Alvin’s Weblog

Back then when I was in primary school, we led a pretty active life. Everyday, we went to school, studied and we fooled around. Come time for class dismissal, we would be making lots of noises and drive the teachers crazy. During recess and during class dismissal for the day, we would be running around the school compound playing a variety of outdoor games like “Police and Thieve” and some girlie games as well. Remember the 5 stone game? Remember the rope skipping game? Remember the boxes drawn on the ground and we jump in it? Oh yes, we played all those and don’t start laughing because it was pretty fun for kids like us back then. How I got my crooked front teeth? It was this one fine day I was playing police and tried catching one of my friend, Cameron. As he squatted down, I couldn’t stop in time and my teeth sunk right into his head. Damn it, and that was how my crooked teeth came about. *&!@%#&!@$#!@#…

Of course when I was in primary school, some kid crowned me with the nickname Babiloi and it stayed even till today, despite less calling of names already. I was basically called that because I was kinda big in size and according to some kids, I looked like a pig. Yes, that didn’t help in boosting my ego, which explains why I am such an introvert today. Kids with a bunch of so called macho friends, or rather bullies, picked on me knowing I wouldn’t retaliate.

I didn’t exactly like my primary school years but then again, I made some friends who lasted me through the years. I could recall myself going against the prefects when I was back in primary 1. I was slightly late for class and when i reached the school compound gates, the prefects stopped me and I was pissed, i shook myself off their grasp and ran to my classroom, crying in front of the class later on without shame.

When I was in primary 2, I achieved first place for the first time in my life. I meant academically though. I was so darn proud of myself my nose was literally sticking up and started growing as long as Pinocchio’s. For that, my dad awarded me with a family trip to KL. That marked my first time travelling and stepping onto an aircraft. I have always been fascinated with aircraft since young and the feeling of stepping into one was sheer pleasure.

We weren’t as lucky as children nowadays to have a leap jump from primary 3 to primary 5 with an exam. So I had to undergo primary 4. Primary 4 was where we started being splitted based on our academic results. Me and all those smart alecs were moved to the best class. We started learning science, living skills, etc. Come to think of it, it was kinda fun but I didn’t treasure what we learnt back then. Life continued till primary 6 where the real deal of UPSR started haunting us. Life has always been great until the first public exam started bugging us.

I could still remember a time when we were in primary 6. We were so noisy and naughty our teacher couldn’t stand us anymore and cried her way out of the classroom and the discipline teacher had to come to our classroom. She challenged us to obtain good grades in UPSR. We were so egoistic we vowed to prove her so wrong. Life continued as it was. We were still as noisy and playful as ever. We stayed back after lunch and ran around the whole school compound playing. The janitor had to come and shoo us off.

The dreaded day came and we all took our UPSR. After that, it was freedom and we were so happy to have our long break. Our happiness was cut short when the results were announced. I was eagerly checking out my name. TAdah, I found it and I glanced from left to right. A, A, A aaannnndddddd……………………………….. mai chibai kanina pukitiang mother fucking D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just cried there and then. I didn’t know how to face my parents. I knew they put high hopes on me and I disappointed them. They came almost minutes the results were announced and when they asked me, I just kept silent and told them to go look for themselves. They returned moments later not knowing what to say. They didn’t exactly blame me for the result. The results were out and there was nothing I could do about it. They just let go and hoped I could get into Form 1.

That was one of those dark moments in my life and primary school life ended without me knowing it. It seemed just like a year or two since I left kindergarten for primary school and now, I was preparing for my secondary education. Oh, and did I mention I was made prefect in primary school? Ironic huh? Me going against prefects and later made a prefect.