Exactly four
years ago, I stood at the podium, about to begin my speech for a slot during
assemblies given to chosen students to deliver a 3-minute speech on any topic
they pleased. So, I took a deep breath and started with “I can’t wait to leave
this school.”
Eyes
were on me as I’ve said that almost blasphemous line, and so I added at the
end, “but I will leave behind unforgettable memories.” I didn’t say it just to
get myself out of the fix, I really did mean it.
I wished the speech was more refined, as I went about it with no prepared text,
and the words were as raw as it could get. I went on to talk about the memories
I had from 2005 to 2009. I also said that I’d never find teachers such as this
anywhere else in the world. Now, I guess I am old enough to testify to my own
statement that I made four years ago. Indeed, it’s hard to find teachers who
had as much dedication and compassion as they had back then, even if we
couldn’t appreciate it at that time.
So, this is Faris Petra revisited.
Perhaps it’s too
early for my generation to revisit the past. We’re currently more occupied with
concerns of finishing our tertiary studies, getting a job and being financially
stable. Perhaps, we’re too happy with our current group of friends, but I find
that taking a backward glance once in a while is good to remind yourself of
where you came from and of the people who’ve had your back for five years.
We all started as naïve little kids who were thrust into the wilderness of
boarding school life. Of course we knew nothing of the brute that was called
“seniority”, and we were only trying to get accustomed to our new microcosm. I
detested that the juniors were always given “special treatment” by the
prefects, when it came to enforcing rules. They were extra strict on us,
because we’re the new people and secondly, we’re not smart enough to rebel yet,
but of course, at that time, ragging is considered an age-old tradition and
regarded as “character-building” so that we don’t turn out as ill-mannered,
rebellious brats in our upper years. I don't necessarily agree with this
arrangement, but of course, that was the order of the day at that time.
First two years of
our five-year life was filled with homesickness and adjusting to a
semi-independent life. Well, independence at that time meant we had to wash,
dry, fold and iron our own clothes, and to us girls, we’d already felt like
little domestic goddesses. On Fridays, some of us would have parents over for
picnic During Ramadan, some people’s parents come and break fast with their
kids, and we’d have extra special dishes for iftar at the dining hall such as
nasi hujan panas, or nasi kerabu, and we’d have kuih on the side.
Another
festive season for the student body also takes place during the sports day
event. At that time I thought the extravagance and the expenditure was a little
too much, after all, it was sports day, people should be wearing track suits
and not prancing around in finery and costumes. Of course, I didn’t see it as
tradition that time. It was a getaway from our mundane lives as students.
Everyone wanted it to be remembered, and worked hard to ensure their respective
houses would win. Each member was made full use of. I was no sportswoman in
those days, so even though I had nothing significant athletically to
contribute, I still had to help out with other stuff like sewing costumes, preparing
refreshments. The night before the event itself was festive. There would be
food stalls opened to nourish all the hardworking youngsters for their final
preparations, be it for sports events, marching, and formation or tent
decorations.
Form 3 was a hands-off year, because everybody knows we’ve got some studying to
do for a big exam. However, skipping right over post-PMR was when all the good
times happened. For two whole months of nothingness, it was bliss, the boys got
to play their soccer every single day from morning to noon, while the girls
went on a marathon of Korean drama. At the same time, the teachers tried to
keep us occupied with some activities, one of it was the inter-class drama
competition, which I believe, was introduced in my year. It was really fun,
since we had basically nothing to do, and the classroom rivalry that ensued was
all part of a healthy competition. It was all the more memorable for me,
personally, because 3 Lambda, my class, won the competition that year. Hehehe.
Form 4 was also an eventful year for most of us. It was the year the school was
first recognized as a cluster school, and we earned recognition for our
academic achievement at the National HKSBP event. Our principal at that time,
Wan Hamzah also received recognition as a JUSA C level principal, and retired
that same year. What followed was a flux of people coming and going in holding
the office as the three senior assistants and a temporary state of being
principal-less.
In that period, I was very critical of the rules mainly because the rules were
informed and enforced by word of mouth; there was no black and white on the
school rules. Enforcement of rules depended on communal policing by the student
body, prefects and the wardens. The rules were also changed based on
conditions, depending if it needed to be stricter or more lenient. So, much of
the rules were experimental throughout the years.
This was also the year Corporate Day was introduced on Tuesdays of every second
and fourth week in the month, and this applied to the Form 5 students who will
be leaving the school and pursuing their careers. In its first year, the
students had their own discretion on how to dress. During my year, all the
girls were imposed a guideline and we were made to purchase specific textiles
and had our Corporate Day “uniforms” customized according to a suggested
design.
My final year was also a year full of change, because for the first time that year,
we had students taking 11 subjects, either Principle of Accountancy or Visual
Arts as an extra subject. It was also the first year that the option to drop
EST was made available. This was also the final year that we had a total of
seven classes, because the year after, the school had annual intakes of new
form four students, instead of every two years, and class Sigma was abolished.
Life during SPM actually made up for the rest of the regime-like five years
that I had in school, despite having to pore through books and study. It was
more relaxed. There were only the Form 5 students around, rules were a lot more
lenient, and we had a little bit more freedom than we ever had in all those
years, and it was the time that we’d get together for the last time before we’d
leave our adolescent life in a boarding school for good. To add to the
nostalgia, it was also the monsoon season. Days spent indoors with friends
chatting over piping hot Maggie with a coffee or a tea on the side. It was the
simplest pleasures in life, but it was memorable.
After our final paper, which was Chemistry, we were chased out of the hostels
because we weren’t allowed to stay an extra day for fear that some of us will
get into mischief. It ended with a light meal of fried bihun and the
principal’s speech. It felt pretty anticlimactic, I’d expected something more..
melodramatic or sentimental Well, I
guess, at that time, I was just kind of glad that exams were over, and I
couldn’t wait to get home.
My experience in Faris Petra gave me a wealth of experiences from debating, magazine editing, to event-managing, leadership, cooperation, and friendship. Although my priority has always been to strive academically, however, I did find that my time in high school was a colorful one. I've had my share of mischief. I guess I just wanted to make the most out of life, doing the best I can despite being confined to the boarding school bubble. I can bet that most of us had their fair share of being chased down by wardens, playing truant, sneaking out of school to go to football matches, or just for a release from routine life. However, I believe that it wasn't done with purely malicious, nor anarchist intent. We were young and we craved freedom, even if we did not even know what true freedom means at that age.
I guess it is part of growing up in admitting that you had a good time, you can’t go back to it, for sure, but once in a while, it’s good to remind yourself of who you were and how far you’ve come. You wouldn’t have come this far, if it were not for the past events that make you who you are now. At the very least, looking back at it should give you a sense of closure, instead of lingering what ifs. Faris Petra indeed was a part of who I was, even if it is no longer part of who I am. To my seventeen year old self on the podium in 2009, I left the school, like you had wanted, but it is true indeed that the memories were unforgettable.
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| Rahman girls |
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| debate team BM, BI UIA 2008 |
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| 3 Lambda |
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| KJ |
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| Mr Dol |
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| Corporate Day |
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| 5 Alpha |
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| Debate 2008 |
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| Debate 2009 |
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| Beta girls |
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| 5 Alpha Dabong Project |
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| 3 Lambda English class |
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| Drama team 2009 |
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| SEMASA 2008 |
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| Sekolah Angkat 2007 |
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| Prefects 2009 |
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| Penolong Ketua Rumah Hussein, Razak, Mahathir, Rahman KOT 2009 |
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| Random outing |
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| Prefects girls 2008 |
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| Girls 2008 |
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| St John 2008 |
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