various people would have to donate to the class fund and poor souls would be star-jumping along the corridor outside the class? (The sajak, speech and star-jumping courtesy of yours truly). *Grins*
Chingx, remember the first Science lesson in the lab, when both of us thought recess was 1 hour and entered the lab 15 minutes late? There was also a time when a gigantic bee disrupted our History class, prompting Pn Noor to step on it (and making Cassandra scream about animal cruelty). Do you guys still remember that time when Delon and Wan Jyn got into a brawl?(in one of those crappy weeks) ....Okay, maybe that's not worth remembering. Then there was that time when Cassandra dropped my Maths quiz trophy and made the metal corner drop off. Everyone was shocked when I shrugged it off, put the metal corner back on and thanked her for allowing my trophy to make special clicking sounds (it makes a sounds when you press it now).
And there was also that recess when Chingx, Jessica and I met Gheek fooling around in our classroom, killing Delon's bottle and wetting his table. Although Wilson wasn't in the classroom that time, he came back claiming "Oh, I did that last time!!!", thus clearing the 4 actual culprits (5, plus Zhong-Yuen, who joined in later). Looks like Wilson forgot that water evaporated after some time......and I will never ever forget the abscissa experience, the deadly time zone when I feared Madam Tan the most. (I thought she was going to fire at me in front of the whole class for that nonsense).
It's too bad that Pook Yi Cai went to England a few weeks after PMR. But come to think of it, "Once a Batai-an, always a Batai-an". Through all our ups and downs, we can finally boast to the world that we faced most of our class problems as one, with integrity (although we need to stand strong together when facing politics).
To view 3 Batai '09 pics :
1. Formal 1
2. Formal 2 (unprepared)
3. Candid candid
4. Posing candid
Speaking of these kind of amazing achievements, one of my most amusing personal experience came from the Roland '09 piano competition, when I was actually in the same building as Sarah Brightman *grins*. Then, choir tops the list for school this year. We went further than we'd expected to, beating schools like Catholic High School and Seafield (although Seafield admittedly caught up in the later half of the year). But times are going to be pressing in 2010, especially since I got insider information that BU4 was actually supposed to win this year's district level. DJ, beware. We've already yielded to BU4 in cheerleading, which is supposedly DJ's best turf, apart from debating (people actually respect us, man!!).
Then, there's scrabble too. But no point talking about that, eventhough I exceded my expectations a whole lot. At least now I know I shouldn't just "let it slide" no matter what the circumstances are. "Keep fighting" would have been a more appropriate stand. *Smacks head* Oh, then there were the straight As for the public exam, but that's not worth bragging about, since the school standard is way higher. Surprisingly, I got 4th for DJ's Got Talent (soloists don't recieve much of the audience's enthusiasm) and surprisingly got 2nd for Einstein Factor.
Nostalgia was supposedly "Revolution"arized, since there would be more pictures than words. Of course, to make the "revolution" have some impact (or maybe not), this year's edition is also the first to be released a year late. Bravo!!
But what I remember most between the achievements and setbacks was the mind-blowing letter I wrote to send to the newspaper about making English compulsory, which they obviously did not publish, or it would spark national outcry =D. Then, I wrote about nonsensical dudes (including Anwar), who asked for Maths and Science to be reverted to BM.
There weren't many setbacks this year, except maybe for the semi-finals interclass debate, whereby our preparation was sucky, unlike the previous one. In MnM, we like to think that a glitch killed our points (which was actually true), but the 3rd party obviously expects a more humble approach. In Jan, I decided to become a prefect once more--only to pull out the next day because my parents didn't encourage it on several stands. And of course there's the Interact Club complication too, where I successfully attended one meeting. Now I've got to start all over again next year.
I had to juggle most of my time with choir, piano and stupid exams since March. MAC popped up last minute and I had to arrange a darned music score in 3 days. Choir only managed 2nd place in the state level, which was a big disappointment, since everyone expected DJ to win. And then, there was no jackpot position this year, too, which eeriely resumed last year's positions on the basis that my art marks were extremely sucky. KH too. But surprisingly, I got highest for Moral, the subject which I so openly condemn. Fortunately, the marks didn't change my views on the subject. I still hate it.
Moving away from school, Adam Lambert, the greatest contestant in American Idol history (in my opinion), lost to the dark horse Kris Allen in American Idol 9. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, passed away to a better world on Cassandra's sister's birthday (their house also got broken into on that day!). There was a solar eclipse lasting for approximately 8 minutes (the longest eclipse in a loooong time) on July 22nd.
Then, there was the most controversial death in Malaysian history, whereby Teoh Beng Hock, the political aide to Ean Yong Hian Wah, was allegedly tortured to death in the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) building. They tried to get him to lie about a crisis involving the Selangor state funds. Dr Porntip testified on his death on the 21st of October, and proved our darkest fears. And there was also the Xi'an trip, where I met some really funny people (Mr Heng). He "testified" on my father's camcorder's indecent circumstances and made complaints about our tour agency, Yangtze.
I think I've rattled on too much, so I'll wrap things up now. All in all,
I'd like to thank all those who've supported me this year, because you guys did a good job. Considering all the circumstances I've faced in this year alone, it's amusing to know that I rarely lost my cool. It was a great year from all aspects, the best thing being meeting the new faces that would last me a lifetime.
Keep up the good work, and see you in school next week. Hopefully, I'll see you guys in the same class too!! (I'm amused you read this far).
Cheers,
[Signature]
[Insert name]
Treasurer (currently cum secretary) of 3 Batai 2009.
(Heh, I've always wanted to this).
