2005 - A Year In Review

Two more days’ worth of 2005. I hope we’re enjoying the last vestiges of what I saw as one of my best years in secondary school, or, for that matter, in what I saw as the best school ever, St. Joseph’s, Kuching. In this post, I will attempt to wrap up the memorable times we’ve all spent as a class.

First quarter (Jan – Mar).We tentatively got started on our stint as Form 4 students, but reality soon hit hard on us as our teachers wasted no time telling us our results were only as good as guaranteeing us a place in the Science stream, and in 4A, most of all. Yes, our initial excitement at achieving straight As soon wore down as we realized that it only carried us this far. We started the first week (I think) attending a seminar in the auditorium on stream-switching or something like that. And something about vocational schools. But anyway, we started to get used to our new subjects such as Biology, Physics, Chemistry, English for Science and Mathematics(EST), and, to most of our horror and trepidation, Additional Mathematics. And I think we received one of the more dedicated teachers than our previous forms, Mr Wong. Yeah, sure he gets rather excited now and then, but I’ve never seen any other teacher with that much school spirit in him. Only that too much may be a bad thing indeed. Then we also discovered the vastly different paper formats in our first examination. And we also discovered where we stood in the class academic hierarchy, which proved our teachers right; Form 4 is very much different from Form 3. We also got to use the more specialized laboratories for our science subjects, and experiments took a more practical turn. Best of all was Chemistry, with the access to strange and (dangerous) chemicals to mix. Truly it was a wonderful time, until the stress came to us. We also had a foreign exchange student, Joan Manuel Monguillot, all the way from Argentina, S. America, in our class.He had tales to share as well as a plethora of differences between our cultures. Speaking of foreign students, we had in our ranks Alleem, all the way from the US of A. Now, he's not 'foreign', technically, and his brother Haziq would soon come to join us later this year. Initially he would be here for a year, but, as 2005 went by, to our regret, it was not to be.

Second quarter (Apr – June). Several more sports events followed suit; Interschool, Interdivision, what-have-you. Then there was the Parent-Teacher Day, the day we dread. This year was no more different than our last 3 years, but because we were taking much more advanced subjects, it’s only obvious that our parents were interested in our achievements(which, unfortunately, most weren’t very pleased). Then we had Teacher’s Day in May, though the details are now faded away from my mind. School broke for the mid-year holidays. Our Argentinian friend, Manuel, had to be transferred to some school in Kuala Lumpur for(what I heard) some transgression he did. For privacy issues, I will not divulge the real, or, imagined cause of his transfer. However, his stay with us was cherished, and we had a good time together. And I think around here, Alleem's brother, Haziq, joined us as another member of 4A.Haziq, technically, was supposed to be in Form 5 this year, but because he spent almost his whole life in the US, his BM wasn’t really up to date.

Third quarter (July – Sept). July was one long month with no holidays in between. Needless to say, our second exams were also held on the second week of July. The month ended with some Sports Carnival events. Nothing much I can remember in August, except for the school-level Independence Day, and even then, I can’t recall much. I know, however, that most of us certainly didn’t sing along to the patriotic anthems. September came, and without any exams, though the pressure was still there, we spent our time subconsciously laughing, (or pitying) those who were sitting for the actual UPSR. Also, we had three trainee teachers taking over our Chemistry, Physics, and Add. Maths classes, for a period of around 6 weeks. They were: Miss Hong(Chemistry), Mr. Hii(Add. Maths), and Mr Lau(Physics) taught us quite well, and we enjoyed ourselves during their 6-week tenure. Our class blog was launched.

Fourth quarter (Oct – Dec). October. We couldn’t actually laugh (or pity) those who were sitting for the actual PMR exams since we had our third examinations to worry about. But, nonetheless, in our opinion, PMR, after you’ve gone past it, seemed quite easy by our current standards. In the online world, however, a little feud had taken place between us and our counterparts in St. Teresa’s, the 4Sc1 girls. The class blog concept was copied by them soon after ours was launched. Most of us weren’t happy about what seems to be a blatant plagiarization. Eventually, we sort of forgot about it, and started tolerating (I think) their blog’s existence. Then we spent the last few weeks enjoying ourselves, playing guitar, playing Scrabble, playing Uno, playing chess, playing checkers, watching movies in class, listening to Mr Wong’s ‘Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill’ CD, and generally enjoying ourselves to the fullest. Of course there was the Chai-Leh incidents, where it seemed that not a day passed without an explosion. Eventually it got worse until our English and EST teacher, Pn Pung, became ill. There were many crackdowns, in the form of spotchecks, until the issue itself was resolved, tentatively. Then it became nothing more than an irritating memory.

To conclude, I found Form 4 to be my best year in this school, and I hope Form 5 will be our best yet, in spite of the SPM pressure. Why do I say this? Because this year, we found in ourselves a common bond that transcended racial and spiritual identities. We found in ourselves a bond greater than friendship; we found brotherhood. Also, it would also seem to me that this year, we celebrated each other’s birthdays more often than the previous forms. Even if it’s only a ‘Happy Birthday’ during class, but I think that would’ve meant a lot for the song’s recepient. Have a great New Year’s Eve and an equally great New Year.

Our class blog URL will be changed to www.fraternitas5a.blogspot.com sometime after New Year’s Eve.