As much as we all wanted to graduate back then when we were in Year 2 because of the crazy, heavy workload, we all knew that when it came to the moment we had to go up on that stage and accept our diploma, we do not want to leave this school and our friends.
I thought I was gonna burst into tears and start sobbing uncontrollably during the whole graduation ceremony. I mean, think about it, in three years, so many things happened. We met friends that were the source of our happiness every single day. We fought, quarrelled and had our disagreements but we always push them aside instead of risking our friendship. We laugh off every single problem we had because we knew that we can never get anywhere with anger and frustration. We fell in and out of love with strangers a couple times. We also grew fatter, thanks to the cheap food in school. We learnt valuable lessons that made us better and more matured.
Three years made you realize that you'll never be the person you are now without the people you met along the way. I always believed that the people we meet everyday has a purpose in your life. You don't cross paths by chance. People that are in your life right now, they are the teachers. With every person, there is a lesson to be learnt. And once you're done learning that lesson, they leave. That's why people come and go, sometimes they leave earlier than others because you've learnt the lesson that you need to.
For example,
I met Asyiqin through paintball. We became almost really good friends in Year 1. We would meet each other for lunch and talked boys and stuff and for a moment there, I thought I was gonna be friends with her for a very long time. But that changed when I set her up with Naszrul, another paintballer who had the hots for her since the first time he laid eyes on her. Being the good friend, I thought, "Ok Qin, you should give him a chance. He really likes you." so she did and that was when I lost her. He took her away from me, disallowed her from spending time with me or any of the other paintballers from SP and the moment they became official, he left my life with her. He never once thanked me for being the wingman. And even till now, he's together with her and he was never grateful for me helping him get her. Son of a bitch still had the cheek to tweet something along the lines of "We should all remember where we came from and be grateful for the people that helped us get to where we are now." Ha ha, you fucking hypocrite.
From that, I learnt that people are not what they seem. And that being selfless sometimes, has its consequences. Unfortunately for me, that consequence was losing a good friend that I was comfortable sharing my problems with and that I thought, had my back.
I'm not sore from it, I swear. I just found it fucking ridiculous and because of one guy, one of my friendships that I fought hard to keep together, was ruined. Totally not worth it. Now I blame myself.
See? A lesson learnt there for me that unfortunate day.
However, I'm so glad that the people that are most important to me since the first time I met them are still here, by my side, no matter how shitty of a friend I can be and how much nonsense I am sometimes. People like the Meme/Zoombies clique who make me happy everyday by being themselves without even trying too hard. They are friends that you don't just give up on and they are the people I would fight so hard to keep them in my life for as long as I can. They are the people I would protect with every fibre of my being from the haters and they are the ones that kept me strong despite being put down countless times.
Of course, besides my closest friends I spent 3 years laughing so hard about an incident about squirting cheese balls and eating KFC chicken on the most random days, and Asyiqin & her bf, there were others that shaped me to who I am today.
How about Janny?
Yeah I didn't like her. She was my FYP supervisor. But she didn't really helped us much during the whole few months we were working our butts off. She taught me to be more independent, especially in a task-oriented project like our FYP. I still don't like her.
Oh, and that random person that posted a photo of my happiness post-it on Facebook.
She taught me that I can actually make someone's day without even being physically there. I enjoyed that period of time when I would write encouraging notes and quotes on a post-it and paste it at random places around the campus for people to see, in hope of cheering them up or motivating them. Proves that you don't need to know someone to be encouraged by them.
Fifi.
She taught me that having perfect GPA, a scholarship and brains doesn't actually equal to being a great person. If you're a genius but your attitude and personality is utter bullshit, no one will like you. To add to the already terrible attitude, you're boastful, stuck-up and fucking annoying. That's how to have people hate you from head to toe.
Then we have our (my) favourite Zulhilmi.
In three years, he taught me so many things. Let's list them.
1) Love at first sight is actually possible, oh my god, hahaha.
2) Persistency.
3) Strength.
4) Confidence.
5) Motivation.
6) Patience.
7) Determination.
8) Oh and never to lead someone on if you're not planning to marry them at the end of the day.
Somewhere along the way, I became really sassy and sarcastic like more than I ever used to. I don't know how that happened or why that happened and I'm really sorry if anyone was offended by it.
Good or bad, I have enjoyed the past three years being in Singapore Polytechnic and meeting amazing and not-so-amazing people. It's been a hell of a ride. Can't believe that my days as a student, waking up early for 8am class and climbing the torturous hilltop, are all over.
With the parents on graduation morning!
If you thought I was lame, you should meet my dad.
Fab solos, heh.
Meme Clique // Est. 2011
The Zoombies // #jansportmodel
Meme girls
Mai Por La clique feat. Mr Bradley Yeo, Mr Lim De Yang & Mr Tan Boon Yuen
MPL girls
The 2 lecturers that survived our crazy antics since Year 1. Little did they know that their lives will be changed forever the moment they met us, hahahaha. But seriously. They're amazing.
All the other pictures/selfies with awesome people hehehe
During the ceremony, everyone that went on stage before me was just normal, with the exception of a small percentage. So when it was my turn to go up, I told Hui Min (the one seated next to me), that I was gonna do a video selfie up on the stage because photo selfies are overrated. The moment I whipped out my phone and started recording while waiting for my turn, everyone saw and knew what was coming. I literally waved at Ms Georgina Phua, our school's director, and I don't know, just fancily strutted towards her while recording the video. She was super nice and very patient with everyone's stupid selfie antics on stage, hahaha. Oh, I've got videos!
In case you were wondering what gifts I got...
And what gifts I gave my clique...
It's a card with a message written on the flip side. Since I really liked illustrating faceless people, I thought I'd do a portrait of each of my friends instead of the boring name-writing. ;)
Selfie with the graduation banner, lol.
By the way, this also marks 3 years of my