As The Spirit Holds Back (Part 1): After Secondary School Life (Dec 2006 - March 2007)

I would say that it is 5 months ago since I updated this old page. And most probably this would be the most inactive times I'm going to update this blog. Sooner or later, days of busyness arrive and I may not have much of the luxury of time to do such a thing. I want a simple life, with sufficient food and abundance. Some people will choose stress for the lucrative money, but selling your soul to that reward may result in tremendous regrets. Well, it depends on situation after all.

And within these 5 months, many things happened. I did not update on another more recent photoshoot I did in Tawau. I did not update my Chinese New Year 2012 moments, which I didn't really expect much, and I did not even share about my days returning back here. In fact, I was too busy with offline and college stuff, undergoing the last days of my university life, before setting myself into the internship days, and get graduated sooner after that.

I would like to dedicate this post to all the people whom I know in my post-secondary school days, and those whom I'd left their lives from. I did cherish them till the end. 

After SPM (2006)

Back then, I was a homely boy, stressed in school, a rounder in tuition classes in the afternoons, and an MSN chatter at night. It was the days when Nokia and Sony Ericsson dominated the mobile phone market, when the N Series began fascinating the public. Friendster was the Facebook of that time, and MSN Messenger was the primary online free communication tool before Skype, Whatsapp, Line, Viber and FB Messenger even existed. Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer were the main choices before Google Chrome appeared, and Jay Chou, Hoobastank, Click Five, Evanescence and Good Charlotte were the popular ones, to name a few, compared to today's Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Flo Rida, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Taylor Swift.

Those were the days.

The year was 2006. The month was December. Our SPM examinations were over after our Biology paper was done. Despite the fear of failure embedded into our hearts, laughters and shouts of joy were expressed as the final minutes of the exam was already the past. I looked at my classmates for the last time in our uniforms, guys like us were in the white-green attire with the school necktie on our necks, while the ladies were wearing either the baju kurung or a blue pinafore. As I walked away from SM St. Patrick as a Form 5 student to my blue Proton Wira, I bid those friends I studied with under one roof farewell, hoping I can see them in the future.

This photo was the taken during the 2006 Teacher's Day celebration, and was from Eevee's Picasa album, thank you for still maintaining this piece of memory.

To this date, some of us are still studying, as I am in my final semesters now, while some are already have their own jobs and career. The author of Lycayenne.com, Yen Ching, who was once a well-known blogger, had ceased her online activities as she is now an interior designer. And with the rest like Eevee herself, she is currently working as an accountant in KL. Some traveled overseas to study, like Timothy Radaha, Michelle and Guojun, and some even had a job there, like Tony Lau of 5 Mutiara in Singapore. We are slowly building our own shells since then, moving forward, while gazing backwards as time passes by.

And yes, back then I was skinny and white. But of course, today, though I'm chubbier and bigger in size, and I'd been exposed to many philosophies, experiences and knowledge within this transformation from those naive days.

Just when I thought the days being under one roof with them are over, I did met them after the last SPM days. While they were in the midst of planning certain stays in Kuhara Court and Kota Kinabalu, I eventually got to meet them in other gatherings, such as jogging, basketball games (I was just a spectator) and just some chats.

I was in a verge of changing myself for the better during those days - being oversensitive and hot-tempered due to a few chants would make me seem too selfish and scary to other people. And thankfully, these bunch of people gave me a second chance to be accepted, which in the future, I did not expect that I am slowly being one closer part of them gradually. Never did I ever expect that.

Dec 31, 2006, the end of my final year in high school. I believe my physical changes are the most when compared to the people in those pictures above. I remembered those happiness I sensed when I was in that scene. I even remembered celebrating New Year 2007 with Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and some MSN countdowns with some random people I met in Zorpia.

I still bumped into some of them later on when I went for driving class. I crossed paths with Mei Chi, Fadhlan, Yen Ching, Tony and Ah Khiang throughout my driving lessons. And several days during that period, we even went and celebrate Khai Loong's 18th birthday.

I did cherish those times. Indeed, myself today really wanted to return to those days, where we don't really need to worry much except for our SPM results. Those unnecessary stress in the adult, working world, while our minds are beginning to understand complicating stuff such as politics, economics and societies - all of these, they reflect the current social order we are in, where stress is a constant, where the commons are segregated and being told what we should do under this paradigm (Alright, I won't go deeper) The only thing left are memories, with a little electronic connection from the social media to keep the relationships alive.

Then came March 2007 with our results being released to our eyes and ears. That month became my turning point in life as soon as I got my results. It was until here I could see the final peak of our fellowships under one roof, though we were long graduated.

I scored 7As, which was quite decent despite the odds of facing the pains of the Science Stream. Ms. Fanny, our physics teacher once said that failing in certain subjects are normal in Pure Science classes. There were better scorers who definitely got scholarships and I applauded them much. And after that, things began to deteriorate as some of us are leaving Tawau for their own paths.

As for my church's youth cell fellowship, I did enjoyed the fellowships with them as soon as we began meeting in Feb 2007. This picture was our 2005 fellowship before we were divided into two smaller groups. We then reunited back together in Crystal's house. All went well before my National Service days began.

I left them during the week of my birthday (March 18) for PLKN. The crossroads are already near, for my schoolmates and my youth fellowship friends are seeing my departure into the camp. I even remembered Cayenne's Friendster testimonial before entering the camp as she wished me Happy Birthday. In that message she even hoped that I would read it before entering the camp. March 2007 was indeed a turning point towards my tertiary education days.

Elsewhere, there were people began entering their new chapters of their lives. So did I. Anyway, that's all for now. The reason why I typed this out was because I felt nostalgic. So, stay tuned for the other parts.