Confessions of a Cat-holic (70)

So that was my gang. That was my cohort. That was the community I grew up in. Diverse yet inclusive. I loved my alma mater. If I could use a few words to describe my circle of friends, it would be treacherous, vigilant, wolf-like and hawkish. We worked in groups and we knew how to work with others.

As the second year at SPCC started, I quickly noticed the oddity of my new classmates. Even though I was dressed in a new uniform, took up a new sport and spoke less vulgarly, I would say that my heart never left my alma mater. It was not about money or social status, although I had to say that my new classmates looked distressed and exasperated, with an obvious intention to look for a career path to save them from hell and poverty. Rather than despise, I looked at my new classmates in puzzlement. I didn't hate or condescendingly looked down on them, whether it was about their appearances, areas of residence, home value, net worths or lack of social interests. It was more like, I didn't understand them. If I could briefly describe my impression of these pre-med students, it would be oblivious, disparate, egocentric, and self-righteous.

My feelings towards the new class were ambivalent. SPCC was supposed to be one of the most prestigious school in town, yet it was surprisingly uncompetitive. I felt, for once in my life, alarmingly safe. Not saying that there were no jealousy or hatred towards me in the new school but their intelligence level and formidability of their tricks were almost a joke. I was relieved that I could finally start an easier life in a more peaceful and mellow environment, while ironically escalating in a supposingly more challenging institution.

I thought to myself that since I was "kicked out" of my alma mater and perpetually away from my good old buddies, I might as well make the most out of my environment. There was no way I would pick the science stream, had I stayed in my alma mater. If my parents and my alma mater wanted me to try a new school, I believed there were reasons to it. Picking class E was almost a no brainer. I excelled in chemistry and biology anyways, so pre-med seemed to be a sensible choice. I wanted to go with the flow and not be an object of ridicule as a student of humanities in "Siberia", which was known to be a magnet for academic write-offs. Even Rex, a repeater of his year, chose class D.

Class 4E was well balanced with half girls and half boys. Interestingly, the boys and the girls in my class almost never interacted with each other. I, too, wouldn't talk to any of the males. I wouldn't know why. I just thought it was strange that talking to opposite sex looked like a taboo in the new class. I tried to come up with the reasons for it, and I thought it might be because of their Christian education. SPCC students wouldn't talk in public spaces, thinking that verbal communications were a sin that made them look like a loose cannon. They would only talk, and talk bad about others behind their backs, like no one would ever find out about their sneaky minds. The less they had public discourse, the less communicative they had become, which ended up in a downward spiral.

During my two years of studies as a pre-med, I didn't remember I had held a conversation of more than ten sentences with any of the opposite sex in my class, and some girls too. Alex Ng was probably the only guy I had talked to for more than 10 sentences. I liked Alex Ng, not romantically of course. I didn't like him romantically because he was already booked by an aggressive woman named Jacqueline Sitt in class, who would follow him wherever he went and held hands with him in public. They had been dating since F2 and continued on as a couple all the way until they finished medical school. They finally wedded after 15 years of dating when they were finishing housemanship.

They were the only couple in my year who successfully wedded as high school sweethearts, and medical doctors too. Jacqueline became a radiologist, after allegedly having exchange of favors with the Principal, Mr Henry Poon, who had to abruptly retire due to cancer after only 4 years of management in school.