remembering sweet sixteen

adeline called a few weeks ago informing me of a party she is organising for our sec 4 class. i was glad another person other than me or madele/karen chan took the lead in doing something like that because i have been wanting to organise a get-together but have been procrastinating for the longest time. we used to be have annual get-togethers and i remember sitting in my JI uniform sitting at acjc void deck collecting money to get the food settled. but most importantly, it showed me that it wasn't just me who cherished those moments when we were sixteen and were carefree and seized the day.

as we sat down over bbq and adeline's mom's delicious hospitality reminsciencing over those sweet days when we were model class for 2 years in a row, it was good to just go back in time and relive those inane times when i was part of the bimbo gang in class - yes, and it was even printed on my class tee-shirt clement 'bimbo' tan. unglam things you don't want people to know about.

i wasn't close to all of the thirty nine of them -- besides only about twenty turned up and thirty-nine instead of forty because gerald ho passed away almost 5 years ago. but it was really good just to see all of us together again. somehow when you put us forty totally different people together, we were a force to reckon with on the running track and whatever else there was to be done other than hard core studying.

we were speculating who among us would get married first. we were talking about our places in life. and everyone who saw shuwen asked her "are you back for good?" because we haven't seen her at our previous class gatherings. it was just good, really good to be among people who know my deepest darkest school secrets and saw me through an arguably formative, but painful phase in my life.

and oh, who could ever forget the class cheer which was oh-so-bad and put together by yours most faithfully. and those times when we went up to the library everyday to return/borrow books just so we could up our library records so that we would win that segment for the model class competition and beat those nerds from 4A. or how we always sat at the second row on the right of the canteen as a class during recess. and those times i was the tyrant in hauling the relay team down to the acjc track to practise our transitions. and the agony of seeing winstong tripping in the 4 by 100m relay in sec 3 after we were first after i passed him the baton from my best second leg ever. and the esctasy of winning the 4 by 400m relay by a nipple's length after we were left chasing 4E most of the race.

above all, i came away from the gathering knowing for sure that i have moved on unknowingly from the clutches of my past a long time ago. i didn't sense that i was hoping to turn back the hands of time. for once, it was just good just asking somebody "how are you?" and starting a whole conversation based on that. i could talk about gerald ho just remembering him for who he has always been without feeling those pangs of utter sadness.

and we topped the night off with a chocolate cake marking the 7th anniversary of the formation of our class. 2005 also happens to be the 10th year since we entered the halls of fairfield methodist secondary school as dole-eyed 12-year-olds. i saw the new sec one's coming into service today, and i thought about what i was doing this time 10 years ago and i smiled knowingly to myself. it was good while it lasted.

4C. we came, we challenged, we conquered, we claimed.

indeed.