Year 1

Year 1

Last time, I have spoken of my concerns regarding what seemingly to be a stressful Poly life ahead. My concerns were unasked for soon after I have mingled around. Briefly, because I had talked about it in my previous annual reports of my Poly life except this year, I will talk about the initial formation of the clique. I first got to know Lawrence during the Orientation Programme when we were given the Donation can. During the SPICE training, I met Sabrina Tong and Fiona. Coincidentally, All 3 of them were from the band from their respective schools, and being a small country this is, Lawrence was Fiona's band senior back in Tanjong Katong SS. That was the beginning.

I can't really remember what really happened, but I will try my best.

That was the first clique, together with Wayne and Johnny who joined us soon after. We went for CCA drive, had lunch and attended classes together. I signed up for both floorball and rock-climbing but I couldn't fit in, so my only CCA was CLS club which I wasn't really involved in after the FO camp I helped out in the following year. In CLS club itself, I did make some friends and I had my fair share of joy by participating in some of the activities, such as the non-budget event, Poly50 and FO camp the following year as Gamemaster.

By some chance, we joined some other people to form a big clique, which was basically 1/4 of the class already. So there we have Lawrence, Sabrina, Wayne, Johnny, Madeline, Janet, Shirley, Sarah, Andy, Jun Rong, Zi Rong, Nicholas and Fiona. After the first year, Lawrence very much left the clique, and Sabrina progressed to be part of the Cardiac class.

Back to first year, one of the activities I still remember was during our Report Writing & Presentation module. Given a plain piece of paper each, our lecturer instructed us to have this empty paper pasted on our backs with the aid of masking tapes. Next, we were told to go around, with a pen, to write on each other backs the first impression you had on them, our only chance of back-stabbing. We all spent a total of 20-30 minutes penning our impressions on each other backs. The one thing that I am certained of was Shirley wanting to write that I was mysterious. Why? Because she turned and asked the next person how to spell it! She changed her mind and wrote something else after that, which I can't remember already. It was an interesting activity, a way to break the ice.

I wonder if chalet trips were really a tradition for students here, because I have had them with all my close friends for at least once. This bunch though, till date, had 6 altogether. Our first ever was quite evently, having made to move from room to room 2 times I guess. We were complained to be too noisy, and the security guard got us to shift. Well, that was to keep everyone happy, so he couldn't be blamed. In our effort to keep our volumes down, we played mahjong with a towel underneath, so we could shuffle by wrapping the tiles, minimizing the sound emitted that could wake our new neighbours. Fun, nevertheless, and it was my idea, so I was quite satisfied with the result in the end. HAHA.

We had much fun in year 1, and that carried on to year 2. By the end of year 1, we were really bonded, which surprised me as I wasn't as close to my buddies in secondary 4. Then I realised, it was not a bad choice afterall. These mates that followed me through the first year were fantastic. Never was a time I was in doubt of that. I anticipated 2 more great years that would follow for us, and they promised to be so.