When the Remove Class text books finally landed on my laps, I began to realize that the secondary school life was not going to be easy. It was an absolute invasion of English language into almost all my subjects. It was a sheer reality that my English foundation was undeniably weak. It was like the whole History book being rewritten in another language where every single line in the text book, by default, was tagged with my own Chinese translation.
With no coincidence, I joined the Chinese Chess Club in Form 1 with a tall order. I was aspired to play for my school in the inter-school championship. My dream finally came true. I was selected to be part of the highly motivated school team and we had since won for the school much glory in the Chinese Chess competition scene. This once-in-a-lifetime experience had indeed left my other schoolmates much to envy, I must say.
Form 2 was a year of misery and anxiety. My acute asthma attacks had brought all my school sports and outdoor activities to a stand still. I started to lose my momentum and focus on my study. While I did manage to scrape through all my class tests, I didn’t really perform well in my term examinations.
I became stronger both mentally and physically in Form 3. My strong desire to excel in the upcoming L.C.E. government examination had fueled the intensity of hard work and no play. Each day passed by with the routine of commuting between home and school library. It was the year that I called the library as my second home. But the hard work did pay off.
Form 4 was probably my most mischievous year of all. Together with some of the more playful classmates, we enjoyed the endless thrill in keeping our sideburns and yet not being easily caught in school. We played trick skipping the morning drill by attending the bible study class which we had no interest in. Some of us had even given “dental appointment” as the regular excuse to go home earlier, until the teacher realized that one guy among us had no teeth left to be extracted.
My so-called honeymoon year in Form 4 was a year of no-sweat, sweet memories. It really took me quite a pain to switch my mindset moving into Form 5. In Form 5, there were a whopping 9 subjects to prepare for the M.C.E. government examination. The peer pressure was highly intense as everyone was pushing his own envelope beyond the normal limit. Constantly I told myself that both diligence and determination were the key elements to succeed. And I did.
Then came the year of female invasion. It was a norm for the school to turn co-educational at Lower 6, and Upper 6 level for that matter. It was also the year when I took my first free lesson in dancing from my female classmates. Sounds exciting? Oh well, I was no born dancer. Shortly into the term 1, I was selected as a prefect – thanks to the nomination from my ex-Mathematics teacher. This new assignment came as a surprise to me as I was under the impression that a prefect must meet a certain height and size expectation. I was just a 5.4-footer with a small frame then.
The Sam Tet school spirit remained pretty much in my blood even after I left the school to pursue my higher education in Australia. I became an active member of STOBA (Sam Tet Old Boys Association). It was a surpassing feeling to be able to catch up with all my ex-schoolmates in a foreign land.
More often than not, when I now try to recollect these bits and pieces of the past, I can’t help to feel that life is like a dream – both sweet and sour.