School Reunions
I met up with eight of my high school friends yesterday. But there was a purpose for the extremely high ex-STFian per square kilometre concentration in Bangsar last night - we were planning for our ten year batch reunion.
Yes, I went to boarding school; and I suppose that yes, I was 'indoctrinated' enough back then to not only want to attend this reunion, but also help to organise it. Going against all grains of coolness (as defined by some), I did not spend my five years there pining to be home with my family; neither was I relentlessly bullied by my seniors, nor was I ever inflicted with life-changing incidents that scarred me for life. (At least by the humans. As for the less human inhabitants.. that's fodder for another post.) Never was I ever taught that I was better than my non-boarding school going peers - for many an exam result proved otherwise. Post UPSR, my name came out of the proverbial hat, I was sent to JB and I spent five years of high school there. It was a school. End of story.
But the friends that we made; and the friendships that we fostered - that to me was the special bit. And that was really the point of having a reunion.
Truth be told, I have always been quite apprehensive about reunions in general, because many a time I've been told it is nothing more than a show-and-tell extravaganza - how many degrees do you have? What car do you drive? How many figures does your annual salary run into? Are you married? Is your husband getting paid better than my husband? Is your kid walking at an earlier age than mine? The achievers of the batch will attend and play games of one-upmanship all through the night; the ones feeling inferior will not bother turning up at all. And to me, that in itself defeats the purpose.
I was glad the other members of the committee - all consisting of volunteers, mind you - shared my sentiments; and we've decided that the whole affair is to celebrate what we have in common (i.e. the memories) and not harp about the differences that have cropped up in the past decade. We now just hope people will bother to turn up!
Some people like to brand boarding school graduates as elitist, because they tend to group together, and share a so-called 'special bond'. I beg to differ - I think any group of people with a similar background group together and share a bond, be it the state you come from (I am Kelantanese, I should know about this!), the country, the same university, the same hometown, even. It gets 'elitist' when people think they are above others - and we all know you need not to have gone to boarding school, or any school, to perasan macam bagus.
Yes, I went to boarding school; and I suppose that yes, I was 'indoctrinated' enough back then to not only want to attend this reunion, but also help to organise it. Going against all grains of coolness (as defined by some), I did not spend my five years there pining to be home with my family; neither was I relentlessly bullied by my seniors, nor was I ever inflicted with life-changing incidents that scarred me for life. (At least by the humans. As for the less human inhabitants.. that's fodder for another post.) Never was I ever taught that I was better than my non-boarding school going peers - for many an exam result proved otherwise. Post UPSR, my name came out of the proverbial hat, I was sent to JB and I spent five years of high school there. It was a school. End of story.
But the friends that we made; and the friendships that we fostered - that to me was the special bit. And that was really the point of having a reunion.
Truth be told, I have always been quite apprehensive about reunions in general, because many a time I've been told it is nothing more than a show-and-tell extravaganza - how many degrees do you have? What car do you drive? How many figures does your annual salary run into? Are you married? Is your husband getting paid better than my husband? Is your kid walking at an earlier age than mine? The achievers of the batch will attend and play games of one-upmanship all through the night; the ones feeling inferior will not bother turning up at all. And to me, that in itself defeats the purpose.
I was glad the other members of the committee - all consisting of volunteers, mind you - shared my sentiments; and we've decided that the whole affair is to celebrate what we have in common (i.e. the memories) and not harp about the differences that have cropped up in the past decade. We now just hope people will bother to turn up!
Some people like to brand boarding school graduates as elitist, because they tend to group together, and share a so-called 'special bond'. I beg to differ - I think any group of people with a similar background group together and share a bond, be it the state you come from (I am Kelantanese, I should know about this!), the country, the same university, the same hometown, even. It gets 'elitist' when people think they are above others - and we all know you need not to have gone to boarding school, or any school, to perasan macam bagus.
posted by Idlan at 9/08/2004 06:45:00 pm
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