My form 6 life (Part I : People i met)

This is the story about my form 6 life. I must mention before hand here, that what i write may offend certain people. I will stress that sometimes this is fact and what i can see from my perspective. Whether you want to accept it or not, it's up to you. Also do remember I'm not out to bad mouth anyone or anything, I'm just telling the story from my point of view.

On May 15 2006, i took my first step into this new school where i would be spending the next one and a half years doing my form 6. Before this, i was in a dilemma on where go for my for six, whether i should do it in a public secondary school or a private college.

I have had plenty of warnings and advice from my seniors from coming to this public school. The school despite having a reputation of being one of the premier schools in Malaysia, had a lousy faculty (generally speaking with exceptions) and many problems such as discrimination and bullying among the student body.

Yet i choose to come here and also stay. Why? One reason i must admit was for the name of the school. The other reason is because I have been instilled with the belief that anyone can succeed anywhere with the right amount dedication and hard work.

When i arrived, i had only one of my darlings with me. He too was not one of those i was especially close with. Nonetheless, he proved a great source of comfort, friendship and support throughout my choppy life there. For this I am extremely grateful to him, and because of all that we had to go through together in this school, we subsequently became very close (please stop your dirty thought NOW, thank you).

In my form 6 was the first time i had to chance to interact with people from so many various backgrounds - different schools, different family upbringings, different community background. In a way it helped me expand my horizon greatly. Here i must mention a lovely young lady from my class. Her openness initially left me extremely shocked, which led me to think she would be those wild type of girls and.... You get the idea. Yet as time went by, i came to greatly respect her. She was an extremely friendly girl, she would make friends with you without prejudice and most importantly was her sincerity even in those short moments she came and said "Hi".

She was the first person that truly thought me that we should never judge someone from what we can see. Even after we graduated, the fact that she still took the time to care about us, left me hanging my head in shame.

I also met another person who shared as much passion as me for the world around us. I really salute him. Like me, he decided to break free from convention and follow his heart and dreams. He went and took up a degree in forestry in the university in Sabah. In Malaysia, courses such as forestry, environmental science etc are considered cold courses. Courses that are left only for those with mediocre results, those who just want to waste their time and those that have no other choice in degrees to pursue.

Yet, he took up this course with passion. When people criticized him, he just took it in his stride and stuck with his guns. He's now there, preparing to go (or already gone) for a field research in Tenom, Sabah. He too, became one of my very good friends within this short time. He to me is an excellent role model. The most important trait being have to courage to pursue one's dreams despite the stigma from the people around him. Extremely responsible and friendly, he too, like the lady mentioned earlier, had no prejudice when it came to making friends.

I must admit, for my class in form 6, most individuals in my opinion are very materialistic. A lot of them become extremely selfish when the time arises. I always wonder is it just that I myself am very naive in thinking that everyone is this world should act so and so then we can all live in peace and happiness? I don't know. But studying in this school has truly shown me how harsh society can get.

From where i come from for my last 5 years of secondary school study, we never had such serious problems of backstabbing, boycotting. No matter who lousy our teachers were back then, we always showed a minimum amount of respect towards them. Here, if the students don't a teacher, they can total ignore his/her existence. But when the time comes and the teacher's help is required, they got back and start licking the teacher's boot madly.

Then there is teacher which will be forever burned into my mind. As of my 19years and 7months of life, i have never met a teacher as irresponsible as him. Have you ever met a teacher that goes, "i didn't have my breakfast today, i can't teach, will you please study on your own". He too was also the teacher advisor for my society. If we, the committee did anything successfully, he would immediately take credit for it saying that it was his idea and without his help we could never had done it. If something screws up, he will blame us for not asking his opinion before making a decision. If the things screws up because of his advice, he will immediately deny any involvement and say he never said anything of such a nature.

I always wonder, how do people like my teacher above sleep at night. How do they answer to their conscience? How? If it's me and i do something small, i will already have a hard time sleeping and just having that dreaded feeling that it will come back around to me....

Another thing that always lingers on my mind is "am i crazy? is something wrong with me?" The reason is due to my kids. To clarify this once and for all, my kids are the collective term i use for my scout juniors. The main reason i call them my kids is because they act like a bunch of them (crap, I'm gonna get beaten up once i get back to Malaysia) and because usually it's my responsibility to teach them and get them to behave.

Anyway, coming back, i used to think i was crazy because i would get so concerned and worried over them. Then i met this guy. He too had a bunch of "kids" (he called his juniors). Like me he was just as passionate about them as me (not as caring though). Among his juniors, he commanded respect and awe. In contrast to me i think i mostly projected an image of being a nice big brother which resulted in more often than not my kids scrambling all over my head. =S

Don't get me wrong, we both enjoyed how own respective groups treated us. What I'm trying to say is, for both me and him, these are people who much of our lives are centered around. And to people out there, it just shows I'm not alone and certainly not fully crazy (partly maybe XD).

Of cause i met more people in the one and half years there. These are the few along with their traits that have left a strong impression on me. Everyone i meet leaves a strong impression on me, but sadly, i can never finish telling you'll about them One, because I'm lazy. Two, also cause it's not practical to write out everyone cause you won't want to read it.

In the mean time this is just one part of the story. There are a few more parts, which i will write about later. Then also from this story comes one very important thing which you will find out in due time.