From beginning to end of high school.... part 1

Just came back from leavers' dinner. It was pretty surprising that I still remember everything that was mentioned from year 7 til now. It's been 7 years at this school, and after going so long without graduation it really feels like a big deal. I can't even imagine what it would feel like for someone who's been there since year 1. I don't think I could ever say that it hasn't had an impact on me. The education at this school has changed the way I think and the way I respond to things. Yet, I feel as if I didn't take away from it all that I could have. But then, I'm not sure that I could ever have been a part of that world.

When I first heard I was going to St. Cuth's in year 5, I deeply resented my parents. I didn't understand what the difference was between private and public education, I didn't understand the difference between single sex and coed, I didn't understand why I couldn't continue onto MRIS and stay with all my friends. Year 6 was one of the best years of my life, even now. It may not have been the most morally instructive, I was surely not mature, but if I have to think back to my happiest memories, a lot of them were at that time. There are memories from then that stick with me even now, shared with people I still hold dear. It might be weird to think about it now. That was almost 10 years ago now, and I was merely a child. But a child is the foundation for an adult, and my experiences then remain very much a part of my identity.

When I entered Year 7 at St Cuths, I remember thinking on my first day that it wasn't really weird at all that it was all girls. I didn't even notice, because the different personalities were all there. In fact I CLEARLY remember that it was 3rd period before it even occured to me that yes, this is an all girl's school, and I was going to be spending a lot of time here in the year to come. Beyond that, I couldn't even fathom. Who knew that 7 years after that fleeting thought I would think back to it somewhat amused. What a long way we've all come since then!

That's not to say that an all-girls' environment didn't impact me eventually. I remember missing the company of guys several times during that year and the next. It was pretty hard to keep in touch with old friends at that time because there was no facebook and we only had MSN. Nobody really felt the compulsion to keep in touch with me since I moved away and most people went from MRPS to MRIS, so they saw each other all the time. The only person I remained really close to was Lucee, because we lived so close. We could take walks all the time in the park and talk about our schools, and how different things were in intermediate. She would tell me all the things that were happening in MRIS with people I used to know. She was like the gateway into the world I felt my parents had kept me from.

I didn't feel like I fit in much at my new school. Even though I had Joy who I kinda knew from MRPS, I actually got to know her better at St Cuths than at primary. Mind you this is back when I was pretty obsessed with anime haha, and I don't think ANYONE at that time had the same interests. Nevertheless I found a few friends and stuck with them. I didn't feel like I was as close to them as I was with MRPS friends. Plus, I was in the middle of my awkward shy stage so I felt really self conscious all the time and I was very veeerrryyyyyy quiet.


Y9 Bernie + someone else studying for exams :) ohh such is the crappy quality of 2007 camera phones.

Despite all this however, I feel like I learnt a lot in Year 7. Mrs Johnson is really one of the best teachers I've ever had. I learnt a lot of life lessons in her class haha, the most important of which is probably the importance of being resilient. When I look back now at that time, she was preaching to a bunch of clueless 12 year olds about this, and most of us probably learnt our lesson. When I look around now and see so many people my age and older who give up so easily, who are so thin skinned and don't get back up when they're knocked down, I am really in awe of Mrs J's foresight in teaching quite a diffult-to-grasp lesson to girls so young. I am equally impressed that she still remembers all of her students even now; she called each of us a few weeks ago and wished us luck for our final ncea exams, and tonight when I saw her we had a nice chat about plans for next year etc. Even though she pretty much retired a few years ago, she still works for the school. I have to say that she's definitely one of the people who have had an impact on me growing up at that time.

Year 8 was a lot better than Year 7 socially speaking. Maybe because we got to pick our classmates, so most of the people in my class were people I could relate to easily. I had a lot of good memories with people in this class, including doing $1-$2 drawings for Ally, but gave up when she tried to get me to draw jack sparrow cos I couldn't do realism at that time LOL, and certain sporadic poker club meetings which turned into weekly shared lunches instead cos it got so big that we couldn't actually play poker properly, and trying to think of an example of 'innuendo' in ms vos' class without making it sexual... yeah it was a pretty good year. I still felt pretty small sometimes, cos it felt like EVERYONE was sooo confident and outspoken, but I was still shy. I remember there were a few girls that teased and mocked me a bit, but it was like Regina George type semi friendly bitchiness, so I couldn't really say anything. It didn't really feel like bullying, but now that I think back I did feel pretty crap about it. However I didn't get suicidal or depressed cos I didn't really care about those girls ahhahaahah, it didn't seem like anyone else really liked them either so I just accepted that's the way they are.

I still met up with Lucee really regularly and she'd tell me about MRIS, but I didn't know most of the people she hung out with. Interestingly this year was the year that she started talking about Yujie cos that's when she moved to MRIS. I guess I consider this time to be the time I 'met' her, even though I never actually saw her in real life at all. But I heard so much about her I felt like I kind of knew her hahaha. When I actually did meet her in Year 9, we both already knew who each other were, so I smiled and waved and tried to make friends. I moved from sitting with my year 8 friends in soft tech to sitting with her cos she looked lonely haha. Through her I met Laina and Jimin, and we claimed Molly the Tree.

It's a little bit sad now that we didn't hang out at Molly much this year, even though in year 9 we vowed as a group that we would stay there until year 13. Since then, a lot of people have left the school, a few have joined, and different people have moved around and found new places to hang out. I remember either Tara, Ally or Roxy drew "HEART molly" on the tree in purple vivid at some point, but that's probably gone by now hahaha. (EDIT: just found out it was indeed Roxy :D) From the memories of Molly, Holly, Polly and Fred (who sprouts pink blossoms in Spring, and has grown sooo much since year 9 -sniff-), to the legend of Jonathan Livingstone the seagull, year 9 was still full of relative carefreeness. I guess year 9 marked the beginning of a lot of friendships that are the ones that I still have right now. If I had an awkward time fitting in in year 7 and 8, year 9 was a lot easier. I joined a few clubs and meet some upperclassmen, and was in general a lot less antisocial hahaha.


Hahahahah Eunji ♥

However, I was still pretty quiet and shy with people I didn't know. Adults and teachers and authoritative figures in general I didn't like dealing with. To be honest I still kind of have a thing with this and I tend to get flustered easily and don't know what's appropriate to say when I'm talking to adults, but it's a lot better now than it was hahahhaahah. I remember not liking how Mrs L is so friendly with students because I just couldn't think of her that way and it was awkward when she insisted on hugging me but yeah there you go

I started blogging on this blog at the end of year 9 actually... wowww this blog is pretty old huh.

Anyway, that was my brief recount of Years 7 to 9 at STCC. I don't know, someone might find it interesting I suppose, or it's a good time to say it all so I can read back and remember one day when I am old. I will cover the rest of my high school experience in part 2 and maybe 3, in a few days. It's getting a bit too late in the day for this now hahaha :P


ok so this is actually year 10 but naww isn't laina cute :)